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HISTORY    U;     i3i9« 


THE  CHRISTIAIi  CHURCH 


PHILIP  SCHAFF,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

PROFESSOR   OF   CHURCH   HISTORY   IN   THE   UNION   THEOLOGICAL    SEMINARY 

NEW   YORK 


Christianas  sum :  Cl^ristiam  ni^il  a  me  alitmtm  poto 
VOLUME   VII 

MODERN  CHRISTIANITY 

THE     SWISS     REFORMATION 


NEW   YORK 

CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS 

1892 


Copyright,  1892, 
By  PHILIP  SCHAFF. 


Typography  by  J.  S.  Gushing  &  Co.,  Boston. 


Prbsswork  by  Berwick  &  Smith,  Boston. 


HISTORY 


THE  EEFORMATIOE" 


BY 


PHILIP    SOHAFF 


VOLUME   II 

THE    SWISS    REFORMATION 


NEW  YORK 
CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS 

1892 


Copyright,  1892, 
By  PHILIP  SCHAFF. 


Ttpograph-s  bv  J.  S.  CASHING  &  Co.,  Boston. 
Pbbsswork  by  Berwick  k.  Smito,  Boston. 


TO 
HIS   OLDEST   AND  DEAREST   SWISS   FRIENDS 

Hefa.  iFvclicnc  (©otiet,  ©.©. 

HONt>KAUY    PROFESSOR,   OF   THEOLOGY    AT   NEUCHATEL 

AND 

IBu.  (ficcirg  bon  SMgss 

PROFESSOR   OF   HISTORY    IX    THE   UNIVERSITY   OF   ztfKICH 

THIS   VOLUME 

OK    THE    HISTORY    OF    THE    REFORMATION 
IN    THEIR    NATIVE    LAND 

IS   AFFECTIONATELY   DEDICATED 

BY   THE 

AUTHOR 


PREFACE. 


This  volume  concludes  the  history  of  the  productive  period  of  the  Refor- 
mation, in  which  Luther,  Zwingli,  and  Calvin  were  the  chief  actors.  It 
follows  the  Protestant  movement  in  German,  Italian,  and  French  Switzerland, 
to  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

During  the  last  year,  the  sixth  centenary  of  the  oldest  surviving  Republic 
was  celebrated  with  great  patriotic  enthusiasm.  On  the  first  day  of  August, 
in  the  year  1291,  the  freemen  of  Uri,  Schwyz,  and  Unterwalden  formed  "in 
the  name  of  the  Lord  "  a  perpetual  alliance  for  the  mutual  protection  of  their 
persons,  property,  and  liberty,  against  internal  and  external  foes.  On  the 
same  day,  in  1891,  the  great  event  was  commemorated  in  every  village  of 
Switzerland  by  the  ringing  of  bells  and  the  illumination  of  the  mountains, 
while  on  the  following  day  —  a  Sunday  —  thanksgiving  services  were  held  in 
every  cliurch,  Catholic  and  Protestant.  The  chief  festivities  took  place,  from 
July  31  to  Aug.  2,  in  the  towns  of  Schwyz  and  Brunnen,  and  were  attended  by 
the  Federal  and  Cantonal  dignitaries,  civil  and  military,  and  a  vast  assembly 
of  spectators.  The  most  interesting  feature  was  a  dramatic  representation  of 
the  leading  events  in  Swiss  history  —  the  sacred  oaths  of  Schwyz,  Brunnen, 
and  Griitli,  the  poetic  legend  of  William  Tell,  the  heroic  battles  for  liberty  and 
independence  against  Austria,  Burgundy,  and  France,  the  venerable  figure  of 
Nicolas  von  der  Flue  appearing  as  a  peacemaker  in  the  Diet  at  Stans,  and  the 
chief  scenes  of  the  Reformation,  the  Revolution,  and  the  modern  reconstruc- 
tion. The  drama,  enacted  in  the  open  field  in  view  of  mountains  and  mead- 
ows and  the  lake  of  Luzern,  is  said  to  have  equalled  in  interest  and  skill  of 
execution  the  famous  Passion  Play  of  Oberammergau.  Similar  celebrations 
took  place,  not  only  in  every  city  and  village  of  Switzerland,  but  also  in  the 
Swiss  colonies  in  foreign  lands,  notably  in  New  York,  on  the  5th,  6th,  and  7th 
of  September.! 

1  The  celebration  has  elicited  some  valuable  contributions  to  the  authentic  history  of 
Switzerland,  which  may  be  added  to  the  literature  on  p.  3.  I  mention  Dr.  W.  Oechsli  : 
Die  Anfdiige  der  schiveizerischen  Eidgenossenschaft.  ZUrich,  1891.  —  Jos.  la.  von  Ah: 
Die  Bundesbriefe  der  alien  Eidyenossen  von  1201  bis  1513.  Einsiedeln,  1891.  —  Pibrrb 
Vaucheb:  Les  Commencements  de  la  Confederation  Suisse.  Lausanne,  1891.  —  Prof. 
Georo  von  Wtss  :  Eede  bei  der  Bundesfeier  der  Eidgenossischen  polytechn.  Schule,  und 
der  Hochsclmle  Zllrich  am  25  Jtili  1801.  ZUrich,  1S91.  —  Denkschrift  der  historischen 
u.  antiquarischen  Gesellsckafi  zu  Basel.  Zur  Erinnerung  an  den  Bund  der  Eidgenossen 
vom  1.  Aug.  1201.  Basel,  1891.  — The  second  volume  of  Dieratjbb's  Geschichte  der 
Schweizerischen  Eidgenossenschaft  appeared  at  Gotha,  1892,  but  goes  only  to  the  year  1516, 
when  the  history  of  the  Reformation  began. 


vi  PKEFACE. 

Between  Switzerland  and  the  United  States  there  has  always  been  a  natural 
sympathy  and  friendship.  Both  aim  to  realize  the  idea  of  a  government  of 
freedom  without  license,  and  of  authority  without  despotism ;  a  government 
of  law  and  order  without  a  standing  army ;  a  government  of  the  people,  by 
the  people,  and  for  tlie  people,  under  the  sole  headship  of  Almighty  God. 

At  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  Switzerland  numbered  as  many  Cantons 
(13)  as  our  country  originally  numbered  States,  and  the  Swiss  Diet  was  then 
a  loose  confederation  representing  only  the  Cantons  and  not  the  people,  just 
as  was  our  Continental  Congress.  But  by  the  revision  of  the  Constitution  in 
1848  and  1874,  the  Swiss  Republic,  following  the  example  of  our  Constitu- 
tion, was  consolidated  from  a  loose,  aristocratic  Confederacy  of  independent 
Cantons  into  a  centralized  federal  State, ^  with  a  popular  as  well  as  a  can- 
tonal representation.  In  one  respect  the  modern  Swiss  Constitution  is  even 
more  democratic  than  that  of  the  United  States;  for,  by  the  Initiative  and 
the  Referendum,  it  gives  to  the  people  the  right  of  proposing  or  rejecting 
national  legislation. 

But  there  is  a  still  stronger  bond  of  union  between  the  two  countries  than 
that  which  rests  on  the  affinity  of  political  institutions.  Zwingli  and  Calvin 
directed  and  determined  the  westward  movement  of  the  Reformation  to  France, 
Holland,  England,  and  Scotland,  and  exerted,  indirectly,  a  moulding  influence 
upon  the  leading  Evangelical  Churches  of  America.  George  Bancroft,  the 
American  historian,  who  himself  was  not  a  Calvinist,  derives  the  republican 
institutions  of  the  United  States  from  Calvinism  through  the  medium  of  Eng- 
lish Puritanism.  A  more  recent  writer,  Douglas  Campbell,  of  Scotch  descent, 
derives  them  from  Holland,  which  was  still  more  under  the  influence  of  the 
Geneva  Reformer  than  England.  Calvinism  breeds  manly,  independent,  and 
earnest  characters  who  fear  God  and  nothing  else,  and  favors  political  and 
religious  freedom.  The  earliest  and  most  influential  settlers  of  the  United 
States  —  the  Puritans  of  England,  the  Presbyterians  of  Scotland  and  Ireland, 
the  Huguenots  of  France,  the  Reformed  from  Holland  and  the  Palatinate, — 
were  Calvinists,  and  brouglit  with  tiiem  the  Bible  and  the  Reformed  Confes- 
sions of  Faith.  Calvinism  was  the  ruling  theology  of  New  England  during 
the  whole  Colonial  Period,  and  it  still  rules  in  great  measure  the  theology 
of  the  Presbyterian,  Congregational,  and  Baptist  Churches. 

In  the  study  of  the  sources  I  have  derived  much  benefit  from  the  libraries 
of  Switzerland,  especially  the  Stadtbibliothek  of  Ziirich,  which  contains  the 
invaluable  Simler  collection  and  every  important  work  relating  to  the  Refor- 
mation in  Switzerland.  I  take  great  pleasure  in  expressing  my  obligation  to 
Dr.  G.  von  Wyss,  president,  and  Dr.  Escher,  librarian,  for  their  courtesy 
and  kindness  on  repeated  visits  to  that  librarj'. 

Tlie  sources  on  the  Reformation  in  French  Switzerland  are  now  made  fully 
accessible  by  the  new  critical  edition  of  Calvin's  works,  by  Herminjard's  col- 
lection of  the  correspondence  of  the  French-speaking  Reformers  (not  yet 
completed),  and  by  the  publications  of  the  documentary  history  of  Geneva 
during  the  period  of  Calvin's  labors,  including  the  registers  of  the  Council 
and  of  the  Consistory. 

1  A  Bundesstaat,  as  distinct  from  a  Staatenhund. 


PREFACE.  VH 

I  have  freely  quoted  from  Calvin's  works  and  letters,  which  give  us  tlie 
best  insiglit  into  his  mind  and  heart.  I  have  consulted  also  his  chief  biogra- 
phers,—  Frencli,  German,  and  English:  his  enthusiastic  admirers,  —  Beza, 
Henry,  Stiihelin,  Bungener,  and  Merle  D'Aubigne ;  his  virulent  detractors, 
—  Bolsec,  Galiffe,  and  Audin  ;  and  his  impartial  critics,  —  Dyer,  and  Kamp- 
schulte.  Dr.  Henry's  work  (1844)  was  the  first  adequate  biography  of  the 
great  Reformer,  and  is  still  unsurpassed  as  a  rich  collection  of  authentic 
materials,  although  not  well  arranged  and  digested. i  Dr.  Merle  D'Aubigne's 
"  History  of  the  Reformation  "  comes  down  only  to  1542.  Thomas  H.  Dyer, 
LL.D.,  the  author  of  the  "  History  of  Modern  Europe,"  from  the  fall  of 
Constantinople  to  1871,  and  other  historical  works,  has  written  the  first  able 
and  readable  "  Life  of  Calvin "  in  the  English  language,  which  is  drawn 
chiefly  from  Calvin's  correspondence,  from  Ruchat,  Henry,  and,  in  the  Serve- 
tus  chapter,  from  Mosheim  and  Trechsel,  and  is,  on  the  whole,  accurate  and 
fair,  but  cold  and  unsympathetic.  The  admirable  work  of  Professor  Kamp- 
schulte  is  based  on  a  thorough  mastery  of  the  sources,  but  it  is  unfortunately 
incomplete,  and  goes  only  as  far  as  1542.  The  materials  for  a  second  and 
third  volume  were  placed  after  his  death  (December,  1872)  into  the  hands  of 
Professor  Cornelius  of  Munich,  who,  however,  has  so  far  onl}'  written  a  few 
sections.  His  admiration  for  Calvin's  genius  and  pure  character  (see  p.  205) 
presents  an  interesting  parallel  to  Dollinger's  eloquent  tribute  to  Luther 
(quoted  in  vol.  VI.  741),  and  is  all  the  more  valuable  as  he  dissented  from 
Calvin's  theology  and  church  polity;  for  he  was  an  Old  Catholic  and  intimate 
friend  of  Reuscli  and  DiJUinger.^ 

The  sole  aim  of  the  historian  ought  to  be  the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and 
nothing  but  the  truth. 

I  have  dedicated  this  volume  to  my  countrymen  and  oldest  surviving 
friends  in  Switzerland,  Dr.  Georg  von  AVyss  of  Ziirich  and  Dr.  Frederic 
GoDET  of  Neuchatel.  The  one  represents  German,  the  other  French  Switzer- 
land. Both  are  well  known;  the  one  for  his  historical,  the  other  for  his 
exegetical  works.  They  have  followed  the  preparation  of  this  book  with 
sympathetic  interest,  and  done  me  the  favor  of  revising  the  proof-sheets.^ 

1  The  first  and  second  volumes  of  Dr.  Henry's  larger  biography  are  sometimes  quoted 
from  the  English  translation  of  Dr.  Stebbing;  but  the  third  volume  always  from  the 
original,  as  Dr.  Stebbing  omits  the  appendices  and  nearly  all  the  original  documents. 

-  Professor  Ileuscb  of  Bonn  kindly  informed  me  by  letter  (Sept.  8,  1891)  that  Kamp- 
Bchulte  first  studied  for  the  priesthood  and  was  an  orthodox  and  pious  Catholic,  but  opposed 
the  Vatican  decree  of  papal  infallibility  in  1870,  and  may  therefore  be  considered  as  hav- 
ing been  virtually  excommunicated.  He  administered  to  him  the  last  sacrament  (which  the 
ultramontane  priest  was  prohibited  from  doing  by  the  Archbishop  of  Cologne).  The  first 
volume  of  Kampschulte's  work  was  fully  and  favorably  reviewed  in  Reusch's  Litcratur- 
blatt  for  1869,  No.  662,  by  Dr.  Hefele  of  Tubingen,  shortly  before  he  became  bishop  of 
Ilottenburg.  Hefele,  as  a  member  of  the  Vatican  council,  was  one  of  the  most  learned  oppo- 
nents of  papal  infallibility,  but  afterwards  submitted  for  the  sake  of  peace.  A  biographical 
notice  of  Karapschulte  by  Cornelius  is  to  be  found  in  the  fifteenth  volume  of  tbe  Allgemeine 
Deutsche  Biographie.  , 

'  I  take  the  liberty  of  quoting  a  few  passages  from  recent  letters  of  these  Swiss  scholars 
which  will  interest  the  reader.  Dr.  von  Wyss  writes  :  "  Ihr  Vaterland  in  Amerika  mid  die 
englische  Sprache  geben.  dem  IVej-^ce  ein  Geprdge,  welches  dasselbe  von  deiitschen  ahnlichen 


viii  PREFACE. 

I  feel  much  encouraged  by  the  kind  reception  of  my  Church  History  at 
home  and  abroad.  The  first  three  volumes  have  been  freely  translated  into 
Chinese  by  tlie  Kev.  D.  Z.  Sheffield  (a  missionary  of  the  American  Board), 
and  into  Hindostani  by  the  Rev.  Robert  Stewart  (of  the  Presbyterian  Mission 
of  Sialkot). 

I  have  made  considerable  progress  in  the  fifth  volume,  which  will  complete 
the  history  of  the  Middle  Ages.  It  was  delayed  till  I  could  make  another 
visit  to  Rome  and  Florence,  and  study  more  fully  the  Benaissance,  which 
preceded  the  Reformation.  Two  or  three  more  volumes  will  be  necessary  to 
bring  the  history  down  to  the  present  time,  according  to  the  original  plan. 
But  how  many  works  remain  unfinished  in  this  world !     Ars  longa,  vita  brevis. 

JUMB,  1892. 


Postscript. 


The  above  Preface  was  ready  for  the  printer,  and  the  book  nearly  finished, 
when,  on  the  15th  of  July  last,  I  was  suddenly  interrupted  by  a  stroke  of 
paralysis  at  Lake  Mohonk  (where  I  spent  the  summer)  ;  but,  in  the  good 
providence  of  God,  my  health  has  been  nearly  restored.  My  experience  is 
recorded  in  the  103d  Psalm  of  thanksgiving  and  praise. 

I  regret  that  I  could  not  elaborate  chs.  XVII.  and  XVIII.,  especially  the 
influence  of  Calvin  upon  the  Reformed  Churches  of  Europe  and  America 
(§§  162  and  163),  as  fully  as  I  wished.  My  friend.  Rev.  Samuel  Macauley 
Jackson,  who  happened  to  be  with  me  when  I  was  taken  sick,  wrote  at  my 

Schriften  eindriicklich  unterscheidet — es  liegt  ein  so  unmittelbares  Auffassen  und  Erfas- 
sen  der  Hauptsache,  auf  die  es  ankommt,  ein  so  bestimmtes  Losgehen  auf  das  Leben,  das 
Praktische,  darin  — dass  mich  dieser  charakteristische  Zug  Ihrer  gewtiltigen  Arbeit  unge- 
mein  anzieht.  Wie  verschieden  sind  dock  die  Anlagen  und  die  Bediirfnisse  der  Volker  > 
Wer  wollfe  deutsches,  franzosisches,  englisches,  amerikanisches  Blut  und  \resen  (icli 
nenne  sie  nach  der  historischen  Reihenfolge)  susainmenschmelzen  konnen  !  Ueberall  ein 
eigenthiimlicher  Zug  !  Jeder  werthvoll  und  lieb,  u-enn  er  nicht  iibertrieben  unrd  !  Wer 
soil  die  Einheit  bildenf  Dardber  sind  wir,  viein  hochverehrter  Frctitid  {idi  bin  glackUch, 
so  sagen  zu  d'urfen),  einig.  Aber  was  ^cird  es  einst  sein,  wenn  wir  diese  Einigung  in  Hirer 
vollen  Veriinrklichung,  iiber  dieser  Erde,  erblicken  werden  1 "  —  "  Ich  lese  die  Probebogen 
allezeit  mit  dem  gr'ossien  Vergnugen.  Die  Klarheit,  Bestimmtheit  und  Gennuigkeit  Ihrer 
Darstellung  {bis  in's  Einzelnste)  tind  der  Geist  von  dem  sir  getragen  ist,  gewdhren  mir 
die  grosste  Befriedigu7ig.  .  .  .  IVas  ZwingU  in  seiner  Exponitii  Fidei  an  Konig  Franz  I. 
iiber  die  Welt  jenseits  des  Grabes  sngt,  ist  mir  von  alien  seinen  Aensserungen  stets  das 
Liebste,  und  in  nichts  fiihle  ich  mich  ihm  mehr  verwandt  als  gerade  darin,  —  sowie  in  der 
Liebe.  die  ihn  zu  BuUinger  zog."—'D\:  Goclet  (Dec.  3,  1891) :  "  Du  scheiiist  zu  filrchtei}, 
dass  die  Druckbogen  viir  cine  Last  seien.  Jm  Gegentheil,  sie  sind  mir  eine  Freude  7ind 
Belehrung  gewesen.  Ich  habe  nie  efwas  so  Befriedigendes  iiber  den  Gegenstand  gelcsen. 
Calvin  tritt  hervor  mit  scinem  toahren  Gesirht  und  in  seiner  hehren  Gestalt.  Teh  danke 
Dir  herzlich  fiir  diese  Mitiheilung."  The  game,  in  a  more  recent  letter:  ..."  Qu'ilnous 
soit  donn '  n  fo2is  denx  avant  de  quitter  cHte  vie  de  ponvoir  terminer  nos  travaux  com- 
mences,—  tiri,  ton  Histoire  .  .  .  moi,  man  Introduction  an  Xouveau  Testament.  ...  Le 
premier  rolume,  les  ipitres  de  Paul,  sera,  j'espere.  termine  et  imprimi  avec  la  fin  de 
I'annie  (,1892)  si  .  .  ."    The  venerable  author  is  now  in  his  eighty-fourth  year. 


PREFACE.  ix 

request  the  last  chapter,  on  Beza,  for  which  he  was  well  prepared  by  previous 
studies.  I  had  at  first  intended  to  add  a  history  of  the  French  Keformation, 
but  tills  would  make  the  volume  too  large  and  delay  the  publication.  I  have 
added,  however,  in  an  appendix,  a  list  of  literature  which  I  prepared  some 
time  ago  in  the  Library  of  the  Society  of  the  History  of  French  Protestant- 
ism at  Paris,  and  brought  down  to  date. 

I  may  congratulate  myself  that,  notwithstanding  this  serious  interruption, 
I  am  enabled  to  publish  the  history  of  the  Reformation  of  my  native  land 
before  the  close  of  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  my  academic  teaciiing,  which 
I  began  in  December,  1842,  in  the  University  of  Berlin,  when  my  beloved 
teacher,  Neander,  was  in  the  prime  of  his  usefulness.  A  year  afterwards, 
I  received,  at  his  and  Tiioluck's  recommendation,  a  call  to  a  theological  pro- 
fessorship from  the  Synod  of  the  German  Reformed  Church  in  the  United 
States,  and  I  have  never  regretted  accepting  it.  For  it  is  a  great  privilege 
to  labor,  however  humbly,  for  the  kingdom  of  Christ  in  America,  which 
celebrates  in  this  month,  with  the  whole  civilized  world,  the  fourtli  centen- 
nial of  its  discovery. 

Thankful  for  the  past,  I  look  hopefully  to  the  future. 


PHILIP   SCHAFF. 


Union  Theological  Seminary, 
New  York,  October  12,  1892. 


CONTENTS. 


HISTORY   OF   THE  REFORMATION. 
SECOI^D    BOOK. 

THE   SWISS  REFORMATION. 
CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

PAGE 

§    1.   Switzerland  before  the  Reformation.     (Map  of  Switzerland 

in  tlie  sixteentli  century) 1 

§    2.   The  Swiss  Reformation 5 

§    3.   The  Genius  of  the   Swiss   Reformation  compared  with  the 

'    German  8 

§    4.   Literature  on  the  Swiss  Reformation 12 

CHAPTER   II. 

zwiNGLi's  training,     a.d.  1484-1519. 

§  5.   The  Zw^ingli  Literature.     (Portrait  of  Zwingli) 16 

§  6.   ZwiNGLi's  Birth  and  Education.     (Cut  of  Wildiiaus) 20 

§  7.   Zwingli  in  Glarus.     (Notes  on  his  moral  character) 23 

§  8.    Zwingli  in   Einsiedeln 29 

§  9.   Zwingli  and  Luther 33 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE    KKFORMATION    IN    ZiJRICH.       1519-1526. 

§  10.   Zwingli  called  to  Zurich.     (Cut  of  the  Great  Minster) 38 

§  11.   Zwingli's  Public  Labors  and  Private  Studies 39 

§  12.   Zwingli  and  the  Sale  of  Indulgences 42 

§  13.   Zwingli  during  the  Pestilence 43 

§14.   The  Open  Breach.     Controversy  about  Fasts,  1522 40 

§  15.   Petition  for  the  Abolition  of  Clerical  Celibacy.     Zwingli's 

Marriage 4!^ 

xi 


xn  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

§  16.   ZwiNGLi  AND  Lambert  of  Avignon „ 50 

§  17.    ZwiNGLi's  Sixty-seven  Articles,  1523 51 

§  18.   The  Public  Disputations,  1523 53 

§  19.   The  Abolition  of  the  Koman  "Worship,  1524 58 

§20.   The  Reformed  Celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  1525 GO 

§  21.   Other  Changes.     A  Theological  School.     A  System  of  The- 
ology"   G2 

§  22.   The  Swiss  Bible.     Leo  Jud^.     (Cuts  of  Leo  Juda?,  and  Ziiricli 

at  the  time  of  Zwingli) 63 

§  23.   Church  and   State 65 

§  24.   ZwiNGLi's  Conflict  with.  Radicalism 69 

§  25.    The  Baptismal  Controversy 76 

§  26.   Persecution  of  the  Anabaptisis 81 

§  27.   The  Eucharistic  Controversy 85 

§  28.   The  Works  of  Zwingli 87 

§  29.   The  Theology  of  Zwingli 89 


CHAPTER   IV. 

SPREAD    OF    THE     REFORMATION    IN    GERMAN    SWITZERLAND    AND    THE 

GKISONS. 

§  30.   The  Swiss  Diet  and  the  Conference  at  Baden,  1526 97 

§  31.    The  Reformation  in  Bern.     Haller 102 

§  32.   The  Reformation  in  Basel.     CEcolampadius 107 

§  33.   The  Reformation  in  Glarus.     Tschudi.     Glareanus 116 

§  34.   The  Reformation  in  St.  Gall,  Toggenburg,  and  Appenzell. 

Vadianus  and  Kessler 123 

§  35.   The  Reformation  in  Schaffhausen.     Hofmeistek 129 

§  36.   The  Orisons  (Graubunden) 130 

§  37.   The  Reformation  in  the  Orisons 135 

§  38.   The  Reformation  in  the  Italian  Parts  of  the  Orisons.     Ver- 

gerio.     (With  Portrait) 144 

§  39.    Protestantism    in    Chiavenna    and    the   Valtellina,   and    its 

Suppression.   The  Valtellina  Massacre.    George  Jenatsch.  155 

§  40.   The  Congregation  of  Locarno 161 

§  41.   Zwinglianism  in  Germany 163 

CHAPTER  V. 

the  civil  and  religious  war  between  -the  roman  catholic  and 
reformed  cantons. 

§  42.  The  First  War  of  Cappel,  1529. 165 

§  43.  The  First  Peace  of  Cappell,  June,  1529 171 

§  44.  Between  the  Wars.     Political  Plans  of  Zwingli 174 

§  45.  ZwiNGLi's  Last  Confession  of  Faith 176 

§  46.  The  Second  War  of  Cappel,  1531 179 


CONTENTS.  Xm 

PAGE 

§  47.   Death  of  Zwingli,  Oct.  11,  1531 184 

§  48.    Reflections  on  the  Disaster  at  Cappel 187 

§  49.    The  Second  Peace  of  Cappel,  November,  1531 192 

§  50.    The  Roman  Catholic  Reaction.     (Cut  of  Einsiedeln) 195 

§51.   The  Relative   Strength  of  Romanism  and  Protestantism...   198 
§  52.   ZwiNGLi  Redivivds 199 


CHAPTER   VI. 

the  period  of  consolidation. 

§  53.   Literature 203 

§  54.   Antistes  Bullinger.     (With  Portrait) 204 

§  55.   Antistes   Breitinger 214 

§  56.   Oswald  Myconius 215 

§  57,  The  Helvetic  Confessions  of  Faith 219 


THIED   BOOK. 

THE  REFORMATION  IN  FRENCH  SWITZERLAND,  OR 
THE  CALVINISTIC  MOVEMENT. 

CHAPTER  Vn. 

THE   PREPARATORY   WORK.      FROM    1526    TO    1536. 

§  58.   Literature  on  Calvin  and  the  Reformation  in  French  Swit- 
zerland   223 

§  59.    The    Situation   of   French    Switzerland  before   the  Refor- 
mation    232 

§  60.   William  Farel  (1489-1565).     (With  Portrait) 237 

§61.   Farel  in  Geneva.     The  I^irst  Act  of  the  Reformation 244 

§  62.   The  Last  Labors  of  Farel 248 

§  63.   Peter  Viret  and  the  Reformation  in  Lausanne 251 

-§  64.  Antoine   Froment 253 

CHAPTER  Vin. 

JOHN   CALVIN   AND    HIS    WORK.      FROM    1536    TO    1564. 

§  65.   John  Calvin   compared  with  the  Older  Reformers.     (With 

Portrait) 255 

§  66.   Calvin's  Place  in  History 259 

§  67.   Calvin's  Literary  Labors 267 

§  68.   Tributes  to  the  Merits  of   Calvin 270 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   IX. 

FROM    FRANCE    TO   SWITZERLAND.      1509-1536. 

FAOE 

§  69.  Calvin's  Youth  and  Training 296 

§70.  Calvin  as  a  Student  in  the  French  Universities 304 

§71.  Calvin  as  a  Humanist.     Commentary  on  Seneca,  1532 308 

§  72.  Calvin's  Conversion,  1532 309 

§  73.  Calvin's  Call 313 

§74.  The  Open  Kupture.     An  Academic   Oration,  1533 317 

§  75.  Persecution  of  the  Protestants  in  Paris,  1534 319 

§  76.  Calvin  as  a  Wandering  Evangelist,  1533-1536 322 

§  77.  The  Sleep  of  the  Soul,  1534 325 

§  78.  Calvin  at  Basel,  1535-1536 325 

§79.  Calvin's  Institutes  of  the  Christian  Religion,  1536 327 

§80.  From  Basel  to  Ferrara  and  Geneva.     The  Duchess  Renee.   343 

CHAPTER   X. 

(Calvin's  first  sojourn  and  labors  in  geneva.     1536-1538. 

§81.    Calvin's  Arrival  and  Settlement  at  Geneva,  1536 .'..  347 

§  82.   First  Labors  and  Trials 349 

§83.   The  Reformers  introduce  Order  and  Discipline 352 

§  84.  Expulsion  of  the  Reformers,  1538 357 

CHAPTER  XI. 

CALVIN   IN  GERMANY.      FROM    1538   TO   1541, 

§  85.   Calvin  in  Strassburg 363 

§  86.   The  Church  of  the  Strangers  in  Strassburg 367 

§  87.   The  Liturgy  of  Calvin 370 

§  88.   Calvin  as  Theological  Teacher  and  Author 375 

§89.  Calvin  at  the  Colloquies  of  Worms  and  Regensburg 377 

§  90.   Calvin  and  Melanchthon 385 

§  91.   Calvin  and  Sadolet.    The  Vindication  of  the  Reformation.  398 
§  92.   Calvin's  Marriage  and  Home  Life 413 

CHAPTER   XII. 

CALVIN'S    SECOND    SOJOURN   AND   LABORS   AT    GENEVA.      1541-1564. 

§  93.   The    State   of   Geneva    after    the    Expulsion    of    the    Re- 
formers   , 425 

§  94.   Calvin's  Recall  to  Geneva 428 

§  95.    Calvin's  Return  to  Geneva,  1541 4.S3 


CONTENTS.  XV 

PAGE 

§    96.   The  First  Years  after  the  Return  (1541-1545) 438 

S    97.   Survey   of   Calvin's   Activity 443 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

constitution  and  discipline  of  the  church  of  geneva. 

§    98.   Literature 448 

§    99.   Calvin's  Idea  of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church 448 

§  100.   The  Visible  and  Invisible  Church. 457 

§  101.   The    Civil  Government 461 

§102.   Distinctive  Principles  of  Calvin's  Church   Polity 466 

§  103.   Church  and  State 471 

§  104.    The  Ecclesiastical  Ordinances 475 

§  105.   The  Venerable  Company  and  the  Consistory 480 

§  106.   Calvin's  Theory  of  Discipline 484 

§107.   The   Exercise  of  Discipline  in  Geneva 489 

§  108.   Calvin's  Struggle  with  the  Patriots  and  Libertines 494 

§  109.   The  Leaders  of  the  Libertines  and  their   Punishment  :  — 

Gruet,  Perrin,  Ameaux,  Vandel,  Berthelier 501 

§  110.   Geneva  regenerated.     Impartial  Testimonies 515 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

the  theology  of  calvin. 

§  111.   Calvin's  Commentaries 524 

§  112.   The  Calvinistic  System 538 

§  113.   The  Doctrine  of  Predestination 545 

§  114.   Calvinism  examined 568 

§  115.   Calvin's  Theory  of  the  Sacraments 582 

§  116.    Baptism 584 

§117.   The  Lord's  Supper.     The  Consensus  of  Zurich 588 

CHAPTER  XV. 

doctrinal  controversies. 

§  118.   Calvin  as  a  Controversialist 594 

§  119.   Calvin  and  Pighius 595 

§  120.  The    Anti-Papal    Writings.     Criticism    of    the    Council    of 

Trent,   1547 599 

§  121.   Against  the  German  Interim,  1549 602 

§  122.   Against  the  Worship  of  Relics,  1543 605 

§123.   The  Articles  of  the  Sorbonne  with  an  Antidote,   1544...  609 

§  124.   Calvin  and  the  Nicodemites,  1544 610 

§  125.   Calvin  and  Bolsec 614 

§  126.    Calvin  and  Castellio 621 


XVI  CONTENTS. 

FAOB 

§  127.   Calvin  and  Unitarian  ism.     The  Italian  Refugees 628 

§  128.   Calvin  and  L^elius  Socinus 6.3S 

§  129.   Bernardino  Ochino.     (With  Portrait) 637 

§  130.   C.elius  Secundus  Curio,  150.3-1569 651 

§  131.   The  Italian  Antiteinitarians  in  Geneva.     Gribaldo,  Bian- 

DRATA,  Alciati,  Gentile 652 

§132.   The  Eucharistic   Controversies.     Calvin  and  Westphal...  658 
§  133.   Calvin  and  the  Augsburg   Confession.     Melanchthon's  Po- 
sition IN  THE  Second  Eucharistic  Controversy 664 

§  134.   Calvin  and  Heshusius 671 

§  135.   Calvin  and  the  Astrologers 676 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

SERVETUS  :     HIS   LIFE,    TRIAL,    AND    EXECUTION. 

§  136.  The   Servetus  Literature.     (Portrait  of  Servetus) 681 

§  137.  Calvin  and  Servetus 687 

§  138.  Catholic   Intolerance 693 

§  139.  Protestant  Intolerance.     Judgjients  of  the  Reformers  on 

Servetus 700 

§  140.  The  Early  Life  of  Servetus 712 

§  141.  The  Book  against  the  Holy  Trinity 715 

§  142.  Servetus   as  a  Geographer 720 

§  143.  Servetus  as  a  Physician,  Scientist,  and  Astrologer 723 

§  144.  Servetus  at  Vienne.     His  Annotations  on  the  Bible 725 

§  145.  Correspondence  of  Servetus  with  Calvin 727 

§  146.  "  The   Restitution  of  Christianity  " 732 

§  147.  The  Theological  System  of  Servetus 736 

§  148.  Trial   of  Servetus  at  Vienne 757 

§  149.  Arrival  and  Arrest  of  Servetus  in  Geneva 763 

§  150.  State  of  Political  Parties  at  Geneva  in  1553 766 

§  151.  The  First  Act  of  the  Trial  at  Geneva 768 

§  152.  The  Second  Act  of  the  Trial  at  Geneva 772 

§  153.  Consultation   of   the   Swiss  Churches.    The  Defiant  Atti- 
tude OF   Servetus 77& 

§  154.  Condemnation  of  Servetus 781 

§  155.  Execution  of  Servetus,  Oct.  27,  1553 783 

§  156.  The  Character  of  Servetus 786 

§  157.  Calvin's  Defence  of  the  Death  Penalty  of  Heretics 789 

§  158.  A  Plea  for  Religious  Liberty.     Castellio  and  Beza 794 

CHAPTER   XVir. 

calvin  abroad. 

§  159.   Calvin's   Catholicity  of   Spirit 799 

§  160.    Geneva  the  Asylum  of  Protestants  from  all  Countries..   802 


CONTENTS.  XVli 

PAUE 

§  161.   The  Academy   of   Geneva   for  Training   Ministers   of   the 

Eeformed  Chcrches  at  Home  and  Abroad 803 

§  162.   Calvin's  Influence   upon  the   Reformed   Churches   of   the 

Continent 806 

§163.  Calvin's  Influence  on  the  British  Reformation 816 

CHAPTER   XVni. 

closing  scenes  in  the  life  of  calvin. 

§  164.   Calvin's  Death  and  Burial 820 

§  165.   Calvin's  Testament  and  Farewells 828 

§  166.   Calvin's  Personal  Character 834 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

THEODORE    BEZA. 

§  167.  The  Youth  of  Beza.     (With  Portrait) 846 

§  168.  Beza     at     Lausanne     and    as    Delegate    to    the    German 

Princes 851 

§  169.  Beza  at  Geneva  till  the  Death  of  Calvin 854 

§  170.  Beza   at  the  Conference  of  Poissy 856 

§  171.  Beza  as  the  Counsellor  of  the  Huguenot  Leaders 858 

§172.  Beza  as  the  Successor  of  Calvin,  down  to  1586 862 

§  173.  Beza's  Conferences  with  Lutherans 866 

§  174.  Beza  and  Henry  IV 867 

§  175.  Beza's  Last  Days 868 

§  176.  Beza's  Writings 871 

APPEXDIX. 

Literature    on    the    Reformation    in   France.    (With   Portrait   of 

Jacques  Le  Fe  vre)  .' 877 

Alphabetical  Index 883 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

Map  of  Switzerland  in  the  Sixteenth  Century   .        Frontispiece 
ZwiNGLi.     After  the  Oil-Pain  ting  in  Ziirich 16 

WiLDHAUS,    ZwiNGLl'S    BiRTHPLACE  ......  22 

TriE  Great  Minster  at  Ztjrich  in  1519 39 

Zurich  in  the  Sixteenth  Century 63 

Leo  JudjE,  the  Translator  of  the  Swiss  Bible     ...  64 

Pierpaolo  Vergerio,  Reformer  of  the  Italian  Grisons       .  147 

The  Abbey  of  Einsiedeln  in  the  Sixteenth  Century  .         .  197 

Henry  Bullinger 202 

William  Farel .236 

John  Calvin.     After  the  Oil-Painting  in  Geneva  ....  256 

Bernardino  Ochino       . 638 

Michael  Servetus         .........  681 

Theodore  Beza 847 

Jacobus  Faber  (Jacques  le  Fevre)           .....  876 


HISTORY 

OF 

THE    REFORMATIOK 

SECOND  BOOK. 

THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 


CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

§  1.    Switzerland  before  the  Reformation. 

Switzerland  belongs  to  those  countries  whose  historic 
significance  stands  in  inverse  proportion  to  their  size.  God 
often  elects  small  things  for  great  purposes.  Palestine  gave 
to  the  world  the  Christian  religion.  From  little  Greece  pro- 
ceeded philosophy  and  art.  Switzerland  is  the  cradle  of  the 
Reformed  churches.  The  land  of  the  snow-capped  Alps  is 
the  source  of  mighty  rivers,  and  of  the  Reformed  faith,  as 
Germany  is  the  home  of  the  Lutheran  faith ;  and  the  princi- 
ples of  the  Swiss  Reformation,  like  the  waters  of  the  Rhine 
and  the  Rhone,  travelled  westward  with  the  course  of  the 
sun  to  France,  Holland,  England,  Scotland,  and  to  a  new 
continent,  which  Zwingli  and  Calvin  knew  only  by  name. 
Compared  with  intellectual  and  moral  achievements,  the 
conquests  of  the  sword  dwindle  into  insignificance.  Ideas 
rule  the  world ;  ideas  are  immortal. 

Before  the  sixteenth  century,  Switzerland  exerted  no  influ- 
ence in  the  affairs  of  Europe  except  by  the  bravery  of  its 
inhabitants   in   self-defence   of   their  liberty  and  in   foreign 

1 


2  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

wars.  But  in  the  sixteenth  century  she  stands  next  to  Ger- 
many in  that  great  religious  renovation  which  has  affected 
all  modern  history .^ 

The  Republic  of  Switzerland,  which  has  maintained  itself 
in  the  midst  of  monarchies  down  to  this  day,  was  founded 
by  "the  eternal  covenant"  of  the  three  "forest  cantons," 
Uri,  Schwyz,  and  Unterwalden,  August  1,  1291,  and  grew 
from  time  to  time  by  conquest,  purchase,  and  free  associa- 
tion. Lucerne  (the  fourth  forest  canton)  joined  the  confed- 
eracy in  1332,  Zurich  in  1351,  Glarus  and  Zug  in  1352,  Berne 
in  1353,  Freiburg  and  Solothurn  (Soleur)  in  1481,  Basle  and 
Schaffhausen  in  1601,  Appenzell  in  1513,  —  making  in  all 
thirteen  cantons  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation.  With  them 
were  connected  by  purchase,  or  conquest,  or  free  consent, 
as  common  territories  or  free  bailiwicks,^  the  adjoining  lands 
of  Aargau,  Thurgau,  Wallis,  Geneva,  Graubiindten  (Grisons^ 
Rhatia),  the  princedom  of  Neuchatel  and  Valangin,  and  sev- 
eral cities  (Biel,  Miihlhausen,  Rotweil,  Locarno,  etc.).  Since 
1798  the  number  of  cantons  has  increased  to  twenty-two,, 
with  a  population  of  nearly  three  millions  (in  1890).  The 
Republic  of  the  United  States  started  with  thirteen  States, 
end  has  grown  likewise  by  purchase  or  conquest  and  the 
organization  and  incorporation  of  new  territories,  but  more 
rapidly,  and  on  a  much  larger  scale. 

The  romantic  story  of  William  Tell,  so  charmingly  told 
by  ^gidius  Tschudi,  the  Swiss  Herodotus,^  and  by  Johannes 

1  "The  affairs  of  Switzerland,"  says  Hallam  {Middle  Ages,  II.  108,  Am. 
ed.),  "occupy  a  very  small  space  in  the  great  chart  of  European  history; 
but  in  some  respects  they  are  more  interesting  than  the  revolutions  of  mighty 
kingdoms.  Nowhere  besides  do  we  find  so  many  titles  to  our  sympathy,  or 
the  union  of  so  much  virtue  with  so  complete  success.  .  .  .  Other  nations 
displayed  an  insuperable  resolution  in  the  defence  of  walled  towns ;  but  the 
steadiness  of  the  Swiss  in  the  field  of  battle  was  without  a  parallel,  unless  we 
recall  the  memory  of  Lacedsmon." 

^  They  were  called  gemeine  Herrschaflen  or  Vogteien  and  zugeicandte  Orte. 

^  Or  the  father  of  Swiss  historiography,  as  he  is  also  called.  His  Chronicon 
Helveticum  or  Eidgenossische  Cltronik  (1000-1470)  was  first  edited  b}^  Professor 


§    1,     SWITZERLAND    BEFORE   THE    REFORMATION.  3 

von  Miiller,  the  Swiss  Tacitus,  and  embellished  by  the  poetic 
genius  of  Friedrich  Schiller,  must  be  abandoned  to  the  realm 
of  popular  fiction,  like  the  cognate  stories  of  Scandinavian 
and  German  mythology,  but  contains,  nevertheless,  an  abid- 
ing element  of  truth  as  setting  forth  the  spirit  of  those  bold 
mountaineers  who  loved  liberty  and  independence  more  than 
their  lives,  -and  expelled  the  foreign  invaders  from  their  soil. 
The  glory  of  an  individual  belongs  to  the  Swiss  people.  The 
sacred  oath  of  the  men  of  Griitli  on  the  Lake  of  Lucerne, 
at  the  foot  of  Seelisberg  (1306  or  1308  ?),  and  the  more 
certain  confederation  of  Dec.  9,  1315,  at  Brunnen,  were 
renewals  of  the  previous  covenant  of  1291.^ 

The  Swiss  successfully  vindicated  their  independence 
against  the  attacks  of  the  House  of  Habsburg  in  the  mem- 
orable battles  of  Morgarten  ("  the  Marathon  of  Switzerland," 
1315),  Sempach  (1386),  and  Nafels  (1388),  against  King 
Louis  XL  of  France  at  St.  Jacob  near  Basle  (the  Thermopylse 
of  Switzerland,  1444),  and  against  Duke  Charles  the  Bold 
of  Burgundy  at  Granson,  Murten  (Morat),  and.  Nancy  (1476 
and  1477). 

Nature  and  history  made  Switzerland  a  federative  republic. 

Iselin,  Basle,  173-i  and  '30,  in  2  vols,  ^gidius  Tschudi  of  Glarus  (1505- 
1572)  derived  the  Tell  legend  from  the  Weisse  Bitch  of  Sarnen,  and  Etterlin  of 
Lucerne,  and  adorned  it  with  his  fancy  and  masterly  power  of  narration.  He 
was  a  pupil  of  Zwingli,  but  remained  in  the  old  church.  In  a  letter  to  Zwingli, 
February,  1517,  he  says,  "Non  cum  aliqiio  docto  lihentius  esse  velim,  quam  tecum." 
Zw.,  Opera,  VII.  21.  The  MS.  of  his  Chronik  is  preserved  in  the  city  library 
of  Ziirich.  It  is  carefully  described,  with  a  facsimile  in  the  Neujahrshlatt  of 
the  Stadtbibliotheh  in  Zurich  auf  das  Jahr  1889  (Ziirich,  Orell  Fiissli  &  Co.). 

^  On  the  origin  of  the  Swiss  Confederation  and  the  Tell  and  Griitli  legends, 
see  the  critical  researches  of  Kopp,  Urkunden  zur  Geschichte  der  eidgenossischen 
Biinde,  Luzern,  1835,  and  Wien,  1851,  2  vols.  Hisely,  Becherches  critiques  sur 
Guillaume  Tell,  Lausanne,  1843.  Kopp,  Zur  Tell-Sage,  Luzern,  1854  and  '56. 
Karl  Hagen,  Die  Politik  der  Kaiser  Budolf  von  Habsburg  und  Albrecht  I.  und 
die  Entstehung  der  schweizerischen  Eidgenossenschaft,  Bern,  1857.  G.  von  Wyss, 
Die  Gesch.  der  drei  Lander  Uri,  Schwi/z  und  Unterwalden,  1212-1315,  Ziirich, 
1858;  Zurich  am  Ausgange  des  dreizehnten  Jahrh.,  Ziirich,  1876.  A.  Rilliet,  Les 
origines  de  la  confe'de'ration  Suisse,  histoire  et  le'qende,  2d  ed.,  Geneve,  1869. 
Dieraucr,  Gesch.  der  Schiceiz.  Eidgenossenschaft,  Gotha,  1887,  vol.  I.  81-151. 


4  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

This  republic  was  originally  a  loose,  aristocratic  confederac}^ 
of  independent  cantons,  ruled  by  a  diet  of  one  house  where 
each  canton  had  the  same  number  of  deputies  and  votes,  so 
that  a  majority  of  the  Diet  could  defeat  a  majority  of  the 
people.  This  state  of  things  continued  till  18-48,  when  (after 
the  defeat  of  the  Sonderbund  of  the  Roman  Catholic  cantons) 
the  constitution  was  remodelled  on  democratic  principles, 
after  the  American  example,  and  the  legislative  power  vested 
in  two  houses,  one  (the  Standerath  or  Senate)  consisting  of 
forty-four  deputies  of  the  twenty-two  sovereign  cantons  (as 
in  the  old  Diet),  the  other  (the  Nationalrath  or  House  of 
Representatives)  representing  the  people  in  proportion  to 
their  number  (one  to  every  twenty  thousand  souls)  ;  while 
the  executive  power  was  given  to  a  council  of  seven  mem- 
bers (the  Bundesratli)  elected  for  three  years  by  both 
branches  of  the  legislature.  Thus  the  confederacy  of  can- 
tons was  changed  into  a  federal  state,  with  a  central  gov- 
ernment elected  by  the  people  and  acting  directly  on  the 
people.^ 

This  difference  in  the  constitution  of  the  central  authority 
must  be  kept  in  mind  in  order  to  understand  why  the  Refor- 
mation triumphed  in  the  most  populous  cantons,  and  yet  was 
defeated  in  the  Diet.^  The  small  forest  cantons  had  each 
as  many  votes  as  the  much  larger  cantons  of  Zurich  and 
Berne,  and  kept  out  Protestantism  from  their  borders  till 
the  year  1848.  The  loose  character  of  the  German  Diet  and 
the  absence  of  centralization  account  in  like  manner  for  the 
victory  of  Protestantism  in  Saxony,  Hesse,  and  other  states 

^  The  Staatenbund  became  a  Bundesstaat.  The  same  difference  exists  be- 
tween the  American  Confederacy  during  the  Kevolutionary  War  and  the 
United  States  after  the  war,  as  also  between  the  old  German  Bund  and  the 
new  German  Empire. 

2  Tlie  numerical  strength  of  Protestantism  at  the  death  of  Zwingli  was 
probably  not  far  from  two-thirds  of  tlie  population.  The  relation  of  the  two 
confessions  has  undergone  no  material  change  in  Switzerland.  In  1888  the 
Protestants  numbered  1,7'24,257 ;  the  Koman  Catholics,  1,190,008 ;  the  Jews, 
8,;^SG. 


§    2.    THE   SWISS    REFORMATION.  5 

and  imperial  cities,  notwithstanding  tlio  hostile  resolutions 
of  the  majority  of  the  Diet,  which  again  and  again  demanded 
the  execution  of  the  Edict  of  Worms. 

The  Christianization  of  Switzerland  began  in  the  fourth 
or  third  century  under  the  Roman  rule,  and  proceeded  from 
France  and  Italy.  Geneva,  on  the  border  of  France  and 
Savoy,  is  the  seat  of  the  oldest  church  and  bishopric  founded 
by  two  bishops  of  Vienne  in  Southern  Gaul.  The  bishopric 
of  Coire,  in  the  south-eastern  extremity,  appears  first  in  the 
acts  of  a  Synod  of  Milan,  452.  The  northern  and  interior 
sections  were  Christianized  in  the  seventh  century  by  Irish 
missionaries,  Columban  and  G  alius.  The  last  founded  the 
abbey  of  St.  Gall,  which  became  a  famous  centre  of  civiliza- 
tion for  Alamannia.  The  first,  and  for  a  long  time  the  only, 
university  of  Switzerland  was  that  of  Basle  (1460),  where  one 
of  the  three  reformatory  councils  was  held  (1430).  During 
the  Middle  Ages  the  whole  country,  like  the  rest  of  Europe, 
was  subject  to  the  Roman  see,  and  no  religion  was  tolerated 
but  the  Roman  Catholic.  It  was  divided  into  six  episcopal 
dioceses,  —  Geneva,  Coire,  Constance,  Basle,  Lausanne,  and 
Sion  (Sitten).  The  Pope  had  several  legates  in  Switzerland 
who  acted  as  political  and  military  agents,  and  treated  the 
little  republic  like  a  great  power.  The  most  inlluential 
bishop,  Schinner  of  Sion,  who  did  substantial  service  to  the 
warlike  Julius  II.  and  Leo  X.,  attained  even  a  cardinal's  hat. 
Zwingli,  who  knew  him  well,  might  have  acquired  the  same 
dignity  if  he  had  followed  his  example. 

§  2.    The  Swiss  Reformation. 

The  Church  in  Switzerland  was  corrupt  and  as  much  in 
need  of  reform  as  in  Germany.  The  inhabitants  of  the  old 
cantons  around  the  Lake  of  Lucerne  were,  and  are  to  this 
day,  among  the  most  honest  and  pious  Catholics ;  but  the 
clergy  were  ignorant,  superstitious,  and  immoral,  and  set  a 
bad  example  to  the  laity.     The  convents  were  in  a  state  of 


6  THE    SWISS    REFORMATION. 

decay,  and  could  not  furnish  a  single  champion  able  to  cope 
with  the  Reformers  in  learning  and  moral  influence.  Celibacy 
made  concubinage  a  common  and  pardonable  offence.  The 
bishop  of  Constance  (Hugo  von  Hohenlandenberg)  absolved 
guilty  priests  on  the  payment  of  a  fine  of  four  guilders  for 
every  child  born  to  them,  and  is  said  to  have  derived  from 
this  source  seventy-five  hundred  guilders  in  a  single  year 
(1522).  In  a  pastoral  letter,  shortly  before  the  Reformation, 
he  complained  of  the  immorality  of  many  priests  who  openly 
kept  concubines  or  bad  women  in  their  houses,  who  refuse 
to  dismiss  them,  or  bring  them  back  secretly,  who  gamble, 
sit  with  laymen  in  taverns,  drink  to  excess,  and  utter  blas- 
phemies.^ 

The  people  were  corrupted  by  the  foreign  military  service 
(called  Meislaufeii),  which  j^erpetuated  the  fame  of  the  Swiss 
for  bravery  and  faithfulness,  but  at  the  expense  of  indepen- 
dence and  good  morals.^  Kings  and  popes  vied  with  each 
other  in  tempting  offers  to  secure  Swiss  soldiers,  who  often 
fought  against  each  other  on  foreign  battle-fields,  and  re- 
turned with  rich  pensions  and  dissolute  habits.  Zwingii 
knew  this  evil  from  personal  experience  as  chaplain  in  the 
Italian  campaigns,  attacked  it  before  he  thought  of  reforming 
the  Church,  continued  to  oppose  it  when  called  to  Zurich, 
and  found  his  death  at  the  hands  of  a  foreign  mercenary. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  were  some  hopeful  signs  of 
progress.  The  reformatory  councils  of  Constance  and  Basle 
were  not  yet  entirely  forgotten  among  the  educated  classes. 
The  revival  of  letters  stimulated  freedom  of  thought,  and 
opened  the  eyes  to  abuses.     The  University  of  Basle  became 

1  Schuler,  Huldreich  Zwingii,  p.  190  ;  Morikofer,  Ulrich  Zwingii,  vol.  I.  67. 
Zwingii  was  reported  to  have  said,  that  of  a  thousand  priests  and  monks, 
scarcely  one  was  chaste.     Egli,  Actensammlung ,  p.  02. 

2  Reislaufen  means  running  to  war  (from  Reis  =  Kriegszug,  war).  The 
heroic  devotion  of  Swiss  soldiers  in  defence  of  foreign  masters  is  immor- 
talized by  the  Thorwaldsen  statue  of  the  wounded  lion  in  Luzern. 


.  §  2.    THE   SWISS   IlEFOR]VIATION.  7 

a  centre  of  literary  activity  and  illuminating  influences. 
There  Thomas  Wyttenbach  of  Biel  taught  theology  between 
1505  and  1508,  and  attacked  indulgences,  the  mass,  and  the 
celibacy  of  the  priesthood.  He,  with  seven  other  priests,  mar- 
ried in  1524,  and  was  deposed  as  preacher,  but  not  excom- 
municated. He  combined  several  high  offices,  but  died  in 
great  poverty,  1526.  Zwingli  attended  his  lectures  in  1505, 
and  learned  much  from  him.  In  Basle,  Erasmus,  the  great 
luminary  of  liberal  learning,  spent  several  of  the  most  active 
years  of  his  life  (1514-1516  and  1521-1529),  and  published, 
through  the  press  of  his  friend  Frobenius,  most  of  his  books, 
including  his  editions  of  the  Greek  Testament.  In  Basle 
several  works  of  Luther  were  reprinted,  to  be  scattered 
through  Switzerland.  Capito,  Hedio,  Pellican,  and  OEco- 
lampadius  likewise  studied,  taught,  and  preached  in  that  city. 

But  the  Reformation  proceeded  from  Zurich,  not  from 
Basle,  and  was  guided  by  Zwingli,  who  combined  the  human- 
istic culture  of  Erasmus  with  the  ability  of  a  popular  preacher 
and  the  practical  energy  of  an  ecclesiastical  reformer. 

The  Swiss  Reformation  may  be  divided  into  three  acts  and 
periods,  — 

I.  The  Zwinglian  Reformation  in  the  German  cantons 
from  1516  to  Zwingli's  death  and  the  peace  of  Cappel,  1531. 

II.  The  Calvinistic  Reformation  in  French  Switzerland 
from  1531  to  the  death  of  Calvin,  1564. 

III.  The  labors  of  Bullinger  in  Zurich  (d.  1575),  and  Beza 
in  Geneva  (d.  1605)  for  the  consolidation  of  the  work  of 
their  older  friends  and  predecessors. 

The  Zwinglian  movement  was  nearly  simultaneous  with 
the  German  Reformation,  and  came  to  an  agreement  with  it 
at  Marburg  in  fourteen  out  of  fifteen  articles  of  faith,  the 
only  serious  difference  being  the  mode  of  Christ's  presence 
in  the  eucharist.  Although  Zwingli  died  in  the  prime  of 
life,  he  already  set  forth  most  of  the  characteristic  features 
of  the  Reformed  Churches,  at  least  in  rough  outline. 


8  THE   SWISS   REFOKMATION. 

But  Calvin  is  the  great  theologian,  organizer,  and  discip- 
linarian of  the  Reformed  Church.  He  brought  it  nearer  the 
Lutheran  Church  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  but 
he  widened  the  breach  in  the  doctrine  of  predestination. 

Zwingli  and  BuUinger  connect  the  Swiss  Reformation 
with  that  of  Germany,  Hungary,  and  Bohemia ;  Calvin  and 
Beza,  with  that  of  France,  Holland,  England,  and  Scotland. 

§  3.    The   G-enius  of  the  Swiss  Reformation  compared  with 

the  Grerman. 

On  the  difference  between  the  Lutheran  and  the  Reformed  Confessions  see 
GoBEL,  Hdndeshagen,  Schnekenburger,  Schweizer,  etc.,  quoted  in 
SCHAFF,  Greeds  of  Christendom,  vol.  I.  211. 

Protestantism  gives  larger  scope  to  individual  and  national 
freedom  and  variety  of  development  than  Romanism,  which 
demands  uniformity  in  doctrine,  discipline,  and  worship.  It 
has  no  visible  centre  or  headshi]3,  and  consists  of  a  number 
of  separate  and  independent  organizations  under  the  invisi- 
ble headship  of  Christ.  It  is  one  flock,  but  in  many  folds. 
Variety  in  unity  and  unity  in  variety  are  the  law  of  God  in 
nature  and  history.  Protestantism  so  far  has  fully  developed 
variety,  but  not  yet  realized  unity. 

The  two  original  branches  of  evangelical  Christendom  are 
the  Lutheran  and  the  Reformed  Confessions.  They  are  as 
much  alike  and  as  much  distinct  as  the  Greek  and  the  Roman 
branches  of  Catholicism,  which  rest  on  the  national  bases  of 
philosophical  Greece  and  political  Rome.  They  are  equally 
evangelical,  and  admit  of  an  organic  union,  which  has  actu- 
ally been  effected  in  Prussia  and  other  parts  of  Germany 
since  the  third  anniversary  of  the  Reformation  in  1817. 
Their  differences  are  theological  rather  than  religious ;  they 
affect  the  intellectual  conception,  but  not  the  heart  and  soul 
of  piety.  The  only  serious  doctrinal  difference  which  divided 
Luther  and  Zwingli  at  Marburg  was  the  mode  of  the  real 
presence  in  the  eucharist;  as  the  double  procession   of  the 


§  3.  SWISS  KEFOKMATION  COMPARED  WITH  GERMAN.   9 

Holy  Spirit  was  for  centuries  the  only  doctrinal  difference 
between  the  Greek  and  Roman  Churches.  But  other  differ- 
ences of  government,  discipline,  worship,  and  practice  devel- 
oped themselves  in  the  course  of  time,  and  overshadowed 
the  theological  lines  of  separation. 

The  Lutheran  family  embraces  the  churches  which  bear 
the  name  of  Luther  and  accept  the  Augsburg  Confession ; 
the  Reformed  family  (using  the  term  Reformed  in  its  historic 
and  general  sense)  comprehends  the  churches  which  trace 
their  origin  directly  or  indirectly  to  the  labors  of  Zwingli 
and  Calvin. 1  \i\  England  the  second  or  Puritan  Reformation 
gave  birth  to  a  number  of  new  denominations,  which,  after 
the  Toleration  Act  of  1689,  were  organized  into  distinct 
Churches.  In  the  eighteenth  century  arose  the  Wesleyan 
revival  movement,  which  grew  into  one  of  the  largest  and 
most  active  churches  in  the  English-speaking  world. 

Thus  the  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century  is  the 
mother  or  grandmother  of  at  least  half  a  dozen  families  of 
evangelical  denominations,  not  counting  the  sub-divisions. 
Lutheranism  has  its  strength  in  Germany  and  Scandinavia ; 
the  Reformed  Church,  in  Great  Britain  and  North  America. 

The  Reformed  Confession  has  developed  different  types. 
Travelling  westward  with  the  course  of  Christianity  and 
civilization,  it  became  more  powerful  in  Holland,  England, 
and  Scotland  than  in  Switzerland ;  but  the  chief  characteris- 
tics which  distinguish  it  from  the  Lutheran  Confession  were 
already  developed  by  Zwingli  and  Calvin. 

1  On  the  Continent  and  in  works  of  church  history  the  designation  Re- 
formed includes  Presbyterians,  Episcopalians,  Congregationalists,  and  other 
non-Lutheran  Protestants.  Calvinism  and  Puritanism  are  not  church  terms, 
but  denote  schools  and  parties  within  the  Reformed  churches.  The  Anglican 
Reformed  Church  stands  by  itself  as  a  communion  which  was  reformed  under 
Lutheran  and  Calvinistic  influences,  but  occupies  a  position  between  Catholi- 
cism and  Protestantism.  In  modern  English  and  American  usage,  the  term 
Reformed  has  assumed  a  restricted  sectional  sense  in  connection  with  other 
terms,  as  Reformed  Dutch,  Reformed  German,  Reformed  Presbyterian,  Re- 
formed Episcopalian. 


10  THE    SWISS    REFORMATION. 

The  Swiss  and  the  German  Reformers  agreed  in  opposition 
to  Romanism,  but  the  Swiss  departed  further  from  it.  The 
former  were  zealous  for  the  sovereign  glory  of  God,  and,  in 
strict  interpretation  of  the  first  and  second  commandments, 
abolished  the  heathen  elements  of  creature  worship;  while 
Luther,  in  the  interest  of  free  grace  and  the  peace  of  con- 
science, aimed  his  strongest  blows  at  the  Jewish  element  of 
monkish  legalism  and  self-righteousness.  The  Swiss  theol- 
ogy proceeds  from  God's  grace  to  man's  needs ;  the  Lutheran, 
from  man's  needs  to  God's  grace. 

Both  agree  in  the  three  fundamental  principles  of  Protes- 
tantism :  the  absolute  supremacy  of  the  Divine  Scriptures 
as  a  rule  of  faith  and  practice ;  justification  by  free  grace 
through  faith ;  the  general  priesthood  of  the  laity.  But  as 
regards  the  first  principle,  the  Reformed  Church  is  more 
radical  in  carrying  it  out  against  human  traditions,  abolish- 
ing all  those  which  have  no  root  in  the  Bible ;  while  Luther 
retained  those  which  are  not  contrary  to  the  Bible.  As 
regards  justification  by  faith,  Luther  made  it  the  article  of 
the  standing  or  falling  Church;  while  Zwingli  and  Calvin 
subordinated  it  to  the  ulterior  truth  of  eternal  foreordination 
by  free  grace,  and  laid  greater  stress  on  good  works  and  strict 
discipline.  Both  opposed  the  idea  of  a  special  priesthood 
and  hierarchical  rule ;  but  the  Swiss  Reformers  gave  larger 
scope  to  the  popular  lay  element,  and  set  in  motion  the 
principle  of  congregational  and  synodical  self-government 
and  self-support. 

Both  brought  the  new  Church  into  close  contact  with  the 
State ;  but  the  Swiss  Reformers  controlled  the  State  in  the 
spirit  of  republican  independence,  which  ultimately  led  to  a 
separation  of  the  secular  and  spiritual  powers,  or  to  a  free 
Church  in  a  free  State  (as  in  the  free  churches  of  French 
Switzerland,  and  in  all  the  churches  of  the  United  States) ; 
while  Luther  and  Melanchthon,  with  their  native  reverence 
for  monarchical  institutions  and  the  German  Empire,  taught 


§  3.     SWISS    REFORMATION   COMPARED    WITH   GERMAN.     11 

passive  obedience  in  politics,  and  brought  the  Church  under 
bondage  to  the  civil  authority. 

All  the  evangelical  divines  and  rulers  of  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries  were  inconsistently  intolerant  in 
theory  and  practice ;  but  the  Reformation,  which  was  a 
revolt  against  papal  tyranny  and  a  mighty  act  of  emancipa- 
tion, led  ultimately  to  the  triumph  of  religious  freedom  as 
its  legitimate  fruit. 

The  Reformed  Church  does  not  bear  the  name  of  any 
man,  and  is  not  controlled  by  a  towering  personality,  but 
assumed  different  types  under  the  moulding  influence  of 
Zwingli  and  BuUinger  in  Zurich,  of  Qj^colampadius  in  Basle, 
of  Haller  in  Berne,  of  Calvin  and  Beza  in  Geneva,  of  Ursi- 
nus  and  Olevianus  in  the  Palatinate,  of  Cranmer,  Latimer, 
and  Ridley  in  England,  of  Knox  in  Scotland.  The  Lutheran 
Church,  as  the  very  name  indicates,  has  the  stamp  of  Luther 
indelibly  impressed  upon  it ;  although  the  milder  and  more 
liberal  Melanchthonian  tendency  has  in  it  a  legitimate  place 
of  honor  and  power,  and  manifests  itself  in  all  progressive 
and  unionistic  movements  as  those  of  Calixtus,  of  Spener, 
and  of  the  moderate  Lutheran  schools  of  our  age. 

Calvinism  has  made  a  stronger  impression  on  the  Latin 
and  Anglo-Saxon  races  than  on  the  German ;  while  Luther- 
anism  is  essentially  German,  and  undergoes  more  or  less 
change  in  other  countries. 

Calvin  aimed  at  a  reformation  of  discipline  as  well  as  the- 
ology, and  established  a  model  theocracy  in  Geneva,  which 
lasted  for  several  generations.  Luther  contented  himself 
with  a  reformation  of  faith  and  doctrine,  leaving  the  practi- 
cal consequences  to  time,  but  bitterly  lamented  the  Antino- 
mian  disorder  and  abuse  which  for  a  time  threatened  to 
neutralize  his  labors  in  Saxony. 

The  Swiss  Reformers  reduced  worship  to  the  utmost 
simplicity  and  naked  spirituality,  and  made  its  effect  for 
kindling  or  chilling  devotion  to  depend  upon  the  personal 


12  THE    SWISS    KEFOEMATION. 

piety  and  intellectual  effort  of  the  minister  and  the  merits 
of  his  sermons  and  prayers.  Luther,  who  was  a  poet  and 
a  musician,  left  larger  scope  for  the  testhetic  and  artistic 
element ;  and  his  Church  developed  a  rich  liturgical  and 
hymnological  literature.  Congregational  singing,  however, 
flourishes  in  both  denominations ;  and  the  Anglican  Church 
produced  the  best  liturgy,  which  has  kept  its  place  to  this 
day,  with  increasing  popularity. 

The  Reformed  Church  excels  in  self-discipline,  liberality, 
energy,  and  enterprise ;  it  carries  the  gospel  to  all  heathen 
lands  and  new  colonies ;  it  builds  up  a  God-fearing,  manlj^, 
independent,  heroic  type  of  character,  such  as  we  find  among 
the  French  Huguenots,  the  English  Puritans,  the  Scotch 
Covenanters,  the  Waldenses  in  Piedmont;  and  sent  in  times 
of  persecution  a  noble  army  of  martyrs  to  the  prison  and  the 
stake.  The  Lutheran  Church  cultivates  a  hearty,  trustful, 
inward,  mystic  style  of  piety,  the  science  of  theology,  biblical 
and  historical  research,  and  wrestles  with  the  deepest  prol> 
lems  of  philosophy  and  religion. 

God  has  wisely  distributed  his  gifts,  with  abundant  oppor- 
tunities for  their  exercise  in  the  building  up  of  his  kingdom. 

§  4.    Literature  on  the  Swiss  Reformation. 

Compare  the  literature  on  the  Eeformation  in  general,  vol.  VI.  89-93,  and 
the  German  Reformation,  pp.  94-97.  The  literature  on  the  Reformation  in 
French  Switzerland  will  be  given  in  a  later  chapter  (pp.  223  sqq.). 

The  largest  collection  of  the  Reformation  literature  of  German  Switzer- 
land is  in  the  Stadtbibliothek  (in  the  Wasserkirche)  and  in  the  Cantonalbibliotkek 
of  Ziirich.  The  former  includes  the  200  vols,  of  the  valuable  MSS.  collection 
of  SiMLER  (d.  1788),  and  the  Thesaurus  Hottingerianus.  I  examined  these 
libraries  in  August,  188G,  with  the  kind  aid  of  Profs.  O.  F.  Fritsche,  Alex. 
Schweizer,  Georg  von  Wyss,  and  Dr.  Escher,  and  again  in  July,  1890. 

For  lists  of  books  on  Swiss  history  in  general  consult  the  following  works : 
Gottlieb  Emanuel  von  Haller:  Bibliotliek  der  Schweizer-Geschichte  und  aller 
Theile,  so  daliln  Bezug  haben  (Bern,  1785-'88,  7  vols.)  ;  with  the  continuations 
of  Gerold  Meyer  von  Knonau  (from  1840-'45,  Ziir.,  1850)  and  Ludwig  von 
Sinner  (from  1786-1851,  Bern  and  Ziirich,  1851).  The  Catalog  der  Stadtbib- 
liothek in  Ziirich  (Zurich,  18G4-'()7,  4  Bde,  much  enlarged  in  the  written  cata- 


§  4.     LITERATURE   OX   THE   SWISS   EEFOEMATION.         13 

logues).  E.  Er.  ton  Mulixex  :  Prodromtis  einer  Schweizer.  Historio()>-aphte 
(Bern,  1874).  The  author  promises  a  complete  Lexicon  of  Swiss  chroniclers, 
etc,  annalists  and  historians  in  about  -t  vols. 

I.  SocRCES:  The  works  of  Zwingli.  (EcoLAMPAHirs,  Leo  Jip.e,  Btllixoer, 
Watt  (Vadiaxts'),  and  other  Reformers  of  the  Swiss  cantons. 

Hermix.tard  :  Comspondence  des  EeYor-mntetirs.     Geneve,  I86l>-'S0.     7  vols. 

BrLLiXGER  (Heinrich,  Zwingli's  successor,  d.  1575):  Refoniiationspeschichte, 
nach  den  Antoi/ntphen  heransgeij.  von  J.  J.  Hottinger  ttnd  II.  II.  Vogeli. 
Frauenfeld,  1838-40,  3  vols.  8^.  From  1519  to  1532.  In  the  Swiss- 
Grerman  dialect. 

Kessler  (Johaxxes,  Reformer  of  St.  Gallcn)  :  SabUita.  Cftronik  der  Jahre 
ld23-'39.  Ed.  by  A'.  Gotzinger.  St.  Gallen,  ISGG-'GS.  2  parts.  Kessler 
was  the  student  whom  Luther  met  at  Jena  on  liis  return  to  Wittenberg 
{see  vol.  VI.  385). 

Simler  (Joh.  Jac.)  :  Sammhtng  alter  tind  neuer  Urkunden  ztir  Beleuchtung  der 
Kirchengeschichte,  voniehmlich  des  Schiceizerlandes.  Ziirich,  1757-'6o.  2  Bde 
in  6  Theilen.  S'-"'.  Also  the  tirst  30  vols,  of  his  above-mentioned  collec- 
tion of  MSS.,  which  includes  many  printed  pamphlets  and  documents. 

Die  Eidgeniisslschen  Abschlede.  Bd.  III.  Abth.  2:  Ahschiede  ron  1500-20, 
bearbeitet  von  Segesser  (Luzern,  18(30)  ;  Bd.  IV.  I  a  :  A.D.  1521-'2S,  bear- 
beitet  von  Strickler  (Brugg,  1873)  ;  Bd.  IV.  1  b:  A.D.  1320- 32  (Ziirich, 
1876);  Bd.  IV.  1  c:  A.D.  1533-40,  bearbeitet  von  Desc/iuanden  (Luzern, 
1878)  ;  Bd.  IV.  1  d:  A.D.  1541- 4S,  bearbeitet  von  Desrfiicanden  (Luzern, 
1882).  The  publication  of  these  official  acts  of  the  Swiss  Diet  was  begun 
at  the  expense  of  the  Confederacy,  a.d.  1839,  and  embraces  the  period 
from  1245  to  1848. 

Strickler  (Joh.)  :  Actensamynlung  ziir  Schireizerischen  Befonnationsgeschichte  in 
den  Jahren  1521-32.  Ziirich,  1878-84.  5  vols.  8*^.  Mostly  in  Swiss- 
German,  partly  in  Latin.  The  fifth  vol.  contains  Addenda,  Registei's,  and 
a  list  of  books  on  the  history  of  the  Reformation  to  1533. 

EoLi  (Emil)  :  Actensammlung  ztir  Geschichte  der  Ziin-lwr  Bef'onnation  ron  1510- 
'33.     Ziirich,  1879.     (Pages  vii.  and  947.) 

Sturler  (M.  v.):  I'rlunden  der  Btrnischen  Kirclnnrfform.  Bern.  1802. 
Goes  only  to  1528. 

On  the  Roman  Catholic  side:  Arcliiv Jlir  die  Schweizer.  Be/ormations-Geschifhte, 
herausgeg.  an/  Veranstaltung  des  Sclnveizer.  Piitsvereins.  Solothurn,  1808— 
*76.  3  large  vols.  This  includes  in  vol.  I.  the  Chronik-  der  Scfnreizerischen 
Reformation  (till  1534),  by  Haxs  Salat  of  Luzern  (d.  after  1543),  a  his- 
torian and  poet,  whose  life  and  writings  were  edited  by  Baechtold,  Basel, 
1870.  Vol.  II.  contains  the  papal  addresses  to  the  Swiss  Diet,  etc.  Vol. 
III.  7-82  gives  a  very  full  bibliography  bearing  upon  the  Reformation 
and  the  history  of  the  Swiss  Cantons  down  to  1871.  This  work  is  over- 
looked by  most  Protestant  historians.  BuUinger  wrote  against  Salat  a 
book  entitled  Salz  zum  Salat. 


14  THE    SWISS    REFORMATION; 

II.   Later  Historical  Works  : 

HoTTiNGER  (JoH.  Heinrich,  ail  eminent  Orientalist,  1620-'67)  :  Ilistorice 
Ecclesiasticce  Novi  Test.  Tiguri  [Turici],  1651-'67.  9  vols.  8°.  The  last 
four  volumes  of  this  very  learned  but  very  tedious  work  treat  of  the 
Reformation.  The  seventh  volume  has  a  chapter  of  nearly  600  pages 
(24-618)  de  Indulgentiis  in  specie  ! 

HoTTiNGER  (JoH.  Jacob,  16-52-1735,  third  son  of  the  former)  :  Helvetische 
Kirchengeschichten,  etc.  Ziir.,  1698-1729.  4  vols.  4°.  Newly  ed.  by  Wirz 
and  Kirchhofer.     See  below. 

Miscellanea  Tigurina  edita,  inedita,  vetera,  nova,  theologica,  historica,  etc.,  ed. 
by  J.  J.  Ulrioh.  Zur.,  1722-'24.  3  vols.  8°.  They  contain  small  biog- 
raphies of  Swiss  Reformers  and  important  documents  of  BuUinger,  Leo 
Judas,  Breitinger,  Simler,  etc. 

FiJssLiN  (or  rtJssLi,  Joh.  Conr.  F.,  1704-1775)  :  Beitrage  zur  Erlauterung  der 
Kirchenreformationsgeschichten  des  Schweizerlands.  Ziir.,  1740-'5o.  5  vols. 
8°.     Contains  important  original  documents  and  letters. 

RucHAT  (Abrah.,  1680-1750)  :  Histoire  de  la  He'formation  de  la  Suisse,  1516— 
1556.  Geneve,  1727,  '28.  6  vols.  8°.  New  edition  with  Appendixes  by 
L.  VuLLiEMiN.  Paris  and  Lausanne,  1835-'38.  7  vols.  8°.  Chiefly  impor- 
tant for  the  French  cantons.  An  English  abridgment  of  the  first  four 
vols,  in  one  vol.  by  J.  Collinson  (Canon  of  Durham),  London,  1845, 
goes  to  the  end  of  a.d.  1536. 

Wirz  (Ludw.)  and  Kirchhofer  (Melch.)  :  Helvet.  Kirchengeschichte.  Aus 
Joh.  Jac.  Hottinger's  dlterem  Werke  und  anderen  Quellen  neu  bearbeitet. 
Ziirich,  1808-'19.  5  vols.  The  modern  history  is  contained  in  vols.  IV. 
and  V.     The  fifth  vol.  is  by  Kirchhofer. 

Merle  d'Aubigne  (professor  of  Church  history  at  Geneva,  d.  1872)  :  His- 
toire de  la  Reformation  du  16  siecle.  Paris,  1838  sqq.  Histoire  de  la 
Reformation  an  temps  du  Calvin.  Paris,  1863-78.  Both  works  were 
translated  and  published  in  England  and  America,  in  various  edi- 
tions. 

Trechsel  (Friedr.,  1805-1885)  :  Beitrage  zur  Geschichte  der  Schweiz.  Refor- 
mirten  Kirche,  zuncichst  derjenigen  des  Cantons  Bern.  Bern,  1841,  '42, 
4  Hefte. 

Gieseler  (d.  1854)  :  Ch.  History.  Germ.  ed.  III.  A.  128  sqq.j  277  sqq.  Am. 
ed.  vol.  IV.  75-99,  209-217.  His  account  is  very  valuable  for  the  extracts 
from  the  sources. 

Baur  (d.  at  Tubingen,  1860)  :  Kirchengeschichte.  Bd.  IV.  80-96.  Post- 
humous, Tubingen,  1863. 

Hagenbach  (Karl  Rud.,  professor  of  Church  history  at  Basel,  d.  1874)  : 
Geschichte  der  Reformation,  1517-1555.  Leipzig,  1834,  4th  ed.  1870 
(vol.  III.  of  his  general  Kirchengeschichte).  Fifth  ed.,  with  a  literary  and 
critical  appendix,  by  Dr.  F.  Nippold,  Leipzig,  1887.  English  translation 
by  Miss  E.  Moore,  Edinburgh  and  New  York,  1878,  '79,  2  vols. 


§  4.     LITERATURE    ON    THE    SWISS    REFORMATION.         15 

Chastel  (Etienne,  professor  of  Church  history  in  the  University  of  Geneva, 
d.  1885)  :  Histoire  du  Clirlstianisme,  Tom.  IV.:  Age  Moderne  (p.  66  sqq.). 
Paris,  1882. 

Bernek  Beitrage  zur  Gesckichte  der  Schweizerischen  Reformationskirchen.  Von 
BiLLETER,  Flijckiger,  Hubler,  Kasser,  Marthaler,  Strasser.  Mit 
weiteren  Beitragen  vermehrt  und  herausgegeben  von  Fr.  Nippold.  Bern, 
1884.     (Pages  454.) 

On  the  Confessions  of  the  Swiss  Reformation  see  Schafp  :  Creeds  of  Christen- 
dom, New  York,  4th  ed.  1884,  vol.  I.  354  sqq. 

Biographies  of  Z%yiNGLi,  O^colampadius,  Leo  Jud^,  Bullinger,  Haller, 
etc.,  will  be  noticed  in  the  appropriate  sections. 

III.    General  Histories  of  Savitzerland,  as  far  as  they  touch  upon  the 
Reformation. 

Muller  (Joh.  von,  the  classical  historian  of  Switzerland,  d.  1809)  :  Gesckichte 
der  Schweizerischen  Eidgenossenschaft,  fortgesetzt  von  Glutz-Blotzheim  (d. 
1818)  und  Joh.  Jac.  Hottinger.  Vols.  V.  and  VII.  of  the  whole  work. 
A  masterpiece  of  genius  and  learning,  but  superseded  in  its  earlier  part, 
where  he  follows  Tschudi,  and  accepts  the  legendary  tales  of  Tell  and 
Griitli.  The  Reformation  history  is  by  Hottinger  (b.  1783,  d.  1860), 
and  was  published  also  under  the  title  Gesch.  der  Eidgenossen  icdhrend  der 
Zeit  der  Kirchentrennung.  Zurich,  1825  and  '29,  2  vols.  It  was  continued 
by  VcLLiEMiN  in  his  Histoire  de  la  confe'd€ration  Suisse  dans  les  XVI"  et 
XVIP  siecles.  Paris  and  Lausanne,  1841  and  '42.  3  vols.  The  first  of 
these  three  volumes  relates  to  the  Reformation  in  French  Switzerland, 
which  was  omitted  in  the  German  work  of  Hottinger,  but  was  afterwards 
translated  into  German  by  others,  and  incorporated  into  the  German 
edition  (Ziirich,  1786-1853,  15  vols. ;  the  Reformation  period  in  vols. 
VI.-X.).  There  is  also  a  complete  French  edition  of  the  entire  History 
of  Switzerland  by  Joh.  von  MiIller,  Glutz-Blotzheim,  Hottinger, 
VuLLiEMiN,  and  Monnard  (Paris  et  Geneve,  1837-'51,  18  vols.  Three 
vols,  from  VuUiemin,  five  from  Monnard,  and  the  rest  translated). 

Other  general  Histories  of  Switzerland  by  Zschokke  (1822,  8th  ed.  1849; 
Engl,  transl.  by  Shaw,  1848,  new  ed.  1875),  Meyer  von  Knonau  (2  vols.), 
VoGELiN  (6  vols.),  MoRiN,  ZELLWEGER,  VuLHEMiN  (German  ed.  1882), 
Dandliker  (Ziirich,  1883  sqq.,  3  vols.,  illustr.),  Mrs.  Hug  and  Rich.  Stead 
(London,  1890),  and  Dierauer  (Gotha,  1887  sqq.;  second  vol.,  1892). 

Bluntschli  (J.  C,  a  native  of  Ziirich,  professor  of  jurisprudence  and  inter- 
national law  at  Heidelberg,  d.  1881)  :  Geschichte  des  Schweizerischen 
Bundesrechts  von  den  ersten  ewigen  Biinden  bis  aiif  die  Gegenwart.  Stutt- 
gart, 2d  ed.  1875.  2  vols.  Important  for  the  relation  of  Church  and 
State  in  the  period  of  the  Reformation  (vol.  I.  292  sqq.).  L.  R.  von 
Salis  :  Schweizerisches  Bundesrechtseit  dem  29.  Mai  1874.  Bern,  1892. 
8  vols,  (also  in  French  and  Italian).  Comp.  the  bibliographical  notices 
of  RuD.  Stahelin  on  the  literature  of  the  Swiss  Reformation  from  1875- 
1882,  in  Brieger's  "  Zeitschrift  f iir  Kircheugeschichte,"  vol.  III.  547-585, 
and  vol.  VI.  429-477. 


JK^il^   cv^^lo  PEK  DOGMATA  SAi^CTA  SAD-TTM 
TSvi'o    PA7R\X-a^SVSAB  EMSE  CADO 


H.  ZwiNGLi.     From  the  original  oil-painting  of  Hans  Asper,  in  the  City- 
Library  of  Zurich.     Reproduced  from  a  photograph  of  J.  Ganz. 


16 


CHAPTER   II. 
ZWINGLI'S   TRAINING. 

§  5.    The  Ztvingli  Literature. 

The  general  literature  in  §  4,  especially  BuUinger's  History  and  Egli's 
Collection.  The  public  libraries  and  archives  in  Zlirich  contain  the  various 
editions  of  Zwingli's  wrorks,  and  the  remains  of  his  own  library  with  marginal 
notes,  which  were  exhibited  in  connection  with  the  Zwingli  celebration  in  1884. 
See  Zwingli- Ausstellung  verunstaltet  von  der  Stadtbibliothek  in  Zurich  in  Verbindung 
mit  dem  Staatsarchiv  und  der  Cantonalbibliothek.  Ziirich,  1884.  A  pamphlet  of 
24  pages,  with  a  descriptive  catalogue  of  Zwingli's  books  and  remains.  The 
annotations  furnish  fragmentary  material  for  a  knowledge  of  his  theological 
growth.     See  Usteri's  Initia  Zwingli,  quoted  below. 

I.    Sources  : 

HuLDREiCH  Zwingli  :  Opera  omnia,  ed.  Melchior  Schuler  (d.  1859)  and 
JoH.  ScHULTHESS  (d.  1836).  Tiguri,  1828-'42.  8  vols.  Vols.  I.  and  II., 
the  German  writings ;  III.- VI.,  Scripta  Latina ;  VII.  and  VIII.,  Epistolae. 
A  supplement  of  75  pages  was  ed.  by  G.  Schulthess  (d.  1866)  and 
Marthaler  in  1861,  and  contains  letters  of  Zwingli  to  Rhenanus  and 
others.  A  new  critical  edition  is  much  needed  and  contemplated  for  the 
"  Corpus  Reformatorum  "  by  a  commission  of  Swiss  scholars.  Zwingli's 
Correspond,  in  Herminjard,  vols.  I.  and  II. 

The  first  edition  of  Zwingli's  Works  appeared  at  Ziirich,  1545,  in  4  vols. 
UsTERi  and  Vogelin:  3/.  H.  Zwingli's  Schriften  im  Auszicge,  Ziirich, 
1819  and  '20,  2  vols.  (A  systematic  exhibition  of  Zwingli's  teaching  in 
modern  German.)  Another  translation  of  select  works  into  modern  Ger- 
man by  R.  Christoffel,  Ziir.,  1843,  9  small  vols. 

Comp.  also  Paul  Schweizer  (Staatsarchivar  in  Zurich,  son  of  Dr.  Alexander 
Schweizer)  :  Zwingli-Autographen  im  Staats-Archiv  zu  Ziirich.  1885.  (23 
pages ;  separately  publ.  from  the  "  Theol.  Zeitschrift  aus  der  Schweiz.") 

JoANNis  GEcoLAMPADii  et  HuLDRiCHi  ZwiNGLii  Epistolarum  libri  IV.  Basil. 
1536. 

Herminjard  (A.  L.)  :  Correspondance  des  Reyormateurs.  Geneve,  1866  sqq. 
Letters  of  Zwingli  in  vol.  I.  Nos.  82  and  146  (and  eight  letters  to  him, 
Nos.  17,  19,  32,  etc.),  and  in  vol.  II.  No.  191  (and  nine  letters  to  him). 

Briefwecksel  des  Beatus  Rhenanus.  Gesammelt  u.  herausgeg.  von  Dr.  Adelbert 
HORAWiTZ  nnd  Dr.  Karl  Hartfelder.  Leipzig,  1886.  Contains  also 
the  correspondence  between  Rhenanus  and  Zwingli.     See  Index,  p.  700. 

17 


18  THE   SWISS   EEFOEMATION. 

II.  Biographies  of  Zwingli,  including  Short  Sketches  : 

Oswald  Myconius:  De  Vita  et  Obitu  Zw.,  1536.  Republ.  in  Vitce  quatuor 
Reformatorum,  with  Preface  by  Neander,  1840.  Nuscheler,  Ziirich,  1776. 
J.  Caspar  Hess:  Vie  d'Ulrich  Zwingle,  Geneva.,  1810;  German  ed.  more 
than  doubled  by  a  literary  appendix  of  372  pages,  by  Leonh.  Usteri, 
Ziirich,  1811,  2  vols.  (Engl,  transl.  from  the  French  by  Aiken,  Lond., 
1812).  RoTERMUND,  Bremen,  1818.  J.  M.  Schuler:  H.  Zw.  Gesch. 
seiner  Bildung  sum  Reformator  seines  Vaterlandes.  Ziir.,  1818,  2d  ed.  1819. 
HoRNEK,  Ziir.,  1818.  L.  Usteri,  in  the  Appendix  to  his  ed.  of  Zwingli's 
German  works,  Ziir.,  1819.  Several  sketches  of  Zwingli  appeared  in 
connection  with  the  celebration  of  the  Ziirich  Reformation  in  1819,  espe- 
cially in  the  festal  oration  of  J.  J.  Hess  :  Emendationis  sacrorum  benejicium, 
Turici,  1819.  J.  J.  Hottinger,  Ziir.,  1842  (translation  by  Th.  C.  Porter  : 
Life  and  Times  ofU.  Z.,  Harrisburg,  Penn.,  1857,  421  pages).  Robbins,  in 
"Bibliotheca  Sacra,"  Andover,  Mass.,  1851.  L.  Mayer,  in  his  "History 
of  the  German  Ref.  Church,"  vol.  I.,  Philadelpliia,  1851.  Dan.  Wise, 
Boston,  1850  and  1882.  Roeder,  St.  Gallen  and,  Bern,  1855.  R.  Chris- 
TOFFEL,  Elberfeld,  1857  (Engl,  transl.  by  John  Cochran,  Edinb.,  1858). 
Salomon  VOgelin  :  Erinnerunyen  an  Zw.  Ziir.,  1865.  W.  M.  Blackburn, 
Philad.,  1868.  *  J.  C.  Morikofer,  Leipzig,  1867  and  'G9,  2  vols.  The  best 
biography  from  the  sources.  Dr.  Volkmar :  Vortrag,  Ziir.,  1870  (30  pages). 
G.  FiNSLER  :  U.  Zw.,  3  Vortrdge,  Zur.,  1873.  G.  A.  Hoff  :  Vie  d'Ulr.  Zw., 
Paris,  1882  (pp.  305).  Jean  Grob,  Milwaukee,  Wis.,  1883,  190  pages 
(Engl,  transl.,  N.  York,  1884).  Ch.  Alphonse  Witz  :  Ulrich  Zwingli, 
Vortrage,  Gotha,  1884  (pp.  144).  GiJDER,  in  "  Herzog's  Encycl.,"  XVIII. 
701-706;  revised  by  R.  Stahelin  in  second  ed.,  XVII.,  584-635.  E. 
Combe:  U.  Z.;  le  reformateur  sttisse.  Lausanne,  1884  (pp.  40).  H. 
RoRiCH  :  U.  Z.  Notice  biographique,  Geneve,  1884  (pp.  40).  J.  G.  Hardy  : 
U.  Zwingli,  or  Zurich  and  its  Reformer.     Edinb.,  1888. 

III.  On  Zwingli's  Wife  : 

Salomon  Hess  :  Aniia  Reinhard,  Gattin  und  Wittive  von  U.  Zwingli.  Ziirich, 
2d  ed.  1820.  (Some  truth  and  much  fiction.)  Gerold  Mey'er  von 
Knonau  :  Ziige  aus  dem  Leben  der  A7ina  Reinhard.  Erlangen,  1835. 
(Reliable.) 

IV.  Commemorative  Addresses   of  1884  at   the   Fourth  Centennial 

OF  Zwingli's  Birth  : 

Comp.  the  list  in  the  Zuricher  Taschenbuch  auf  das  Jahr  1885,  pp.  265-268 ; 

and  Flaigg,  in  Theol.  Zeitschrift  aus  der  Schweiz,  1885,  pp.  219  sqq.     Some  of 

the  biographies  mentioned  sub  II.   are  commemorative  addresses. 

*  Alex.  Schweizer  (d.  1888)  :  Zwingli's  Bedeutung  neben  Luther.     Festrede  in 

der  Universitdtsaula,  Jan.  6,  1884,  weiter  ausgefuhrt.     Zur.,  1884  (pp.  89). 

Also  a  series  of  articles  of  Schweizer  in  the  "  Protestant.  Kirchenzeitung," 

Berlin,  1883,  Nos.  16, 17, 18,  2.3,  24,  26,  27,  in  defence  of  Zwingli  against  the 

charges  of  Janssen.    Joh.  Martin  Usteri  (pastor  at  Affoltern,  then  Prof. 

at  Erlangen,  d.  1889):    Ulrich  Zwingli,  ein  Martin  Luther  ebenbiirtiger  [?] 


§  5.     THE   ZWINGLI   LITERATURE.  19 

Zeuge  des  evaiig.  Glaubens.  Festschrift  mit  Vorrede  von  H.  v.  dvr  Goltz. 
Zurich,  1883  (144  pp.)  ;  Zwingli  und  Erasmus,  Zurich,  1885  (39  pp.)  ; 
Initia  Zwmglii,  in  the  "  Studicn  und  Kritiken"  for  1885  (pp.  607-672), 
1886  (pp.  673-737),  and  1889  (pp.  140  and  141).  Rud.  Stahelin:  Hul- 
dreich  Zwingli  und  sein  Reformationswerk.  Zum  vierhundertjdhrigen  Geburt- 
stag  Z.'s  dargestellt.  Halle,  1883  (pages  81).  Ernst  Stahelin:  H.  Z.'s 
Predigt  an  unser  Schweizervolk  und  unsere  Zeit.  Basel,  1884.  Ernst  Mul- 
ler:  Ulrich  Zw.  Ein  Bemischer  Beitrag  zur  Zwinglifeier.  Bern,  1884. 
E.  DiETZ  :  Vie  d'U.  Z.  a  V occasion  du  400°  anniversaire  de  sa  naissunce. 
Paris  and  Strasbourg,  1884  (pp.  48).  Herm.  Sporri  :  Durch  Gottes  Gnude 
allein.  Zur  Feier  des  400  jdiir.  Geb.  tages  Ziv.'s.  Hamburg,  1884.  JoH.  G. 
Dreydorff:  U.  Zw.  Festpredigt.  Leipzig,  1884.  Sal.  Vogelin:  U.  Z. 
Ziir.,  1884.  G.  Finsler  (Zwingli's  twenty-second  successor  as  Antistes 
in  Ziirich)  :  Ulrich  Zw.  Festschrift  zur  Feier  seines  400  jahr.  Geburtstags. 
Ziir.,  3d  ed.  1884  (transl.  into  Romansch  by  Darms,  Coire,  1884).  Finsler 
and  Meyer  von  Knonau  :  Festvortrage  bei  der  Feier  des  400  jiihr.  Geburts- 
tags U.  Z.  Ziir.,  1884  (pp.  24).  Finsler  delivered  also  the  chief  address 
at  the  unveiling  of  Zwingli's  monument,  Aug.  25,  1885.  .CEchsli:  Zur 
Zwingli-Feier.  Ziir.,  1884.  Die  Zwinglifeier  in  Bern,  Jan.  6,  1884.  Several 
addresses,  80  pages.  Alfred  Krauss  (professor  in  Strassburg) :  Zwingli. 
Strassb.,  1884  (pp.  19).  Aug.  Bouvier:  Foi,  Culture  et  Patriotisme. 
Deux  discours  a  I'occasion  du  quatrieme  centenaire  de  Ulrich  Zivingli.  Geneve 
and  Paris,  1884.  (In  "Nouvelles  Paroles  de  Foi  et  de  Liberte',''  and 
separately.)  W.  Gamper  (Reform,  minister  at  Dresden)  :  U.  Z.  Fest- 
predigt zur  400  Jcihr.  Gedenkfeier  seines  Geburtstages.  Dresden,  1884. 
G.  K.  von  Toggenbdrg  (pseudonymous  R.  Cath.)  :  Die  wahre  Union  und 
die  Zwinglifeier.  St.  Gallen  and  Leipzig,  1884  (pp.  190).  Zwingliana,  in 
the  "  Theol.  Zeitschrift  aus  der  Schweiz."  Ziir.,  1884,  No.  II.  Kappeler, 
Grob  und  Egg:  Zur  Erinnerung.  Drei  Reden  gehalten  in  Kappel,  Jan.  6, 
1884.  Affoltern  a.  A.  1884  (pp.  27).  —  In  America  also  several  addresses 
were  delivered  and  published  in  connection  witli  the  Zwingli  commem- 
oration in  1883  and  '84.  Besides,  some  books  of  Zwingli's  were  repub- 
lished ;  e.g.  the  Hirt  (Shepherd)  by  Riggenbach  (Basel,  1884)  ;  the 
Lehrbiichlein,  Latin  and  German,  by  E.  Egli  (Ziir.,  1884). 

V.    On  the  Theology  of  Zwingli  : 
Edw.   Zeller  (professor  of  philosophy  in  Berlin)  :  Das  theologische  System 

Zwingli's.     Tiibingen,  1853. 
Ch.   Sigwart  :    Ulrich  Zwingli.     Der  Charakter  seiner  Theologie  mit  besonderer 

Riicksicht  auf  Picus  von  Mirandola  dargestellt.     Stuttg.  und  Hamb.,  1855. 
IIerm.    Sporri   (Ref.  pastor  in  Hamburg)  :    Zwingli- Stndien.      Leipzig,  1886 

(pp.  131).     Discussions  on  Zwingli's  doctrine  of  the  Church,  the  Bible, 

his  relation  to  humanism  and  Christian  art. 
*  August  Baur  (D.D.,  a  Wiirtemberg  pastor  in  Weilimdorf  near  Stuttgart)  : 

Zwingli's   Theologie,  ihr  Werden  und  ihr  Si/stem.     Halle,  vol.  I.  1885  (pp. 

543)  ;  vol.  II.  P.  L,  1888  (pp.  400),  P.  II.,  1889.    This  work  does  for  Zwingli 

what  Jul.  Kostlin  did  for  Luther  and  A.  Herrlinger  for  Melanchthon. 


20  THE    SWISS    REFORMATION. 

Alex.  Schweizer,  in  his  Fesirede,  treats  more  briefly,  but  very  ably,  of 
Zwingli's  theological  opinions  (pp.  60-88). 

VI.    Relation  of  Zwingli  to  Luther  and  Calvin: 

Merle  d'Aubigne  :  Le  Lutheranisme  et  la  Reforme.  Paris,  1844.  Engl,  trans- 
lation :  Luther  and  Calvin.     N.  York,  1845. 

Hundeshagen  :  Charakterislik  U.  Zwinglfs  und  seines  Reformationswerks  unier 
Vergleichung  mit  Luther  und  Calvin,  in  the  "  Studien  und  Kritiken,"  1862. 
Compare  also  his  Beitrdge  zur  Kirchenverfassungsgeschichte  und  Kirchen- 
politik,  Bd.  I.  Wiesbaden,  1864,  pp.  136-297.  (Important  for  Zwingli's 
church  polity.) 

G.  Plitt  (Lutheran)  :  Gesch.  der  ev.  Kirche  his  zuni  A'lgsburger  Reichstage. 
Erlangen,  1867,  pp.  417-488. 

A.  F.  C.  ViLMAR  (Luth.)  :  Luther,  Melanchthon,  Zwingli.     Frankf.-a.-M.,  1869. 

G.  Uhlhorn  (Luth.)  :    Luther  and  the  Swiss,  translated  by  G.  F.   Krotel, 

Philadelphia,  1876. 
Zwingli  Wirth  (Reformed)  :  Luther  und  Zwingli.     St.  Gallen,  1884  (pp.  37). 

VII.    Special  Points  in  Zwingli's  History  and  Theology  : 
Kradolfer  :  Zwingli  in  Marburg.     Berlin,  1870. 

Fmil   Egli  :   Die  Schlacht  von  Cappel  1531.     Mit  2  Pldnen  und  einem  Anhang 

ungedruckter  Quellen.     Ziir.,  1873  (pp.  88).       By  the  same:  Das  Religions- 

gesprdch  zu  Marburg.     Ziir.,  1884.      In  the   "  Theol.  Zeitschrift  aiis  der 

Schweiz." 
Martin   Lenz  :    Zwingli  und  Landgraf  Philipp,  in  Brieger's  "  Zeitschrift  f iir 

Kirchengeschichte"  for  1879  (Bd.  III.). 
H.  Bavinck  :   De  ethick  ran  U.  Zwingli.     Kampen,  1880. 
Jul.  Werder  :  Zwingli  als  politischer  Re/ormator,  in  the  "Easier  Beitrage  zur 

vaterljind.  Geschichte,"  Basel,  1882,  pp.  263-290. 
Herm.   Escher  :    Die    Glaubensparteien   in   der   Schweiz.  Eidgenossenschaft  und 

ihre  Beziehungen  zum  Auslande  von  1527-31.      Frauenfeld,  1882.      (pp. 

326.)     Important  for  Zwingli's  Swiss  and  foreign  policy,  and  his  views 

on  the  relation  of  Church  and  State. 
W.  Oechsli  :  Die  Anfdnge  des  Glauhenskonjliktes  zwischen  Zurich  und  den  Eidge- 

nossen.     Winterthur,  1883  (pp.  42). 
Marthaler  :  Zw.'s  Lehre  vom  Glauhen.     Ziir.,  1884. 
Aug.  Baur:  Die  erste  Ziiricher  Disputation.     Halle,  1883  (pp.  32). 
A.  Erichson  ;  Zwingli's  Tod  und  dessen  Beurtheilung  durch  Zeitgenossen,  Strassb., 

1883   (pp.  43)  ;   U.  Zw.  und  die  elsdssischen  Reformatoren,  Strassb.,  1884 

(pp.  40). 
Fluckiger  :  Zwingli's  Beziehungen  zu  Bern,  in  the  "Berner  Beitrage."     Bern, 

1884. 
J.  Mart.  Usteri  :  Initia  Zwinglii,  and  Zw.  and  Erasmus.     See  above,  p.  18. 
H.  Fenner:  Zw.  als  Patriot  und  Politiker.     Frauenfeld,  1884  (pp.  38). 


§  6.     ZWINGLI'S    BIRTH    AND    EDUCATIOX.  21 

G.  Heee:    U.  Zw.  ah  Pfarrer  von  Glarus,     Zurich,  1884  (pp.  42). 
Gust.  Weber  (musical  director  and  organist  of  tiie  Grossmiinster  in  Ziirich)  : 
H.  Zivingli.     Seine  Stellung  zur  Miisik  unci  seine  Lieder.    Ziirich  and  Leipzig, 
1884  (pp.  68). 
A.  Zahn  :  Zwingli's  Verdienste  um  die  biblische  Abend mahlslehre.    Stuttgart,  1884. 
G.  WuNDERLi:  Ziirich  in  der  Periode  1519-31.     Ziirich,  1888. 
On  Zwingli  and  the  Anabaptists,  see  the  literature  in  §  24. 

VIII.  In  part  also  the  biographies  of  fficoLAMPADius,  Bullinger,  Leo 
JuDiE,  Haller,  etc. 

The  best  books  on  Zwingli  are  Miirikofer's  biography,  Usteri  on  tlie  educa- 
tion of  Zwingli,  Baur  on  his  theology,  Escher  and  Oechsli  on  his  state  and 
church  polity,  and  Schweizer  and  R.  Stalielin  on  his  general  character  and 
position  in  history. 

§  6.    ZwiyiglCs  Birth  and  Education. 

Franz  :  Zwingli's  Geburtsort.  Beitrag  zur  reformator.  Jubelfeier  1819.  (The 
author  was  pastor  of  Wildhaus.)  St.  Gallen,  1818.  Schuler  :  Huldreich 
Zwingli.  Geschichte  seiner  Bildung  zum  Beformator  desVaterlandes.  Ziirich, 
1819.  (404  pp.  Very  full,  but  somewhat  too  partial,  and  needing  correc- 
tion.) 

Huldreich  or  Ulrich  Zwingli  i  was  born  January  1, 
1484,  seven  weeks  after  Luther,  in  a  lowly  shepherd's  cot- 
tage at  Wildhaus  in  the  county  of  Toggenburg,  now  belong- 
ing to  the  Canton  St.  Gall. 

He  was  descended  from  the  leading  family  in  this  retired 
village.  His  father,  like  his  grandfather,  was  the  chief 
magistrate  (^Aminann^  ;  his  mother,  the  sister  of  a  priest 
(John  Meili,  afterwards  abbot  of  Fischingen,  in  Thurgau, 
1510-1523) ;  his  uncle,  on  the  father's  side,  dean  of  the 
chapter  at  Wesen  on  the  wild  lake  of  Wallenstadt.  He  had 
seven  brothers  (he  being  the  third  son)  and  two  sisters. 

The  village  of  Wildhaus  is  the  highest  in  the  valley,  sur- 
rounded by  Alpine  meadows  and  the  lofty  mountain  scenery 
of  Northeastern  Switzerland,  in  full  view  of  the  seven  Chur- 
firsten  and  the  snow-capped  Sentis.  The  principal  industry 
of  the  inhabitants  was  raising  flocks.     They  are  described  as 

^  The  name  is  often  misspelled  Zwingel  (by  Luther),  or  Zwingle  (by  English 
and  American  writers). 


22 


THE    SWISS    REFOKMATIOX. 


a  cheerful,  fresh  and  energetic  people ;  and  these  traits  we 
find  in  Zwingli.^  The  Reformation  was  introduced  there  in 
1523.  Not  very  far  distant  are  the  places  where  Zwingli 
spent  his  public  life,  —  Glarus,  Einsiedeln,  and  Zurich. 


The  House  wheke  Zwingli  was  born  at  Wildhaus  in  Toggenburg. 
(From  Schuler's  H.  Zwingli.') 

Zwingli  was  educated  in  the  Catholic  religion  by  his  God- 
fearing parents,  and  by  his  uncle,  the  dean  of  Wesen,  who 
favored  the  new  humanistic  learning.  He  grew  up  a  healthy, 
vigorous  boy.  He  had  at  a  very  early  age  a  tender  sense 
of  veracity  as  "the  mother  of  all  virtues,"  and,  like  young 
Washington,  he  would  never  tell  a  lie. 

When  ten  years  of  age  he  was  sent  from  Wesen  to  a  Latin 
school  at  Basle,  and  soon  excelled  in  the  three  chief  branches 
taught  there,  —  Latin  grammar,  music  and  dialectics. 

1  Morikof er  (I.  4)  :  "  Zwingli  erinnert  in  seinem  Wesen  immer  ivieder  an  seine 
hohe,  helle  Heimath ;  ivir  hahen  stets  den  in  frisclier  Berghtfl  gestarkten  und  ge- 
sliihlten  Alpensohn  vor  wis." 


§  6.     ZWINGLI'S    BIRTH   AND    EDUCATION.  28 

In  1498  he  entered  a  college  at  Berne  under  the  charge 
of  Heinrich  Wolflin  (Liipulus),  who  Avas  reputed  to  be  the 
best  classical  scholar  and  Latin  poet  in  S\vitzerland,  and 
followed  the  reform  movement  in  1522.^ 

From  1500  to  1502  he  studied  in  the  University  of  Vienna, 
which  had  become  a  centre  of  classical  learning  by  the  labors 
of  distinguished  humanists,  Corvinus,  Celtes,  and  Cuspinian, 
under  the  patronage  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian  I.^  He  stud- 
ied scholastic  philosophy,  astronomy,  and  physics,  but  chiefly 
the  ancient  classics.  He  became  an  enthusiast  for  the  human- 
ities. He  also  cultivated  his  talent  for  music.  He  played 
on  several  instruments  —  the  lute,  harp,  violin,  flute,  dulci- 
mer, and  hunting-horn — with  considerable  skill.  His  papal 
opponents  sneeringly  called  him  afterwards  "the  evangelical 
lute-player,  piper,  and  whistler."  He  regarded  this  innocent 
amusement  as  a  means  to  refresh  the  mind  and  to  soften 
the  temper.  In  his  poetical  and  musical  taste  he  resembles 
Luther,  without  reaching  his  eminence. 

In  1502  he  returned  to  Basle,  taught  Latin  in  the  school 
of  St.  Martin,  pursued  his  classical  studies,  and  acquired 
the  degree  of  master  of  arts  in  1506 ;  hence  he  was  usually 
called  Master  Ulrich.  He  never  became  a  doctor  of  divinity, 
like  Luther.  In  Basle  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Leo 
Jud  (Judse,  also  called  Master  Leu),  who  was  graduated 
with  him  and  became  his  chief  co-laborer  in  Zurich.  Both 
attended  with  much  benefit  the  lectures  of  Thomas  Wytten- 
bach,  professor  of  theology  since  1505.  Zwingli  calls  him  his 
beloved  and  faithful  teacher,  who  opened  his  eyes  to  several 
abuses  of  the  Church,  especially  the  indulgences,  and  taught 

^  Lupulus  was  deposed  from  his  canonry  for  marrying  in  1524,  but  rein- 
stated after  the  introduction  of  the  Reformation.  "  Dass  Lnpidus  eine  unehe- 
liche  Tochter  hatte  (before  his  marriage),  wurde  ihm  leicht  rcrziehen."  Mcirikofer, 
I.  7.     He  lamented  Zwingli's  early  death  in  a  Latin  epitaph  in  verse. 

2  There  is  no  evidence  that  he  became  acquainted  in  Vienna  with  Eck  and 
Faber,  the  famous  champions  of  popery,  nor  with  his  friends  Glareanus  and 
Vadianus.     See  Horawitz,  Der  Humanismus  in  Wien,  1883, 


24  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

liim  "  not  to  rely  on  the  keys  of  the  Church,  but  to  seek  the 
remission  of  sins  alone  in  the  death  of  Christ,  and  to  open 
access  to  it  by  the  key  of  faith."  ^  ' 

§  7.    Zivingli  m  Grlarus. 

G.  Heer  :    Ulrich  Zwingli  als  Pfarrer  in  Glartis.     Zurich,  1884. 

Zwingli  was  ordained  to  the  priesthood  by  the  bishop  of 
Constance,  and  appointed  pastor  of  Glarus,  the  capital  of  the 
canton  of  the  same  name.^  He  had  to  pay  over  one  hundred 
guilders  to  buy  off  a  rival  candidate  (Goldli  of  Zurich)  who 
was  favored  by  the  Pope,  and  compensated  by  a  papal  pen- 
sion. He  preached  his  first  sermon  in  Rapperschwyl,  and 
read  his  first  mass  at  Wildhaus.  He  labored  at  Glarus  ten 
years,  from  1506  to  1516.  His  time  was  occupied  by  preach- 
ing, teaching,  pastoral  duties,  and  systematic  study.  He 
began  to  learn  the  Greek  language  "  Avithout  a  teacher,"  ^ 
that  he  might  study  the  New  Testament  in  the  original.^ 
He  acquired  considerable  facility  in  Greek.  The  Hebrew 
language  he  studied  at  a  later  period  in  Zurich,  but  Avith 
less  zeal  and  success.  He  read  with  great  enthusiasm  the 
ancient  Greek  and  Roman  philosophers,  poets,  orators,  and 
historians.  He  speaks  in  terms  of  admiration  of  Homer, 
Pindar,  Demosthenes,  Cicero,  Livy,  Csesar,  Seneca,  Pliny, 
Tacitus,  Plutarch.  He  committed  Valerius  Maximus  to 
memory  for  the  historical  examples.      He  wrote  comments 

1  Werke,  I.  A.  254 ;  Opera,  III.  544.  Leo  Jud^e,  in  the  preface  to  Zwingli's 
Annotations  to  the  N.  T.,  reports  that  Zwingli  and  he  derived  from  Wytten- 
bach's  lectures  in  1505  "  quidquid  nobis  fiiit  solidce  eruditionis." 

2  The  church  in  which  he  preached  is  jointly  occupied  by  the  Roman 
Catholics  and  the  Protestants,  the  community  being  divided.  The  old  church 
burnt  down  in  1861,  but  a  new  and  better  one  was  built  on  the  same  spot. 

^  "Absque  duce,"  says  Myconius,  in  a  letter  to  Zwingli,  Oct.  28,  1518.  Opera, 
VII.  51,  52. 

*  Zwingli  wrote  to  Joachim  Watt  from  Glarus,  Feb.  23,  1513  (Opera,  VII. 
9)  :  "  Ita  enim  Greeds  studere  destinavi  ut  qui  me  prceter  Deum  amoveat,  nesciam, 
non  glorice  (jquam.  nullis  in  rebus  qucerere  honeste  possetn^  sed  sacratissimarum 
literarum  ergo." 


§  7.     ZWINGLI   IN    GLARUS.  25 

on  Lucian.  He  perceived,  like  Justin  Martyr,  the  Alexan- 
drian Fathers,  and  Erasmus,  in  the  lofty  ideas  of  the  heathen 
philosophers  and  poets,  the  working  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  Avhich 
he  thought  extended  beyond  Palestine  throughout  the  world. 
He  also  studied  the  writings  of  Picus  della  Mirandola  (d. 
1494),  which  influenced  his  views  on  providence  and  pre- 
destination. 

During  his  residence  in  Glarus  he  was  brought  into  corre- 
spondence with  Erasmus  through  his  friend  Loreti  of  Glarus, 
called  Glareanus,  a  learned  humanist  and  poet-laureate,  who 
at  that  time  resided  in  Basle,  and  belonged  to  the  court  of 
admirers  of  the  famous  scholar.  He  paid  him  also  a  visit 
in  the  spring  of  1515,  and  found  him  a  man  in  the  prime  of 
life,  small  and  delicate,  but  amiable  and  very  polite.  He 
addressed  him  as  "  the  greatest  philosopher  and  theologian ; " 
he  praises  his  "boundless  learning,"  and  says  that  he  read 
his  books  every  night  before  going  to  sleep.  Erasmus  re- 
turned the  compliments  with  more  moderation,  and  speaks 
of  Zwingli's  previoue  letter  as  being  "  full  of  wit  and  learned 
acumen."  In  1522  Zwingli  invited  him  to  settle  in  Zurich; 
but  Erasmus  declined  it,  preferring  to  be  a  cosmopolite. 
We  have  only  one  letter  of  Zwingli  to  Erasmus,  but  six  of 
Erasmus  to  Zwingli.^  The  influence  of  the  great  scholar  on 
Zwingli  was  emancipating  and  illuminating.  Zwingli,  al- 
though not  exactly  his  pupil,  was  no  doubt  confirmed  by 
him  in  his  high  estimate  of  the  heathen  classics,  his  opposi- 
tion to  ecclesiastical  abuses,  his  devotion  to  the  study  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  may  have  derived  from  him  his  moderate 
view  of  hereditary  sin  and  guilt,  and  the  first  suggestion  of 
the  figurative  interpretation  of  the  words  of  institution  of 
the  Lord's  Supper.^     But  he  dissented  from  the  semi-Pela- 

1  Opera,  vol.  VII.,  pp.  10,  12,  221,  222,  251,  307,  310. 

2  Melanchthon  wrote,  Oct.  12,  1529:  "Cinglius  mihi  confessus  est,  se  ex 
Erasmi  scriptis  primum  hausisse  opinionem  suam  de  coena  Domini."  Corp.  Reforv. 
IV.  970. 


26  THE    SWISS    REFORMATION. 

gianism  of  Erasmus,  and  was  a  firm  believer  in  predestina- 
tion. During  the  progress  of  the  Reformation  they  werp 
gradually  alienated,  although  they  did  not  get  into  a  per- 
sonal controversy.  In  a  letter  of  Sept.  3,  1522,  Erasmus 
gently  warns  Zwingli  to  fight  not  only  bravely,  but  also 
pjnidently,  and  Christ  would  give  him  the  victory .^  He  did 
not  regret  his  early  death.  Glareanus  also  turned  from  him, 
and  remained  in  the  old  Church.  But  Zwingli  never  lost 
respect  for  Erasmus,  and  treated  even  Hutten  with  generous 
kindness  after  Erasmus  had  cast  him  off.^ 

On  his  visit  to  Basle  he  became  acquainted  with  his  biog- 
rapher, Oswald  Myconius,  the  successor  of  (Ecolampadius 
(not  to  be  confounded  with  Frederick  Myconius,  Luther's 
friend). 

Zwingli  took  a  lively  interest  in  public  affairs.  Three 
times  he  accompanied,  according  to  Swiss  custom,  the  re- 
cruits of  his  congregation  as  chaplain  to  Italy,  in  the  service 
of  Popes  Julius  II.  and  Leo  X.,  against  France.  He  wit- 
nessed the  storming  of  Pavia  (1512),^  probably  also  the 
victory  at  Novara  (1513),  and  the  defeat  at  Marignano 
(1515).  He  was  filled  with  admiration  for  the  bravery  of 
his  countrymen,  but  with  indignation  and  grief  at  the  demor- 
alizing effect  of  the  foreign  military  service.  He  openly 
attacked  this  custom,  and  made  himself  many  enemies  among 
the  French  party. 

His  first  book,  "The  Labyrinth,"  is  a  German  poem  against 
the  corruptions  of  the  times,  written  about  1510.^  It  repre- 
sents the  fight  of  Theseus  with  the  Minotaur  and  the  wild 
beasts  in  the  labyrinth  of   the  world,  —  the   one-eyed  lion 

1  "  Tu  pugna,  mi  Zwingli,  non  modo  fortiter,  verum  etiam  prudenter.  Dahit 
Christiis,  lit  pugnes  feliciter."     Opera,  VII.  221. 

2  See  vol.  VI.  202,  427.  On  Zwingli's  relation  to  Erasmus,  sec  Morikofer, 
I.  23  sqq.,  176  sqq.,  and  the  monograph  of  Usteri  quoted  above,  p.  19. 

8  He  gave  a  lively  Latin  narrative  of  the  battle  of  the  Swiss  against  the 
French  in  Pavia  to  his  friend  Vadianus. 

4  Opera  {Deutsche  Schriften),  Tom.  II.  B.  pp.  243-247. 


27 

(Spain),  the  crowned  eagle  (the  emperor),  the  winged  lion 
(Venice),  the  cock  (France),  the  ox  (Switzerland),  the  bear 
(Savoy).  The  Minotaur,  half  man,  half  bull,  represents,  he 
says,  "  the  sins,  the  vices,  the  irreligion,  the  foreign  service 
of  the  Swiss,  which  devour  the  sons  of  the  nation."  His 
second  poetic  work  of  that  time,  "  The  Fable  of  the  Ox,"  i 
is  likewise  a  figurative  attack  upon  the  military  service  by 
which  Switzerland  became  a  slave  of  foreign  powers,  espe- 
cially of  France. 

He  superintended  the  education  of  two  of  his  brothers 
and  several  of  the  noblest  young  men  of  Glarus,  as  ^gidius 
Tschudi  (the  famous  historian),  Valentine  Tschudi,  Heer, 
Nesen,  Elmer,  Brunner,  who  were  devotedly  and  gratefully 
attached  to  him,  and  sought  his  advice  and  comfort,  as  their 
letters  show. 

Zwingli  became  one  of  the  most  prominent  and  influential 
public  men  in  Switzerland  before  he  left  Glarus ;  but  he  was 
then  a  humanist  and  a  patriot  rather  than  a  theologian  and 
a  religious  teacher.  He  was  zealous  for  intellectual  culture 
and  political  reform,  but  shows  no  special  interest  in  the 
spiritual  welfare  of  the  Church.  He  did  not  pass  through  a 
severe  struggle  and  violent  crisis,  like  Luther,  but  by  dili- 
gent seeking  and  searching  he  attained  to  the  knowledge  of 
the  truth.  His  conversion  was  a  gradual  intellectual  process, 
rather  than  a  sudden  breach  with  the  world ;  but,  after  he 
once  had  chosen  the  Scriptures  for  his  guide,  he  easily  shook 
off  the  traditions  of  Rome,  which  never  had  a  very  strong 
hold  upon  him.  That  process  began  at  Glarus,  and  was 
completed  at  Zurich. 

His  moral  character  at  Glarus  and  at  Einsiedeln  was, 
unfortunately,  not  free  from  blemish.  He  lacked  the  grace 
of  continence,  and  fell  with  apparent  ease  into  a  sin  which 

1  Fabelgedicht  vom  Ochsen  und  etUchen  Thieren,  Op.,  II.  B.  257-269.  The  ox 
is  again  tlie  symbol  of  Switzerland.  See  the  comments  of  the  editors,  pp.  262 
sqq. 


28  THE    SWISS    REFORMATION. 

was  SO  common  among  priests,  and  so  easily  overlooked  if 
only  proper  caution  was  observed,  according  to  the  wretched 
maxim,  "/S'i  7ion  caste,  saltern  caute.^^  The  fact  rests  on  his 
own  honest  confession,  and  was  known  to  his  friends,  but 
did  not  injure  his  standing  and  influence ;  for  he  was  in 
high  repute  as  a  priest,  and  even  enjoyed  a  papal  pension. 
He  resolved  to  reform  in  Glarus,  but  relapsed  in  Einsiedeln 
under  the  influence  of  bad  examples,  to  his  deep  humiliation. 
After  his  marriage  in  Zurich,  his  life  was  pure  and  honora- 
ble and  above  the  reproach  of  his  enemies. 

NOTES  ON  ZWINGLI'S  MORAL  CHARACTER. 

Recent  discussions  Iiave  given  undue  prominence  to  the  blot  whicli  rests 
on  Zwingli's  earlier  life,  while  yet  a  priest  in  the  Roman  Church.  Janssen, 
the  ultramontane  historian,  has  not  one  word  of  praise  for  Zwingli,  and 
violates  truth  and  charity  by  charging  him  with  habitual,  promiscuous,  and 
continuous  licentiousness,  not  reflecting  that  he  thereby  casts  upon  the  Roman 
Church  the  reproach  of  inexcusable  laxity  in  discipline.  Zwingli  was  no 
doubt  guilty  of  occasional  transgressions,  but  probably  less  guilty  than  the 
majority  of  Swiss  priests  who  lived  in  open  or  secret  concubinage  at  that 
time  (see  §  2,  p.  6)  ;  yea,  he  stood  so  liigli  in  public  estimation  at  Einsiedeln 
and  Zurich,  that  Pope  Hadrian  VI.,  through  his  Swiss  agent,  offered  him  every 
honor  except  the  papal  chair.  But  we  will  not  excuse  him,  nor  compare  his 
case  (as  some  have  done)  with  that  of  St.  Augustin ;  for  Augustin,  when  he 
lived  in  concubinage,  was  not  a  priest  and  not  even  baptized,  and  he  con- 
fessed his  sin  before  the  whole  world  with  deeper  repentance  than  Zwingli, 
who  rather  made  light  of  it.     The  facts  are  these  :  — 

1)  BuUinger  remarks  (Reformationsgesch.  I.  8)  that  Zwingli  was  suspected 
in  Glarus  of  improper  connection  with  several  women  ("  tceil  er  wegen  einiger 
Weiber  verargwohnt  luar").  BuUinger  was  his  friend  and  successor,  and  would 
not  slander  him;  but  he  judged  mildly  of  a  vice  which  was  so  general  among 
priests  on  account  of  celibacy.  He  himself  was  the  son  of  a  priest,  as  was 
also  Leo  Judae. 

2)  Zwingli,  in  a  confidential  letter  to  Canon  Utinger  at  Zurich,  dated 
Einsiedeln,  Dec.  3,  1518  {Opera,  VII.  54-57),  contradicts  the  rumor  that  he 
had  seduced  the  daughter  of  an  influential  citizen  in  Einsiedeln,  but  admits  his 
unchastity.  This  letter  is  a  very  strange  apology,  and,  as  he  says  himself,  a 
blateratio  rather  than  a  satisfactio.  He  protests,  on  the  one  hand  (what  Janssen 
omits  to  state),  that  he  never  dishonored  a  married  woman  or  a  virgin  or  a 
nun  ("ea  ratio  nobis  perpetuo  fiiit,  nee  alienum  thorum  conscendere,  nee  virginem 
vitiare,  nee  Deo  dicatam  profanare  ")  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  he  speaks  lightly, 
we  may  say  frivolously,  of  his  intercourse  with  the  impure  daughter  of  a 
barber  who  was  already  dishonored,  and  apologizes  for  similar  offences  com- 


§  7.     ZWINGLI    IN    GLARUS.  29 

uiitted  in  Glarus.  This  is  the  worst  feature  in  the  letter,  and  casts  a  dark 
shade  on  his  character  at  that  time.  He  also  refers  (p.  57)  to  the  saying 
of  JEneas  Sylvius  (Pope  Pius  II.)  :  "  Non  est  qui  vigesitnum  annum  excessit,  nee 
virginem  tetigerit."  His  own  superiors  set  him  a  bad  example.  Nevertheless 
he  expresses  regret,  and  applies  to  liimself  the  word,  2  Pet.  2  :  22,  and  says, 
"Christus  per  nos  blasphemcUur." 

3)  Zwingli,  with  ten  other  priests,  petitioned  the  bishop  of  Constance  in 
Latin  (Einsiedeln,  July  2,  1522),  and  the  Swiss  Diet  in  German  (Zurich,  July 
13,  1522),  to  permit  the  free  preaching  of  the  gospel  and  the  marriage  of  the 
clergy.  He  enforces  the  petition  by  an  incidental  confession  of  the  scandalous 
life  of  the  clergy,  including  himself  (  Werke,  I.  39)  :  "Euer  ehrsam  Wysheit  hat 
bisher  gesehen  das  unehrbar  schandlich  Leben,  loelches  wir  leider  bisher  gejuhrt 
haben  (iwjr  woHen  allein  von  uns  selbst  geredet  haben)  mit  Frauen,  damit  wir  mdn- 
niglich  iihel  verdrgert  und  verbosert  haben."  But  this  document  with  eleven 
signatures  (Zwingli's  is  the  last)  is  a  general  confession  of  clerical  immorality 
in  the  past,  and  does  not  justify  Janssen's  inference  that  Zwingli  continued 
such  life  at  that  time.  Janssen  (Ein  zwcites  Wort  an  meine  Kritiker,  p.  47), 
moreover,  mistakes  in  this  petition  the  Swiss  word  raw  (Suhe,  rest)  for  riiwen 
{Reue,  repentance),  and  makes  the  petitioners  say  that  they  felt  "no  repent- 
ance," instead  of  "no  rest."  The  document,  on  the  contrary,  shows  a  decided 
advance  of  moral  sentiment  as  compared  with  the  lame  apology  in  the  letter 
to  Utinger,  and  deeply  deplores  the  state  of  clerical  immorality.  It  is  rather 
creditable  to  the  petitioners  than  otherwise ;  certainly  very  honest. 

4)  In  a  letter  to  his  five  brothers,  Sept.  17,  1522,  to  whom  he  dedicated  a 
sermon  on  "  the  ever  pure  Virgin  Mary,  mother  of  God,"  Zwingli  confesses 
that  he  was  subject  to  Hoffahrt,  Fressen,  Unlauterkeit,  and  other  sins  of  the 
flesh  (  Werke,  I.  86).  This  is  his  latest  confession ;  but  if  we  read  it  in  connec- 
tion with  the  whole  letter,  it  makes  the  impression  that  he  must  have  under- 
gone a  favorable  change  about  that  time,  and  concluded  a  regular,  though 
secret,  connection  with  his  wife.  As  to  temperance,  BuUinger  (I.  305)  gives 
him  the  testimony  that  he  was  "  very  temperate  in  eating  and  drinking." 

5)  Zwingli  was  openly  married  in  April,  1524,  to  Anna  Reinhart,  a  respect- 
able widow,  and  mother  of  several  children,  after  having  lived  with  her  about 
two  years  before  in  secret  marriage.  But  this  fact,  which  Janssen  construes 
into  a  charge  of  "  unchaste  intercourse,"  was  known  to  his  intimate  friends  ; 
for  Myconius,  in  a  letter  of  July  22,  1522,  sends  greetings  to  Zwingli  and  his 
ivife  {"Vale  cum  uxore  quam  felicissime  et  tuis  omnibus,"  Opera,  VII.  210;  and 
again:  'iVale  cum  uxore  in  Christo,"  p.  253).  The  same  is  implied  in  a  letter 
of  Bucer,  April  14,  1524  (p.  335;  comp.  the  note  of  the  editors).  "The 
cases,"  says  Morikofer  (I.  211),  "were  very  frequent  at  that  time,  even  with 
persons  of  high  position,  that  secret  marriages  were  not  ratified  by  a  religious 
ceremony  till  weeks  and  months  afterwards."  Before  the  Council  of  Trent 
secret  marriages  were  legitimate  and  valid.  {Can.  et  Deer.  Cone.  Trid.,  Sess. 
XXIV.,  Deer,  de  reform,  matrimonii.) 

Zwingli's  character  was  unmercifully  attacked  by  Janssen  in  his  Geschichte 
des  deutschen  Volkes,  III.  83  sq. ;  An  meine  Kritiker  (1883),  127-140;  Ein 
ziceites  Wort  an  meine  Kritiker  (1883),  45-48;  defended  as  far  as  truth  permits 


30  THE    SWISS    REFORMATION. 

by  Ebrard,  Janssen  und  die  Reformation  (1882)  ;  Usteri,  Ulrich  Zwingli  (1883), 
34-47 ;  Alex.  Schweizer,  articles  in  the  "  Protest.  Kirchenzeitung,"  Berlin, 
1883,  Nos.  23-27.  Janssen  answered  Ebrard,  but  not  Usteri  and  Schweizer. 
The  main  facts  were  correctly  stated  before  this  controversy  by  Morikofer,  I. 
49-53  and  128),  and  briefly  also  by  Hagenbach,  and  Merle  (bk.  VIII.  eh.  6). 

§  8.    Zivingli  in  Einsiedeln. 

In  1516  Zwingli  left  Glarus  on  account  of  the  intrigues 
of  the  French  political  party,  which  came  into  power  after 
the  victory  of  the  French  at  Marignano  (1515),  and  accepted 
a  call  to  Einsiedeln,  but  kept  his  charge  and  expected  to 
return ;  for  the  congregation  was  much  attached  to  him,  and 
promised  to  build  him  a  new  parsonage.  He  supplied  the 
charge  by  a  vicar,  and  drew  his  salary  for  two  years,  until 
he  was  called  to  Zurich,  when  he  resigned. 

Einsiedeln  ^  is  a  village  with  a  Benedictine  convent  in  the 
Catholic  canton  Schwyz.  It  was  then,  and  is  to  this  day, 
a  very  famous  resort  of  pilgrims  to  the  shrine  of  a  wonder- 
working black  image  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  which  is  supposed 
to  have  fallen  from  heaven.  The  number  of  annual  pilgrims 
from  Switzerland,  Germany,  France,  and  Italy  exceeds  a 
hundred  thousand. 

Here,  then,  was  a  large  field  of  usefulness  for  a  preacher. 
The  convent  library  afforded  special  facilities  for  study. 

Zwingli  made  considerable  progress  in  his  knowledge  of 
the  Scriptures  and  the  Fathers.  He  read  the  annotations  of 
Erasmus  and  the  commentaries  of  Origen,  Ambrose,  Jerome, 
and  Chrysostom.  He  made  extracts  on  the  margin  of  his 
copies  of  their  works  which  are  preserved  in  the  libraries  at 
Zurich.  He  seems  to  have  esteemed  Origen,  Jerome,  and 
Chrysostom  more,  and  Augustin  less,  than  Luther  did;  but 
he  also  refers  frequently  to  Augustin  in  his  writings.^ 

^  Maria-Einsiedeln,  Deiparas  Virginis  Eremus,  Eremitaruin  Coenobium  in 
Helvetiis,  Notre-Dame-des-Ereraites. 

-  Usteri  has  examined  the  marginal  annotations  in  Zwingli's  patristic 
library,  and  gives  the  scanty  results  in  his  Initia  Zwinglii,  in  "  Studien  und 
Kritiken,"  1886,  p.  681  sq.  The  Zwingli  library  was  on  exhibition  at  Zurich, 
Jan.  4-13,  1884,  and  a  catalogue  printed. 


§  8.     ZWINGLI    IN    EINSIEDELN.  81 

We  have  an  interesting  proof  of  his  devotion  to  the  Greek 
Testament  in  a  MS.  preserved  in  the  city  library  at  Zurich. 
In  1517  he  copied  with  his  own  hand  very  neatly  the  Epistles 
of  Paul  and  the  Hebrews  in  a  little  book  for  constant  and 
convenient  use.  The  text  is  taken  from  the  first  edition  of 
Erasmus,  which  appeared  in  March,  1516,  and  corrects  some 
typographical  errors.  It  is  very  legible  and  uniform,  and 
betrays  an  experienced  hand ;  the  marginal  notes,  in  Latin, 
from  Erasmus  and  patristic  commentators,  are  very  small 
and  almost  illegible.  On  the  last  page  he  added  the  follow- 
ing note  in  Greek :  — 

"  These  Epistles  were  written  at  Einsiedeln  of  the  blessed 
Mother  of  God  by  Huldreich  Zwingli,  a  Swiss  of  Toggen- 
burg,  in  the  year  one  thousand  five  hundred  and  seventeen 
of  the  Incarnation,  in  the  month  of  June.^    Happily  ended."  ^ 

At  the  same  time  he  began  at  Einsiedeln  to  attack  from 
the  pulpit  certain  abuses  and  the  sale  of  indulgences,  when 
Samson  crossed  the  Alps  in  August,  1518.  He  says  that  he 
began  to  preach  the  gospel  before  Luther's  name  was  known 
in    Switzerland,  adding,  However,  that  at  that  time  he  de- 

1  Skirophorion,  i.e.  the  12th  Attic  month,  answering  to  the  latter  part  of 
June  and  the  first  part  of  July.  'SKtpo(p6pia  was  the  festival  of  Athena  'S.Kipis, 
celebrated  in  that  month.  The  year  (1517)  refutes  the  error  of  several  biog- 
raphers, who  date  the  MS.  back  to  the  period  of  Glarus.  Besides,  there  was 
no  printed  copy  of  the  Greek  Testament  before  1516. 

2  The  subscription  (as  I  copied  it,  with  its  slight  errors,  in  the  Wasserkirche, 
Aug.  14,  1886)  reads  as  follows  :  — 

TavTai  at  'E'>riffToXar[ai]  ypacp^Tcrai 

'Epr}fiov  rrjs  /xaKap'tas   deo- 

t6kov,  irapa  t&T  'TXSe- 

pvXV  ZvyyA'ici}  Awy- 

yiq>  eA^ertoi,  ^^iAio- 

(XTCf)  TrevraKoo'tSffTCf) 

eirra  Kcd  SeKUTCfi 

airh  TTJs  dioyo- 

vias,  /XTjvhs 

(TKippOpOpL- 
WVOS 

Etixws  [€"'r,xi5s]. 


32  THE    SWISS    REFORMATION. 

pended  too  much  on  Jerome  and  other  Fathers  instead  of 
the  Scriptures.  He  told  Cardinal  Schinner  in  1517  that 
popery  had  poor  foundation  in  the  Scriptures.  Myconius, 
BuUinger,  and  Capito  report,  in  substantial  agreement,  that 
Zwingli  preached  in  Einsiedeln  against  abuses,  and  taught 
the  people  to  worship  Christ,  and  not  the  Virgin  Mary. 
The  inscription  on  the  entrance  gate  of  the  convent,  prom- 
ising complete  remission  of  sins,  was  taken  down  at  his 
instance.^  Beatus  Rhenanus,  in  a  letter  of  Dec.  6,  1518, 
applauds  his  attack  upon  Samson,  the  restorer  of  indul- 
gences, and  says  that  Zwingli  preached  to  the  people  the 
purest  philosophy  of  Christ  from  the  fountain."^ 

On  the  strength  of  these  testimonies,  many  historians 
date  the  Swiss  Reformation  from  1516,  one  year  before 
that  of  Luther,  which  began  Oct.  31,  1517.  But  Zwin- 
gli's  preaching  at  Einsiedeln  had  no  such  consequences  as 
Luther's  Theses.  He  was  not  yet  ripe  for  his  task,  nor 
placed  on  the  proper  field  of  action.  He  was  at  that 
time  simply  an  Erasmian  or  advanced  liberal  in  the 
Roman  Church,  laboring  for  higher  education  rather  than 
religious  renovation,  and  had  no  idea  of  a  separation.  He 
enjoyed  the  full  confidence  of  the  abbot,  the  bishop  of  Con- 
stance, Cardinal  Schinner,  and  even  the  Pope.  At  Schin- 
ner's  recommendation,  he  was  offered  an  annual  pension  of 
fifty  guilders  frdm  Rome  as  an  encouragement  in  the  pursuit 

1  The  inscription  was,  "Hie  est  plena  remissio  omnium  peccatornm  a  culpa  et  a 
poena."  But  the  sermon  against  the  worship  of  saints,  pilgrimages  and  vows, 
of  which  Bullinger  speaks  (I.  81),  was  preaclied  later,  in  1522,  at  the  Feast 
of  Angels,  during  a  visit  of  Zwingli  to  Einsiedeln.  See  Pestalozzi,  Leo  Judce, 
p.  16,  and  Gieseler,  III.  i.  p.  138. 

-  Opera,  VII.  A.  57  :  "liisimus  abunde  veniarum  institorem  [Bernh.  Samson], 
quern  in  litferis  tuis  graphice  depinxisti.  .  .  ."  Then  he  complains  that  most  of 
the  priests  teach  heathen  and  Jewish  doctrines,  but  that  Zwingli  and  his  like 
" purissimam  Christi  pkilosophiam  ex  ipsis  fontibus  populo  proponere,  non  Scoticis 
et  Gabrielicis  inlerpretationibus  depravatam  ;  sed  ab  Augustino,  Ambrosio,  Cypriano, 
Hieronymo,  germane  et  sincere  expositam."  Rhenanus  contrasts  the  Fathers 
with  the  Scholastics,  Duns  Scotus,  and  Gabriel  Biel 


§  8.     ZWINGLI    IN   EINSIEDELN.  33 

of  his  studies,  and  he  actually  received  it  for  about  five 
years  (from  1515  to  1520).  Pucci,  the  papal  nuncio  at 
Zurich,  in  a  letter  dated  Aug.  24,  1518,  appointed  him  papal 
chaplain  (Accolitus  Capellanus),  with  all  the  privileges  and 
honors  of  that  position,  assigning  as  the  reason  "  his  splendid 
virtues  and  merits,"  and  promising  even  higher  dignities. ^ 
He  also  offered  to  double  his  pension,  and  to  give  him  in 
addition  a  canonry  in  Basle  or  Coire,  on  condition  that  he 
should  promote  the  papal  cause.  Zwingli  very  properly  de- 
clined the  chaplaincy  and  the  increase  of  salary,  and  declared 
frankly  that  he  would  never  sacrifice  a  syllable  of  the  truth 
for  love  of  money ;  but  he  continued  to  receive  the  former 
pension  of  fifty  guilders,  which  was  urged  upon  him  without 
condition,  for  the  purchase  of  books.  In  1520  he  declined 
it  altogether,  —  what  he  ought  to  have  done  long  before.^ 
Francis  Zink,  the  papal  chaplain  at  Einsiedeln,  who  paid 
the  pension,  was  present  at  Zwingli's  interview  with  Pucci, 
and  says,  in  a  letter  to  the  magistracy  at  Zurich  (1521),  that 
Zwingli  could  not  well  have  lived  without  the  pension,  but 
felt  very  badly  about  it,  and  thought  of  returning  to  Ein- 
siedeln.3  Even  as  late  as  Jan.  23,  1523,  Pope  Adrian  VI., 
unacquainted  with  the  true  state  of  things,  wrote  to  Zwingli 
a  kind  and  respectful  letter,  hoping  to  secure  through  him 
the  influence  of  Zurich  for  the  holy  see.* 

1  See  the  letter  of  Anthonius  Puccius  to  Zwingli  in  Opera,  VII.  A.  48  sq. 
The  document  of  the  appointment,  with  the  signature  and  seal  of  the  papal 
legate,  dated  Sept.  1,  1518,  is  kept  in  the  city  library  at  Zurich. 

2  Zwingli  speaks  of  this  pension  very  frankly  and  with  deep  regret  in  a 
letter  to  his  brothers  (1522),  and  in  his  Exposition  of  the  Conclusions  (1523). 
WerJce,  I.  A.  86  and  354. 

3  Opera,  VII.  A.  179  :  "Ipse  arbiter  interfui,  quum  Domino  Legato  Pucci  ingenue 
fassus  est,  ipsum  pecunice  causa  rebus  Papoi  agendis  nan  inserviturum,"  etc. 

*  Opera,  VII.  A.  266.  The  Pope  addresses  Zwingli  "  Dilecte  fili,"  praises 
his  "  egregia  virtus,"  assures"  him  of  his  special  confidence  in  him  and  his  best 
wishes  for  him.  At  the  same  time  the  Pope  wrote  to  Francis  Zink  to  spare 
no  effort  to  secure  Zwingli  for  the  papal  interest ;  and  Zink  replied  to  Myco- 
nius,  when  asked  what  the  Pope  offered  in  return,  "Omnia  usque  ad  thronum 
papalem."     Zwingli  despised  it  all.     Ibid.  p.  266,  note. 


34  THE    SWISS    EEFORMATIOjS'. 

§  9.    Zivingli  and  Luther. 
Comp.  Vol.  VI.  620-651,  and  the  portrait  of  Luther,  p.  107. 

The  training  of  Zwingli  for  his  life-work  differs  consider- 
ably from  that  of  Luther.  This  difference  affected  their 
future  work,  and  accounts  in  part  for  their  collision  when 
they  met  as  antagonists  in  writing,  and  on  one  occasion  (at 
Marburg)  face  to  face,  in  a  debate  on  the  real  presence. 
Comparisons  are  odious  when  partisan  or  sectarian  feeling  is 
involved,  but  necessary  and  useful  if  impartial. 

Both  Reformers  were  of  humble  origin,  but  with  this  dif- 
ference :  Luther  descended  from  the  peasantry,  and  had  a 
hard  and  rough  schooling,  which  left  its  impress  upon  his 
style  of  polemics,  and  enhanced  his  power  over  the  common 
people ;  while  Zwingli  was  the  son  of  a  magistrate,  the 
nephew  of  a  dean  and  an  abbot,  and  educated  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  humanists,  who  favored  urbanity  of  manners. 
Both  were  brought  up  by  pious  parents  and  teachers  in  the 
Catholic  faith ;  but  Luther  was  far  more  deeply  rooted  in  it 
than  Zwingli,  and  adhered  to  some  of  its  doctrines,  especially 
on  the  sacraments,  with  great  tenacity  to  the  end.  He  also 
retained  a  goodly  portion  of  Romish  exclusivism  and  intol- 
erance. He  refused  to  acknowledge  Zwingli  as  a  brother, 
and  abhorred  his  view  of  the  salvation  of  unbaptized  chil- 
dren and  pious  heathen. 

Zwingli  was  trained  in  the  school  of  Erasmus,  and  passed 
from  the  heathen  classics  directly  to  the  New  Testament. 
He  represents  more  than  any  other  Reformer,  except  Me- 
lanchthon,  the  spirit  of  the  Renaissance  in  harmony  with 
tlie  Reformation. 1     He  was  a  forerunner  of  modern  liberal 

1  Martin,  in  his  Histoire  de  France,  VIII.  156,  makes  a  similar  remark,  "On 
pent  conside'rer  Vceuvre  de  Zwingli  comme  le  plus  puissatit  effort  qui  ait  e'te'  fuit 
pour  sanctijier  la  Renaissance  et  I'unir  a  la  Reforme  en  Je'sus- Christ."  He  calls 
Zwingli  (p.  168)  the  man  of  the  largest  thought  and  greatest  heart  of  the 
Reformation  {"qui  porte  en  lui  la  plus  large  pense'e  et  le  plus  grand  cceur  de  la 
Reformation  "). 


§  0.     ZWINGLI    AND    LUTHEll.  35 

theology.  Luther  struggled  through  the  mystic  school  of 
Tauler  and  Stauj^itz,  and  the  severe  moral  discipline  of  mo- 
nasticism,  till  he  found  peace  and  comfort  in  the  doctrine 
of  justification  by  faith.  Both  loved  poetry  and  music  next 
to  theology,  but  Luther  made  better  use  of  them  for  public 
worship,  and  composed  hymns  and  tunes  which  are  sung  to 
this  day. 

Both  were  men  of  providence,  and  became,  innocently, 
reformers  of  the  Church  by  the  irresistible  logic  of  events. 
Both  drew  their  strength  and  authority  from  the  Word  of 
God.  Both  labored  independently  for  the  same  cause  of 
evangelical  truth,  the  one  on  a  smaller,  the  other  on  a  much 
larger  field.  Luther  owed  nothing  to  Zwingli,  and  Zwingli 
owed  little  or  nothing  to  Luther.  Both  were  good  scholars, 
great  divines,  popular  preachers,  heroic  characters. 

Zwingli  broke  easily  and  rapidly  with  the  papal  system, 
but  Luther  only  step  by  step,  and  after  a  severe  struggle 
of  conscience.  Zwingli  was  more  radical  than  Luther,  but 
alwa^'B  within  the  limits  of  law  and  order,  and  without  a 
taint  of  fanaticism ;  Luther  was  more  conservative,  and  yet 
the  chief  champion  of  freedom  in  Christ.  Zwingli  leaned 
to  rationalism,  Luther  to  mysticism ;  yet  both  bowed  to  the 
supreme  authority  of  the  Scriptures.  Zwingli  had  better 
manners  and  more  self-control  in  controversy ;  Luther  sur- 
passed him  in  lichness  and  congeniality  of  nature.  Zwingli 
was  a  republican,  and  aimed  at  a  political  and  social,  as  well 
as  an  ecclesiastical  reformation ;  Luther  was  a  monarchist, 
kept  aloof  from  politics  and  war,  and  concentrated  his  force 
upon  the  reformation  of  faith  and  doctrine.  Zwingli  was 
equal  to  Luther  in  clearness  and  acuteness  of  intellect  and 
courage  of  conviction,  superior  in  courtesy,  moderation, 
and  tolerance,  but  inferior  in  originality,  depth,  and  force. 
Zwingli's  work  and  fame  were  provincial ;  Luther's,  world- 
wide. Luther  is  the  creator  of  the  modern  high-German 
book  language,  and  gave  to  his  people  a  vernacular  Bible 


36  THfi   SWISS  REFOKMATION. 

of  enduring  vitality.  Zwingli  had  to  use  the  Latin,  or  to 
struggle  with  an  uncouth  dialect;  and  the  Swiss  Version  of 
the  Bible  by  his  faithful  friend  Leo  Judee  remained  confined 
to  German  Switzerland,  but  is  more  accurate,  and  kept  pace 
in  subsequent  revisions  with  the  progress  of  exegesis.  Zwingli 
can  never  inspire,  even  among  his  own  countrymen,  the  same 
enthusiasm  as  Luther  among  the  Germans.  Luther  is  the 
chief  hero  of  the  Reformation,  standing  in  the  front  of  the 
battle-field  before  the  Church  and  the  world,  defying  the 
papal  bull  and  imperial  ban,  and  leading  the  people  of  God 
out  of  the  Babylonian  captivity  under  the  gospel  banner  of 
freedom. 

Each  was  the  right  man  in  the  right  place ;  neither  could 
have  done  the  work  of  the  other.  Luther  was  foreordained 
for  Germany,  Zwingli  for  Switzerland.  Zwingli  was  cut 
down  in  the  prime  of  life,  fifteen  years  before  Luther;  but, 
even  if  he  had  outlived  him,  he  could  not  have  reached  the 
eminence  which  belongs  to  Luther  alone.  The  Lutheran 
Church  in  Germany  and  the  Reformed  Church  of  Switzer- 
land stand  to  this  day  the  best  vindication  of  their  distinct, 
yet  equally  evangelical  Chi-istian  work  and  character. 

NOTES. 

I  add  the  comparative  estimates  of  the  two  Reformers  by  two  eminent  and 
equally  unbiassed  scholars,  the  one  of  German  Lutheran,  the  other  of  Swiss 
Reformed,  descent. 

Dr.  Baur  (the  founder  of  the  Tiibingen  school  of  critical  historians)  says  :  ^ 
"  When  the  two  men  met,  as  at  Marburg,  Zwingli  appears  more  free,  more 
unprejudiced,  more  fresh,  and  also  more  mild  and  conciliatory;  while  Luther 
shows  himself  harsh  and  intolerant,  and  repels  Zwingli  with  the  proud  word : 
'  We  have  another  spirit  than  you.'  ^  A  comparison  of  their  controversial 
writings  can  only  result  to  the  advantage  of  Zwingli.  But  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that,  judged  by  the  merits  and  effects  of  their  reformatory  labors, 
Luther  stands  much  higher  than  Zwingli.  It  is  true,  even  in  this  respect, 
both  stand  quite  independent  of  each  other.  Zwingli  has  by  no  means  re- 
ceived his  impulse  from  Luther ;  but  Luther  alone  stands  on  the  proper  field 

1  Kirchengeschichte,  IV.  87  sq. 

-  Martin,  another  impartial  and  dogmatically  unbiassed  writer,  likewise  gives,  with  refer- 
ence to  the  Marburg  conference,  "  the  honors  of  the  debate,  for  logic  and  for  moderation  and 
brotherly  charity,"  to  Zwingli.    Hist,  de  France,  VIH.  114,  note.    So  does  Dean  Stanley. 


§  *J.     ZWINGLI    AND    LUTHER.  37 

of  battle  where  the  cause  of  the  Reformation  had  to  be  fought  out.  He  is  the 
path-breaking  Reformer,  and  without  his  labors  Zwingli  could  never  have 
reached  the  historic  significance  which  properly  belongs  to  him  alongside  of 
Luther."  ^ 

Dr.  Alexander  Schweizer  (of  Zurich),  in  his  commemorative  oration  of 
1884,  does  equal  justice  to  both:  "  Luther  and  Zwingli  founded,  each  accord- 
ing to  his  individuality,  the  Reformation  in  the  degenerated  Church,  both 
strengthening  and  supplementing  each  other,  but  in  many  respects  also  going 
different  ways.  How  shall  we  estimate  them,  elevating  the  one,  lowering  the 
other,  as  is  the  case  with  Goethe  and  Schiller  ?  Let  us  rather  rejoice,  accord- 
ing to  Goethe's  advice,  in  the  possession  of  two  such  men.  May  those  Luther- 
ans who  wish  to  check  the  growing  union  with  the  Reformed,  continue  to 
represent  Luther  as  the  only  Reformer,  and,  in  ignorance  of  Zwingli's  deep 
evangelical  piety,  depreciate  him  as  a  mere  humanistic  illuminator :  this  shall 
not  hinder  us  from  doing  homage  at  the  outset  to  Luther's  full  greatness,  con- 
tented with  the  independent  position  of  our  Zwingli  alongside  of  this  first  hero 
of  the  Reformation ;  yea,  we  deem  it  our  noblest  task  in  this  Zwingli  festival  at 
Zurich,  which  took  cheerful  part  in  the  preceding  Luther  festival,  to  acknowl- 
edge Luther  as  the  chief  hero  of  the  battle  of  the  Reformation,  and  to  put 
his  world-historical  and  personal  greatness  in  the  front  rank ;  and  this  all  the 
more  since  Zwingli  himself,  and  afterwards  Calvin,  have  preceded  us  in  this 
high  estimate  of  Luther."  ^ 

Of  s^^ular  historians,  J.  Michelet  (^Histoire  de  France,  X.  310  sq.)  shows  a 
just  appreciation  of  Zwingli,  and  his  last  noble  confession  addressed  to  the 
King  of  France.  He  says  of  him  :  "  Grand  docteur,  meiUeur  patriate,  nature 
forte  et  simple,  il  a  montre'  ie  ti/pe  meme,  le  vrai  ge'nie  de  la  Suisse,  dans  sa  Jiere 
inde'pendance  de  Vltalie,  de  VAllemagne.  .  .  .  Son  langage  a  Francois  1'^,  digne 
de  la  Renaissance,  e'tablissait  la  question  de  I'Eglise  dans  sa  grandeur."  He  then 
quotes  the  passage  of  the  final  salvation  of  all  true  and  noble  men,  which  no 
man  with  a  heart  can  ever  forget. 

1  "  Nehen  Lnther."  This  is  the  proper  expression,  which  also  Schweizer  has  chosen. 
Usteri  places  Zwingli  too  high  when  he  calls  him  "  ein  Martin  Luther  ebenlnlrtiger  Zeuge 
lies  evangelischen  Glaubens."    He  is  independent,  but  not  equal. 

2  Zwingli's  Bedeutung  nehen  Luther.  Festrede  zu  Zwingli's  400  jdhrigem  Geburtstag 
1  Jan.,  1484,  gehalten  in  der  Universitdtsaula  zu  Zurich  7  Jan.,  1884  (Zurich,  1884),  p.  3. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE   REFORMATION   IN   ZURICH.     1519-1526. 

§  10.    Zwiiigli  called  to  Zurich. 

The  fame  of  Zwingli  as  a  preacher  and  patriot  secured 
him  a  call  to  the  position  of  chief  pastor  of  the  Great  Min- 
ster (Grossmiinster),  the  principal  church  in  Zurich,  which 
was  to  become  the  Wittenberg  of  Switzerland.  Many  of 
the  Zurichers  had  heard  him  preach  on  their  pilgrimages  to 
Einsiedeln.  His  enemies  objected  to  his  love  of  music  and 
pleasure,  and  charged  him  with  impurity,  adding  slander  to 
truth.  His  friend  Myconius,  the  teacher  of  the  school  con- 
nected with  the  church,  exerted  all  his  influence  in  his  favor. 
He  was  elected  by  seventeen  votes  out  of  twenty-four,  Dec. 
10,  1518. 

He  arrived  in  Zurich  on  the  27th  of  the  month,  and  re- 
ceived a  hearty  welcome.  He  promised  to  fulfil  his  duties 
faithfully,  and  to  begin  with  the  continuous  exposition  of  the 
Gospel  of  Matthew,  so  as  to  bring  the  whole  life  of  Christ 
before  the  mind  of  the  people.  This  was  a  departure  from 
the  custom  of  following  the  prescribed  Gospel  and  Epistle 
lessons,  but  justified  by  the  example  of  the  ancient  Fathers, 
as  Chrysostom  and  Augustin,  who  preached  on  whole  books. 
The  Reformed  Churches  reasserted  the  freedom  of  selecting 
texts ;  while  Luther  retained  the  Catholic  system  of  peri- 
copes. 

Zurich,  the  most  flourishing  city  in  German  Switzerland, 

beautifully  situated  in  an  amphitheatre  of  fertile  hills,  on 

the  lake  of  the  same  name  and  the  banks  of  the  Limmat, 

dates  its  existence  from  the  middle  of   the  ninth  century, 

38 


§   10.     ZWINGLI   CALLED   TO   ZURICH. 


39 


when  King  Louis  the  German  founded  there  the  abbey  of 
Frauenmiinster  (853).  The  spot  was  known  in  old  Roman 
times  as  a  custom  station  QTuricum').  It  became  a  free 
imperial  city  of  considerable  commerce  between  Germany 
and  Italy,  and  was  often  visited  by  kings  and  emperors. 
The  Great  Minster  was 
built  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, and  passed  into 
the  Reformed  commu- 
nion, like  the  minsters 
of  Basle,  Berne,  and 
Lausanne,  which  are  the 
finest  churches  in  Swit- 
zerland. 

In  the  year  1315  Zu- 
rich ^joined  the  Swiss 
confederacy  by  an  eter- 
nal covenant  with  Lu- 
cerne, Uri,  Schwyz,  and 
Unterwalden.  This  led 
to  a  conflict  with  Aus- 
tria, which  ended  favor- 
ably for  the  confeder- 
acy.! ^ 


In  the  beginning  of 
the  sixteenth  century 
Zurich  numbered  seven 
thousand  inhabitants.  It  was  the  centre  of  the  interna- 
tional relations  of  Switzerland,  and  the  residence  of  the 
embassadors  of  foreign  powers  which  rivalled  with  each 
other  in  securing  the  support  of  Swiss  soldiers.  This  fact 
brought  wealth  and  luxury,  and  fostered  party  spirit  and  the 

1  On  the  early  history  of  Zurich,  see  Bluntschli,  Geschichte  der  Eepuhlik 
Zurich,  2cl  ed.  1856;  G.  v.  Wyss,  Zurich  am  Ansgange  des  ISten  Jahrh.,  1876; 
Dierauer,  Geschichte  der  Schweiz.  Eidgenossenschaft,  vol.  I.  (1887),  171-217. 


The  Gheat  Minster  in  Zurich  in  the  Year 
1519.     (After  the  copperplate  of  Hegi.) 


40  THE    SWISS   REFORMATION. 

lust  of  gain  and  power  among  the  citizens.  BuUinger  says, 
"Before  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  [the  Reformation], 
Zurich  was  in  Switzerland  what  Corinth  was  in  Greece."  ^ 


§  11.    Zivinfjlis  Public  Labors  and  Private  Studies. 

Zwingli  began  his  duties  in  Zurich  on  his  thirty-sixth 
birthday  (Jan.  1,  1519)  by  a  sermon  on  the  genealogy  of 
Christ,  and  announced  that  on  the  next  day  (which  was  a 
Sunday)  he  would  begin  a  series  of  expository  discourses  on 
the  first  Gospel.  From  Matthew  he  proceeded  to  the  Acts, 
the  Pauline  and  Catholic  Epistles ;  so  that  in  four  years  he 
completed  the  homiletical  exposition  of  the  whole  New 
Testament  except  the  Apocalypse  (which  he  did  not  regard 
as  an  apostolic  book).  In  the  services  during  the  week  he 
preached  on  the  Psalms.  He  prepared  himself  carefully 
from  the  original  text.  He  probably  used  for  his  first  course 
Chrysostom's  famous  Homilies  on  Matthew.  With  the  Greek 
he  was  already  familiar  since  his  sojourn  in  Glarus.  The 
Hebrew  he  learned  from  a  pupil  of  Reuchlin  who  had  come 
to  Zurich.  His  copy  of  Reuchlin's  Rudimenta  Hebraica  is 
marked  with  many  notes  from  his  hand.^ 

His  sermons,  as  far  as  published,  are  characterized,  as 
Hagenbach  says,  "by  spiritual  sobriety  and  manly  solidity." 
They  are  plain,  practical,  and  impressive,  and  more  ethical 
than  doctrinal. 

He  made  it  his  chief  object  "  to  preach  Christ  from  the 
fountain,"  and  "to  insert  the  pure  Christ  into  the  hearts."^ 
He  would  preach  nothing  but  what  he  could  prove  from  the 
Scriptures,  as  the  only  rule  of  Christian  faith  and  practice. 

1  Morikofer  (I.  430  sqq.)  gives  a  disgusting  example  of  the  rudeness  and 
licentiousness  of  the  Zurichers  of  that  time. 

2  He  wrote  to  Myconius  in  1522:  " Statui  proximis  diebus  in  manus  resumere 
liteias  Hebraicas ;  nam  futuro  Decembri  .  .  .  Psalmos  prcelegam."    Opera,  VII.  145. 

8  Christum  ex  fontibus  pradicare,  piirum  Christum  animis  inserere.  Corap.  his 
letter  to  Myconius  (1520),  Opera,  VII.  142  sqq. 


§  11.    ZWINGLl'S    LABORS   AND   STUDIES.  41 

This  is  a  reformatory  idea ;  for  the  aim  of  the  Reformation 
was  to  reopen  the  fountain  of  the  New  Testament  to  the 
whole  people,  and  to  renew  the  life  of  the  Church  by  the 
power  of  the  primitive  gospel.  By  his  method  of  preaching 
on  entire  books  he  could  give  his  congregation  a  more  com- 
plete idea  of  the  life  of  Christ  and  the  way  of  salvation  than 
by  confining  himself  to  detached  sections.  He  did  not  at 
first  attack  the  Roman  Church,  but  only  the  sins  of  the 
human  heart ;  he  refuted  errors  by  the  statement  of  truth. ^ 

His  sermons  gained  him  great  popularity  in  Zurich.  The 
people  said,  "  Such  preaching  was  never  heard  before."  Two 
prominent  citizens,  who  were  disgusted  with  the  insipid 
legendary  discourses  of  priests  and  monks,  declared  after 
hearing  his  first  sermon,  "  This  is  a  genuine  preacher  of  the 
truth,  a  Moses  who  will  deliver  the  people  from  bondage." 
They  became  his  constant  hearers  and  devoted  friends. 

Zwingli  was  also  a  devoted  pastor,  cheerful,  kind,  hospita- 
ble and  benevolent.  He  took  great  interest  in  young  men, 
and  helped  them  to  an  education.  He  was,  as  Bullinger 
says,  a  fine-looking  man,  of  more  than  middle  size,  with  a 
florid  complexion,  and  an  agreeable,  melodious  voice,  which, 
though  not  strong,  went  to  the  heart.  We  have  no  portrait 
from  his  lifetime ;  he  had  no  Lucas  Kranach  near  him,  like 
Luther ;  all  his  pictures  are  copies  of  the  large  oil  painting 
of  Hans  Asper  in  the  city  library  at  Zurich,  which  was  made 
after  his  death,  and  is  rather  hard  and  wooden.'^ 

Zwingli  continued  his  studies  in  Zurich  and  enlarged  his 
library,  with  the  help  of  his  friends  Glareanus  and  Beatus 
Rhenanus,  who  sent  him  books  from  Basle,  the  Swiss  head- 
quarters of  literature.  He  did  not  neglect  his  favorite 
classics,  and  read,  as  Bullinger  says,  Aristotle,  Plato,  Thu- 

1  He  did  not  elaborate  his  discourses  on  Matthew  for  publication,  but  we  have 
fragmentary  reports  from  the  year  1525.   See  the  extracts  in  Morikofer,  1. 57-03. 

2  See  Asper's  portrait  on  p.  16,  and  the  description  of  the  Zwingli  pictures 
in  Morikofer,  I.  345,  and  in  tlie  pamphlet,  Zwingli-AussteUung,  Zurich,  Janu- 
ary, 1884. 


42  THE   SWISS    REFORMATION. 

cyclides,  Homer,  Horace,  Sallust,  and  Seneca.  But  his  chief 
attention  Avas  now  given  to  the  Scriptures  and  the  j)atristic 
commentaries. 

In  the  meantime  Luther's  reform  was  shaking  the  whole 
Church,  and  strengthened  and  deepened  his  evangelical 
convictions  in  a  general  way,  although  he  had  formed  them 
independently.  Some  of  Luther's  books  were  reprinted  in 
Basle  in  1519,  and  sent  to  Zwingli  by  Rhenanus.  Lutheran 
ideas  were  in  the  air,  and  found  attentive  ears  in  Switzer- 
land. He  could  not  escape  their  influence.  The  eucharistic 
controversy  produced  an  alienation;  but  he  never  lost  his 
great  respect  for  Luther  and  his  extraordinary  services  to 
the  Church.i 

§  12.    Zwingli  and  the  Sale  of  Indulgences. 

Bernhardin  Samson,  a  Franciscan  monk  of  Milan,  crossed 
the  St.  Gotthard  to  Switzerland  in  August,  1518,  as  apostolic 
general  commissioner  for  the  sale  of  indulgences.  He  is  the 
Tetzel  of  Switzerland,  and  equalled  him  in  the  audacious 
profanation  of  holy  things  by  turning  the  forgiveness  of  sins 
and  the  release  from  purgatorial  punishment  into  merchan- 
dise. He  gave  the  preference  to  the  rich  who  were  willing 
to  buy  letters  of  indulgence  on  parchment  for  a  crown.  To 
the  poor  he  sold  the  same  article  on  common  paper  for  a  few 
coppers.  In  Berne  he  absolved  the  souls  of  all  the  departed 
Bernese  of  the  pains  of  purgatory.  In  Bremgarten  he  ex- 
communicated Dean  Bullinger  (the  father  of  Henry)  for 
opposing  his  traffic.  But  in  Zurich  he  was  stopped  in  his 
career. 

Zwingli  had  long  before  been  convinced  of  the  error  of  in- 
dulgences by  Wyttenbach  when  he  studied  in  Basle.  He  had 
warned  the  people  against  Samson  at  Einsiedeln.    He  exerted 

1  In  Zwingli's  library  are  few  works  of  Luther,  and  they  have  no  annota- 
tions. (Usteri,  I.e.,  p.  716.)  His  noble  tribute  to  Luther  is  quoted  in  this 
History,  vol.  VI.  668. 


§  13.     ZWINGLI   DURING   THE   PESTILENCE.  43 

his  influence  against  him  in  Zurich ;  and  the  magistracy,  and 
even  the  bishop  of  Constance  (who  preferred  to  sell  indul- 
gences himself)  supported  the  opposition.  Samson  was 
obliged  to  return  to  Italy  with  his  "heavy,  three-horse 
wagon  of  gold."  Rome  had  learned  a  lesson  of  wisdom 
from  Luther's  Theses,  and  behaved  in  the  case  of  Samson 
with  more  prudence  and  deference  to  the  sentiment  of  the 
enlightened  class  of  Catholics.  Leo  X.,  in  a  brief  of  April, 
1519,  expressed  his  willingness  to  recall  and  to  punish  him 
if  he  had  transgressed  his  authority.^ 

The  opposition  to  the  sale  of  indulgences  is  the  opening 
chapter  in  the  history  of  the  German  Reformation,  but  a 
mere  episode  in  the  Swiss  Reformation.  That  battle  had 
been  fought  out  victoriously  by  Luther.  Zwingli  came  in  no 
conflict  with  Rome  on  this  question,  and  was  even  approved 
for  his  conduct  by  Dr.  Faber,  the  general  vicar  of  the  diocese 
of  Constance,  who  was  then  his  friend,  but  became  afterwards 
his  enemy. 

§  13.    Zwingli  during  the  Pestilence. 

Li  the  summer  of  1519  Zwingli  went  to  the  famous  bath 
of  Pfiiffers  at  Ragatz  to  gather  strength  for  his  prospectively 
onerous  duties  at  Zurich,  in  view  of  the  danger  of  the  ap- 
proach of  the  plague  from  Basle.  As  soon  as  he  learned, 
in  August,  that  the  plague  had  broken  out  in  Zurich,  he 
hastened  back  without  stopping  to  visit  his  relations  on  the 
way.  For  several  weeks  he  devoted  himself,  like  a  faithful 
shepherd,  day  after  day,  to  the  care  of  the  sick,  until  he  fell 
sick  himself  at  the  end  of  September.  His  life  was  in  great 
danger,  as  he  had  worn  himself  out.  The  papal  legate  sent 
his  own  physician  to  his  aid.  The  pestilence  destroyed 
twenty-five  hundred  lives ;  that  is,  more  than  one-third  of 
the  population  of  Zurich.  Zwingli  recovered,  but  felt  the 
effects  on  his  brain  and  memory,  and  a  lassitude  in  all  his 

^  Morikofer,  I.  65  sqq. 


44  THE   SWISS    REFORMATION. 

limbs  till  the  end  of  the  year.  His  friends  at  home  and 
abroad,  including  Faber,  Pirkheimer,  and  Dlirer  at  Niirnberg, 
congratulated  him  on  his  recovery. 

The  experience  during  this  season  of  public  distress  and 
private  affliction  must  have  exerted  a  good  influence  upon 
his  spiritual  life.^  We  may  gather  this  from  the  tliree  poems, 
which  he  composed  and  set  to  music  soon  afterwards,  on  his 
sickness  and  recovery.  They  consist  each  of  twenty-six 
rhymed  iambic  verses,  and  betray  great  skill  in  versification. 
They  breathe  a  spirit  of  pious  resignation  to  the  will  of  God, 
and  give  us  an  insight  into  his  religious  life  at  that  time."^ 
He  wrote  another  poem  in  1529,  and  versified  the  Sixty-ninth 
Psalm.^ 


Zavingli's  Poems  during  the  Pestilence,  with  a  Free  Condensed 
Translation. 

I.     Im  Anfang  der  Krankheit. 

Hilf,  Herr  Gott,  hilf  Def  mich  verwundt, 

In  dieser  Noth ;  Nit  lass  ein  Stund 

Ich  raein',  der  Tod  Mich  haben  weder  Riiw "  noch  Rast ! 

Syg*  an  der  Thiir.  Willt  du  dann  glych* 

Stand,  Christe,  fiir ;  Todt  haben  mich 

Denn  du  ihn  iiberwunden  hast !  Inmitts  der  Tagen  min, 

Zu  dir  ich  gilf :  ^  So  soil  es  willig  syn. 

1st  es  din  Will,  Thu,  wie  du  willt, 

Zuch  us  den  Pfyl,^  Mich  niit  befilt.9 

1  Merle  d'Aubigne'  overrates  the  influence  of  this  sickness  by  dating  from 
it  Zwingli's  conversion  and  entire  consecration  to  God.  There  was  no  sudden 
change  in  his  life,  as  in  Paul  or  Luther:   he  developed  gradually. 

2  The  original  is  given  in  WerJce,  II.  269-274,  with  a  good  modern  repro- 
duction by  Fulda;  also  by  Morikofer,  I.  72-74;  and  Hagenbach,  218  (5th  ed. 
by  Nippold).  Abridged  translations  in  the  English  editions  of  Merle  d'Au- 
bigne's  History  of  the  Reformation,  Bk.  VIII.  ch.  8  ("  Lo !  at  my  door  gaunt 
death  I  spy,"  etc.),  and  in  Miss  Moore's  translation  of  Hagenbach's  Histon/  of 
the  Reformation  (Edinb.,  1878,  vol.  I.  274).  The  structure  of  the  poems  is  very 
artificial  and  difficult  to  reproduce. 

3  These  poems  passed  into  the  oldest  Zurich  hymn  and  tune  books  of  1560 
and  1570,  and  are  printed  together  by  Wackernagel,  Das  Deutsche  Kirchenlied, 
vol.  III.  500-503. 

■»  Sei.         5  flehe,  schreie.         ^  pfeii_         :  RuJ,  s  joch.         »  fehlt. 


§    13.     ZWINGLI    DURING    THE    PESTILENCE. 


45 


Din  Haf  i  bin  icli, 
Macli  ganz  aid-  brich. 
Dann  niinmst  du  bin 
Den  Geiste  min 


"Von  dieser  Erd, 

Thust  du's,  dass  er  nit  boser  wcrd, 

Aid  -  andern  nit 

Befleck  ihr  Leben  fromra  und  Sitt. 


II.     Mitten  in  der  Krankheit. 


Trost,  Herr  Gott,  trost! 

Die  Krankheit  wachst,^ 

Well  und  Angst  fasst 

Min  Seel  und  Lyb.* 

Daruni  dich  schyb^ 

Gen  mir,  einiger  Trost,  mit  Gnad ! 

Die  gwiiss  erlost 

Ein  jeden,  der 

Sin  Jierzlich  B'ger 

Und  Hoffnung  setzt  y 

In  dich,  verschiitzt. 

Darzu  diss  Zyt  all  Nutz  und  Schad. 

Nun  ist  es  um ; 


Min  Zung  ist  stumm, 

Mag  sprechen  nit  ein  Wort ; 

Min  Sinn'  sind  all  verdorrt, 

Darum  ist  Zyt,^ 

Dass  du  min  Stryt" 

Fiihrist  f  iirhin  ; 

So  ich  nit  bin 

So  stark,  dass  ich 

Mijg  tai)ferlich 

Thun  Widerstand 

Des  Tiif els  Facht  '^  und  f ref ner  Hand. 

Doch  wird  min  Gmiith 

Stat  bliben  dir,  wie  er  audi  wiith. 


III.      Zur    Genesun/f. 


G'sund,  Herr  Gott,  g'sund  ! 

Ich  mein',  ich  kehr 

Schon  vviedruni  her. 

Ja,  wenn  dich  dunkt, 

Der  Siinden  Funk' 

Werd  nit  mehr  bherrschen  mich  uf 

Erd, 
So  muss  min  Mund 
Din  Lob  und  Lehr 
Ussprechen  mehr 
Denn  vormals  je, 
Wie  es  audi  geli' 
Einfaltiglich  ohn'  alle  G'fahrd. 
Wiewohl  ich  muss 


Des  Todes  buss 

Erliden  zwar  einmal 

Villicht  mit  gross'rer  Qual, 

Denn  jezund  wiir' 

Gcschehen,  Herr ! 

So  ich  sunst  bin 

Nacli^  gfahren  bin, 

So  will  ich  doch 

Den  Trutz  und  Poch  ^ 

In  dieser  Welt 

Tragen  frohlich  um  Widergelt,ii 

Mit  Hiilfe  din, 

Ohn'  den  nut^^  mag  voUkommen  syn. 


I.     In  the  Beginning  of  his  Sickness. 


Help  me,  0  Lord, 

My  strength  and  rock ; 
Lo,  at  the  door 

I  hear  death's  knock. 


Uplift  thine  arm, 

Once  pierced  for  me, 
That  conquered  death. 

And  set  me  free. 


1  Gefass. 

4  Leib. 

"  Streit. 

1°  Ungestiim. 

2  Oder. 

^  wende. 

8  Anfechtung. 

11  Vergeltung, 

*  wachst. 

6  Zeit. 

^  beinahe. 

1-  nichts. 

46  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

Yet,  if  thy  voice.  In  faith  and  hope 

In  life's  mid-day,  Earth  I  resign, 

Recalls  my  soul,  Secure  of  heaven, 

Then  I  obey.  For  I  am  Thine. 

II.     In  the  Midst  of  his  Sickness. 

My  pains  increase  ;  Lo  !  Satan  strains 
Haste  to  console;  To  snatch  his  prey; 

For  fear  and  woe  I  feel  his  grasp ; 
Seize  body  and  soul.  Must  I  give  way  ? 

Death  is  at  hand,  He  harms  me  not. 

My  senses  fail,  I  fear  no  loss. 

My  tongue  is  dumb;  For  here  I  lie 

Now,  Christ,  prevail.  Beneath  Thy  cross. 

III.     On  recovering  from  his  Sickness. 

My  God  !  my  Lord  !  Though  now  delayed, 

Healed  by  Thy  hand.  My  hour  will  come. 

Upon  the  earth  Involved,  perchance. 

Once  more  I  stand.  In  deeper  gloom. 

Let  sin  no  more  But,  let  it  come; 

Rule  over  me;  With  joy  I'll  rise. 

My  mouth  shall  sing  And  bear  mj'  yoke 

Alone  of  Thee.  Straight  to  the  skies. 

§  14.    The  Open  Breach.      Controversy  about  Fasts.    1522. 

Zwingli  was  permitted  to  labor  in  Zurich  for  two  j^ears 
without  serious  opposition,  although  he  had  not  a  few  ene- 
mies, both  religious  and  political.  The  magistracy  of  Zurich 
took  at  first  a  neutral  position,  and  ordered  the  priests  of 
the  city  and  country  to  preach  the  Scriptures,  and  to  be 
silent  about  human  inventions  (1520).  This  is  the  first  in- 
stance of  an  episcopal  interference  of  the  civil  authority  in 
matters  of  religion.  It  afterwards  became  a  settled  custom 
in  Protestant  Switzerland  with  the  full  consent  of  Zwingli. 
He  Avas  appointed  canon  of  the  Grossmiinster,  April  29, 
1521,  with  an  additional  salary  of  seventy  guilders,  after 
he  had  given  up  the  papal  pension.  With  this  moderate 
income  he  was  contented  for  the  rest  of  his  life. 


§  14.     THE   OPEN   BREACH.  47 

During  Lent,  1522,  Zwingli  preached  a  sermon  in  which 
he  showed  that  the  prohibition  of  meat  in  Lent  had  no  foun- 
dation in  Scripture.  Several  of  his  friends,  including  his 
publisher,  Froschauer,  made  practical  use  of  their  liberty. 

This  brought  on  an  open  rupture.  The  bishop  of  Con- 
stance sent  a  strong  deputation  to  Zurich,  and  urged  the 
observance  of  the  customary  fasts.  The  magistracy  prohib- 
ited the  violation,  and  threatened  to  punish  the  offenders 
(April  9,  1522).!  Zwingli  defended  himself  in  a  tract  on 
the  free  use  of  meats  (April  16). ^  It  is  his  first  printed 
book.  He  essentially  takes  the  position  of  Paul,  that,  in 
things  indifferent,  Christi?fns  have  liberty  to  use  or  to  abstain, 
and  that  the  Church  authorities  have  no  right  to  forbid  this 
liberty.  He  appeals  to  such  passages  as  1  Cor.  8:8;  10  :  25 ; 
Col.  2  :  16  ;  1  Tim.  4:1;  Rom.  14 : 1-3  ;  15 : 1,  2. 

The  bishop  of  Constance  issued  a  mandate  to  the  civil 
authorities  (May  24),  exhorting  them  to  protect  the  ordi- 
nances of  the  Holy  Church.-'^  He  admonished  the  canons, 
without  naming  Zwingli,  to  prevent  the  spread  of  heretical 
doctrines.  He  also  sought  and  obtained  the  aid  of  the  Swiss 
Diet,  then  sitting  at  Lucerne. 

Zwingli  was  in  a  dangerous  position.  He  was  repeatedly 
threatened  with  assassination.     But  he  kept  his  courage,  and 

1  Egli,  Actensammlung,  p.  77  (No.  237).  Miirikofer  (1.97)  gives  a  wrong 
date  (March  19,  1521)  ;  but  Egli's  printer  made  an  error  in  correcting  him  by 
quoting  vol.  II.  instead  of  I. 

2  Von  Erkiesen  unci  Fryheit  der  Spy  sen  (Z>e  delectu  et  libera  ciborum  usu). 
Werke,  I.  B.  1-30 ;  a  Latin  version  by  Gwalter  in  Opera  Lat.  I.  324-339. 

3  Egli,  p.  85 ;  Strickler,  I.  428.  I  give  it  here  as  a  fair  specimen  of  the 
semi-barbarous  German  of  Swiss  documents  of  that  period.  "Dass  unser 
vatterlicher  getriiwer  rat  und  fruntlich  ernstUch  pitt  ist,  ir  wollen  die  drgenuss  und 
widerivdrtigkeit  by  iich  selbs,  den  iiwern  und  andern  furkommen  und  tick  obgemeldten 
der  hailigen  kirchen  ordnungen  und  guoten  geivonhaiten  in  cristenlicher  geainter 
gehorsami  verglychen,  die  vollziechen  und  solichs  by  den  iiwern  zuo  gesche{h)en, 
sovil  an  iich,  verschaffen.  Das  halten  wir  dem  Evangelio,  der  leer  Pauli  und  dem 
hailigen  unservi  cristenlichen  glouhen  glychmassig.  Ir  tuond  ouch  daran  iich  und 
den  iiwern  ivolfart,  von  uns  gnddigklich  und  friintlich  zuo  erkennen  und  zuo 
verdienen." 


48  THE   SWISS    REFORMATION. 

felt  sure  of  ultimate  victory.  He  replied  in  the  Archeteles 
(*•'  the  Beginning  and  the  End "),  hoping  that  this  first 
answer  would  be  the  last.^  He  protested  that  he  had  done 
no  wrong,  but  endeavored  to  lead  men  to  God  and  to  his 
Son  Jesus  Christ  in  plain  language,  sucli  as  the  common 
people  could  understand.  He  warned  the  hierarchy  of  the 
approaching  collapse  of  the  Romish  ceremonies,  and  advised 
them  to  follow  the  example  of  Julius  Csesar,  who  folded  his 
garments  around  him  that  he  might  fall  with  dignity.  The 
significance  of  this  book  consists  in  the  strong  statement  of 
the  authority  of  the  Scriptures  against  the  authority  of  the 
Church.     Erasmus  was  much  displeased  with  it. 

§  15.    Petition  for  the  Abolition  of  Clerical  Celibacy . 
ZwingWs  Marriage. 

In  July  of  the  same  year  (1522),  Zwingli,  with  ten  other 
l^riests,  sent  a  Latin  petition  to  the  bishop,  and  a  German 
petition  to  the  Swiss  Diet,  to  permit  the  free  preaching  of 
the  gospel  and  the  marriage  of  the  clergy  as  the  only  remedy 
against  the  evils  of  enforced  celibacy.  He  quotes  the  Scrip- 
tures for  the  divine  institution  and  right  of  marriage,  and 
begs  the  confederates  to  permit  what  God  himself  has  sanc- 
tioned. He  sent  both  petitions  to  Myconius  in  Lucerne  for 
signatures.  Some  priests  approved,  but  were  afraid  to  sign ; 
others  said  the  petition  was  useless,  and  could  only  be 
granted  by  the  pope  or  a  council.^ 

The  petition  was  not  granted.  Several  priests  openly  dis- 
obeyed. One  married  even  a  nun  of  the  convent  of  Oeten- 
bach  (1523)  ;  Reubli  of  Wyticon  married,  April  28,  1523 ; 
Leo  Judse,  Sept.  19,  1523. 

Zwingli  himself  entered  into  the  marriage  relation  in  1522,-^ 

1  Opera,  III.  26-76. 

2  Werke,  I.  A.  30-51 ;  III.  16-25. 

^  See  the  letters  of  Myconius  from  1522,  where  he  sends  salutations  to 
Zwingli's  wife,  quoted  in  §  7,  p.  28. 


§  15    PETITION   FOK    THE   ABOLITION   OF   CELIBACY.      49 

but  from  prudential  reasons  he  did  not  make  it  public  till 
April  5,  1524  (more  than  a  year  before  Luther's  marriage, 
which  took  place  June  13,  1525).  Such  cases  of  secret 
marriage  were  not  unfrequent ;  but  it  would  have  been 
better  for  his  fame  if,  as  a  minister  and  reformer,  he  had 
exercised  self-restraint  till  public  opinion  was  ripe  for  the 
change. 

His  wife,  Anna  Reinhart,^  was  the  widow  of  Hans  Meyer 
von  Knonau,^  the  mother  of  three  children,  and  lived  near 
Zwingli.  She  was  two  years  older  than  he.  His  enemies 
spread  the  report  that  hev  married  for  beauty  and  Avealth ; 
but  she  possessed  only  four  hundred  guilders  besides  lier 
wardrobe  and  jewelry.  She  ceased  to  wear  her  jewelry  after 
marrying  the  Reformer. 

We  have  only  one  letter  of  Zwingli  to  his  wife,  written 
from  Berne,  Jan.  11,  1528,  in  which  he  addresses  her  as  his 
dearest  house-wife.^  From  occasional  expressions  of  respect 
and  affection  for  his  wife,  and  from  salutations  of  friends  to 
her,  we  must  infer  that  his  family  life  was  happy ;  but  it 
lacked  the  poetic  charm  of  Luther's  home.  She  was  a  useful 
helpmate  in  his  work.^     She  contributed  her  share  towards 

^  His  letter  to  her  bears  the  inscription,  "Der  Frauen  Anna  Heinhartin  in 
Zurich,  seiner  lieben  Hausfrau."  Opera,  VIII.  134.  Others  spell  the  name 
Reinhard. 

2  A  soldier  of  wild  habits,  who  belonged  to  one  of  the  oldest  and  richest 
families  of  Zurich,  and  died  1517. 

3  It  is  as  follows  (VIII.  134):  "Gnad  und  Fried  von  Gott.  Liebste  Haits- 
frau,  ich  sage  Gott  Dunk,  dass  er  dir  cine  frohliche  Geburt  verlielien  hat;  der  ifolle 
uns  die  nach  seinem  Widen  zii  erziehen  verleihen.  Schiche  meiner  Base  ein  oder 
zwei  Tiichli  [^TUchlein'],  solcher  Mass  und  Weise,  als  du  sie  trdgst.  Sie  kommt 
ziemlich  \^s{ttsam'],  dock  nicht  beginlich  [_i.e.,  ivie  eine  Nonne,  eine  Beghine'],  ist  eine 
Frau  von  40  Jahren  in  alle  Weis  und  Mass,  ivie  sie  Meister  Jorgen  Frau  beschrieben 
hat.  Thut  mir  und  uns  Allen  iiber  die  3Iass  giltlich.  Bis  \_8ei']  hie.mit  Gott  befohlen. 
Griisse  mir  Gevatter  Schaffnerin,  Ulmann  Trinkler,  Schidthess  Effingerin  und  wer 
dir  lieb  sei.  Bitt  Gott  fur  mich  und  uns  Alle.  Gegeben  zu  Bern  11.  Tag  Janners. 
Griisse  mir  alle  deine  Kinder.  Besonders  Margreth  troste  in  meinem  Namen. 
Huldreich  Zwingli,  dein  Hauswirth." 

*  One  of  his  friends  calls  her  "eine  Mitarbeiterin  am  Wort,  welche  dir,  dem 
Apostel,  beliiilflirh  ist."     Fiuslcr,  f7.  Zwingli,  p.  52  sq. 


50  THE   SWISS   EEFORMATION. 

the  creation  of  pastoral  family  life,  with  its  innumerable 
happy  homes.i 

In  Zwingli's  beautiful  copy  of  the  Greek  Bible  (from  the 
press  of  Aldus  in  Venice,  1518),  which  is  still  preserved 
and  called  "  Zwingli's  Bible,"  he  entered  with  his  own  hand 
a  domestic  chronicle,  which  records  the  names,  birthdays, 
and  sponsors  of  his  four  children,  as  follows :  "  Regula 
Zwingli,  born  July  13,  1521 ;  ^  Wilhelm  Zwingli,  born  Janu- 
ary 29,  1526  ;  3  Huldreich  Zwingli,  born  Jan.  6, 1528;^  Anna 
Zwingli,  born  May  4,  1530."  ^  His  last  male  descendant  was 
his  grandson,  Ulrich,  professor  of  theology,  born  1556,  died 
1601.  The  last  female  descendant  was  his  great-grand- 
daughter, Anna  Zwingli,  who  presented  his  MS.  copy  of 
the  Greek  Epistles  of  Paul  to  the  city  library  of  Zurich 
in  1634. 

Zwingli  lived  in  great  simplicity,  and  left  no  property. 
His  little  study  (the  "  Zwingli-Stiibli "),  in  the  official  dwell- 
ing of  the  deacon  of  the  Great  Minster,  is  carefully  preserved 
in  its  original  condition. 

§  16.    Zwhigli  and  Lambert  of  Avignon. 

In  July,  1522,  there  appeared  in  Zurich  a  Franciscan 
monk,  Lambert  of  Avignon,  in  his  monastic  dress,  riding  on 
a  donkey.  He  had  left  his  convent  in  the  south  of  France, 
and  was  in  search  of  evangelical  religion.  Haller  of  Berne 
recommended  him  to  Zwingli.  Lambert  preached  some  Latin 
sermons  against  the  abuses  of  the  Roman  Church,  but  still 
advocated  the  worship  of   saints  and  of  the  Virgin  Mary. 

1  Comp.  vol.  VI.  §  79,  p.  473  sqq. 

2  She  married  Rudolf  Gwalter,  Bullinger's  adopted  son  and  successor,  and 
first  editor  of  Zwingli's  collected  works. 

3  He  studied  at  Strassburg  with  Capito,  and  died  with  him  of  the  pesti- 
lence, 1541. 

*  He  became  pastor  of  the  Prediger-Kirche,  and  married  Bullinger's  oldest 
daughter,  Anna. 

5  Anna  died  very  young,  and  her  death  is  recorded  in  the  same  book. 


§  17.     THE    SIXTY-SEVEN    CONCLUSIONS.  51 

Zwingli  interrupted  him  with  the  remark,  "  You  err,"  and 
convinced  him  of  his  error  in  a  disputation. 

The  Franciscan  thanked  God  and  proceeded  to  Witten- 
berg, where  Luther  received  him  kindly.  At  the  Synod  of 
Homberg  (1526)  he  advocated  a  scheme  of  Presbyterian 
church  government,  and  at  the  conference  at  Marburg  he 
professed  to  be  converted  to  Zwingli's  view  of  the  Lord's 
Supper.^ 

§  17.    The  Sixty-seven  Conclusions . 

On  the  Sixty-seven  Conclusions  and  the  Three  Disputations  see  Zwingli  : 
Werke,  I.  A.  105  sqq. ;  Bl'llinger:  I.  97  sqq. ;  Egli  :  111,  114,  173  sqq. ; 
MoRiKOFER  :  I.  138  sqq.,  191  sqq.  The  text  of  the  Sixty-seven  Articles 
in  Swiss-German,  Werke,  I.  A.  153-157  ;  in  modern  German  and  Latin,  in 
ScHAFF  :    Creeds  of  Christendom,  III.  197-207. 

Zwingli's  views,  in  connection  with  the  Lutheran  Refor- 
mation in  Germany,  created  a  great  commotion,  not  only  in 
the  city  and  canton  of  Zurich,  but  in  all  Switzerland.  At 
his  suggestion,  the  government  —  that  is,  the  burgomaster 
and  the  small  and  large  Council  (called  The  Two  Hundred) 
—  ordered  a  public  disputation  which  should  settle  the  con- 
troversy on  the  sole  basis  of  the  Scriptures. 

For  this  purpose  Zwingli  published  Sixty-seven  Articles 
or  Conclusions  (^Sclilussrederi).  They  are  the  first  public 
statement  of  the  Reformed  faith,  but  they  never  attained 
symbolical  authority,  and  were  superseded  by  maturer  con- 
fessions. They  resemble  the  Ninety-five  Theses  of  Luther 
against  indulgences,  which  six  years  before  had  opened  the 
drama  of  the  German  Reformation ;  but  they  mark  a  great 
advance  in  Protestant  sentiment,  and  cover  a  larger  number 
of  topics.  They  are  full  of  Christ  as  the  only  Saviour  and 
Mediator,  and  clearly  teach  the  supremacy  of  the  Word  of 
God  as  the  only  rule  of  faith;  they  reject  and  attack  the 
primacy  of    the    Pope,   the   j\Iass,  the   invocation   of   saints, 

1  See  vol.  VI.  582  sqq.,  586  sq.,  649.  Comp.  Bullinger,  I.  76  sqq. ;  Haller's 
letter  to  Zwingli,  July  8,  1522  {Opera,  VII.  206  sq.). 


52  THE    SWISS   REFORMATION. 

the  meritoriousness  of  human  works,  the  fasts,  pilgrimages, 
celibacy,  purgatory,  etc.,  as  unscriptural  commandments  of 
men. 

The  following  are  the  most  important  of  these  theses  :  — 

1.  All  who  say  that  the  gospel  is  nothing  without  the  approbation  of  the 
Church,  err  and  cast  reproach  upon  God. 

2.  The  sum  of  the  gospel  is  that  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  true  Son  of 
God,  has  made  known  to  us  the  will  of  his  heavenly  Father,  and  redeemed  us 
by  his  innocence  from  eternal  death,  and  reconciled  us  to  God. 

3.  Therefore  Christ  is  the  only  way  to  salvation  to  all  who  were,  who  are, 
who  shall  be. 

4.  Whosoever  seeks  or  shows  another  door,  errs — yea,  is  a  murderer  of 
souls  and  a  robber. 

7.  Christ  is  the  head  of  all  believers  who  are  his  body ;  but  without  him 
the  body  is  dead. 

8.  All  who  live  in  this  Head  are  his  members  and  children  of  God.  And 
this  is  the  Church,  the  communion  of  saints,  the  bride  of  Christ,  the  Ecclesia 
cathoUca. 

15.  Who  believes  the  gospel  shall  be  saved;  who  believes  not,  shall  be 
damned.     For  in  the  gospel  the  whole  truth  is  clearly  contained. 

16.  From  the  gospel  we  learn  that  the  doctrines  and  traditions  of  men  are 
of  no  use  to  salvation. 

17.  Christ  is  the  one  eternal  high-priest.  Those  who  pretend  to  be  high- 
priests  resist,  yea,  set  aside,  the  honor  and  dignity  of  Christ. 

18.  Christ,  who  offered  himself  once  on  the  cross,  is  the  sufficient  and  per- 
petual sacrifice  for  the  sins  of  all  believers.  Therefore  the  mass  is  no  sacri- 
fice, but  a  commemoration  of  the  one  sacrifice  of  the  cross,  and  a  seal  of  the 
redemption  through  Christ. 

19.  Christ  is  the  onl}'  Mediator  between  God  and  us. 

22.  Christ  is  our  righteousness.  From  this  it  follows  that  our  works  are 
good  so  far  as  they  are  Christ's,  but  not  good  so  far  as  they  are  our  own. 

24.  Christians  are  not  bound  to  any  works  which  Christ  has  not  com- 
manded.    They  may  eat  at  all  times  all  kinds  of  food. 

26.  Nothing  is  more  displeasing  to  God  than  hypocrisy. 

27.  All  Christians  are  brethren. 

28.  Whatsoever  God  permits  and  has  not  forbidden,  is  right.  Therefore 
marriage  is  becoming  to  all  men. 

34.  The  spiritual  [hierarchical]  power,  so  called,  has  no  foundation  in  the 
Holy  Scriptures  and  the  teaching  of  Christ.^ 

35.  But  the  secular  power  [of  the  state]  is  confirmed  by  the  teaching  and 
example  of  Christ.^ 

1  Zwingli  means  the  worldly  power  and  splendor  of  the  pope  and  the  bishops,  and 
quotes  against  it  the  lessons  of  humility,  Matt.  18:  1:  1  Pet.  5:1-3:  '^  Die  Hohe  nach  der 
die  pdpst  und  hishqf  strytend,  hat  Iceinen  Grund."  See  his  Uslegung  or  defence  of  the 
Articles,  Werke,  I.  346  sq. 

2  For  this  he  quotes  Luke  2  :  5  and  Matt.  22  :  21. 


§  18.    THE   PUBLIC   DISPUTATIONS.  53 

37,  38.    All  Christians  owe  obedience  to  the  magistracy,  provided  it  does 
not  command  what  is  against  God.^ 

49.  I  know  of  no  greater  scandal  than  the  prohibition  of  lawful  marriage 
to  priests,  while  they  are  permitted  for  money  to  have  concubines.     Shame '.^ 

50.  God  alone  forgives  sins,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  alone. 

57.  The  Holy  Scripture  knows  nothing  of  a  purgatory  after  this  life. 

58,  59.    God  alone  knows  the  condition  of  the  departed,  and  the  less  he  has 
made  known  to  us,  the  less  we  should  pretend  to  know. 

66.   All  spiritual  superiors  should  repent  without  delay,  and  set  up  the 
cross  of  Christ  alone,  or  they  will  perish.     The  axe  is  laid  at  the  root. 


§  18.    The  Public  Disputations.     1523. 

The  first  disputation  was  held  in  the  city  hall  on  Thurs- 
day, Jan.  29,  1523,  in  the  German  language,  before  about 
six  hundred  persons,  including  all  the  clergy  and  members 
of  the  small  and  large  councils  of  Zurich.  St.  Gall  was 
represented  by  Vadian ;  Berne,  by  Sebastian  Meyer ;  Schaff- 
liausen,  by  Sebastian  Hofmeister.  Q^colampadius  from  Basle 
expected  no  good  from  disputations,  and  declined  to  come. 
He  agreed  with  Melanchthon's  opinion  about  the  Leipzig 
disputation  of  Eck  with  Carlstadt  and  Luther.  Neverthe- 
less, he  attended,  three  years  afterwards,  the  Disputation  at 
Baden.  The  bishop  of  Constance  sent  his  general  vicar.  Dr. 
Faber,  hitherto  a  friend  of  Zwingli,  and  a  man  of  respect- 
able learning  and  an  able  debater,  with  three  others  as  coun- 
sellors and  judges.  Faber  declined  to  enter  into  a  detailed 
discussion  of  theological  questions  which,  he  thought,  belong 
to  the  tribunal  of  councils  or  of  renowned  universities,  as 

1  In  the  Uslegung  (I.  352  sq.)  he  explains  Rom.  13:1:  "Let  every  soul  be  subject  unto 
the  higher  powers."  "  Every  soul,"  he  says,  "  means  every  livihg  man,  and  includes  popes, 
bishops,  priests,  monks  and  nuns.  Every  power  is  from  God;  consequently,  also,  a  bad 
magistracy,  with  which  God  punishes  our  sins  (Isa.  3:  4).  Then  we  must  also  obey  the  pope, 
even  a  bad  one,  because  he  is  set  over  us  by  God  for  punishment.  This  I  believe  firmly,  but 
I  believe  also  that  God  will  lead  us  out  of  this  captivity,  as  he  led  Israel  out  of  Egypt  through 
his  servant  Moses." 

2  "  Pfui  der  Schande,"  is  added  in  the  German  text.  In  the  Swiss  dialect,  "  Pfitch  der 
Schand  !  "  (I.  A.  156).  In  the  defence  of  this  article  (I.  378  sq.),  Zwingli  strongly  illustrates 
the  evil  effects  of  the  lewd  life  of  the  unmarried  clergy  upon  the  morals  of  the  laity.  "It 
is  easy,"  he  says,  "  to  command  chastity;  but  no  one  is  able  to  keep  it  without  the  grace  of 
God."    Concerning  his  own  case,  see  §  7,  p.  27. 


54  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

Paris,  Cologne  and  Louvain.  Zwingli  answered  his  objec- 
tions, and  convinced  the  audience.^ 

On  the  same  day  the  magistracy  passed  judgment  in  favor 
of  Zwingli,  and  directed  him  "  to  continue  to  preach  the 
holy  gospel  as  heretofore,  and  to  proclaim  the  true,  divine 
Scriptures  until  he  was  better  informed."  All  other  preach- 
ers and  pastors  in  the  city  and  country  were  warned  "  not  to 
preach  anything  wliich  they  could  not  establish  by  the  holy 
Gospel  and  other  divine  Scriptures,"  and  to  avoid  personal 
controversy  and  bitter  names.^ 

Zwingli  prepared  a  lengthy  and  able  defence  of  his  Arti- 
cles against  the  charges  of  Faber,  July,  1523.^ 

The  disputation  soon  produced  its  natural  effects.  Minis- 
ters took  regular  wives ;  the  nunnery  of  Oetenbach  was 
emptied ;  baptism  was  administered  in  the  vernacular,  and 
without  exorcism ;  the  mass  and  worship  of  images  were 
neglected  and  despised.  A  band  of  citizens,  under  the  lead 
of  a  shoemaker,  Klaus  Hottinger,  overthrew  the  great  wooden 
crucifix  in  Stadelhofen,  near  the  city,  and  committed  other 
lawless  acts.* 

Zwingli  was  radical  in  his  opposition  to  idolatrous  and 
superstitious  ceremonies,  but  disapproved  disorderly  meth- 
ods, and  wished  the  magistracy  to  authorize  the  necessary 
changes. 

Consequently,  a  second  disputation  was  arranged  for  Octo- 
ber 26,  1523,  to  settle  the  question  of  images  and  of   the 

1  An  unofficial  report  of  the  disputation  was  published  by  Hegenvvald, 
March  3,  1523  (Werke,  I.  A.  105-168).  Faber  issued,  March  10,  a  counter- 
report.  Seven  Ziirichers  replied  to  him  in  "Das  Gijrenrupfen"  (^Gei/ernip/en), 
1523,  and  charged  him  with  lying  and  claiming  the  speeches  of  others. 
Salat's  Historische  NachricM  of  the  deputation  is  a  " parteiische  Verstiimmelunff 
unci  Entslellung "  of  Hegenwald's  report,  and  hence  of  no  historical  value 
(Schuler  and  Schulthess,  in  their  ed.  of  Zw.  I.  109).  Comp.  Aug.  Baur,  Die 
erste  Ziircher  Disputation,  Halle,  1883. 

2  Egli,  114  sq.;  BuUinger,  I.  103. 

3  Werke,  I.  A.  169-425. 

*  Fiissli,  II.  33-39;  Egli,  176,  178. 


§  18.    THE   PUBLIC    DISPUTATIONS.  55 

mass.  All  the  ministers  of  the  city  and  canton  were  ordered 
to  attend;  the  twelve  other  cantons,  the  bishops  of  Con- 
stance, Coire  and  Basle,  and  the  University  of  Basle  were 
urgently  requested  to  send  learned  delegates.  The  bishop 
of  Constance  replied  (Oct.  16)  that  he  must  obey  the  Pope 
and  the  Emperor,  and  advised  the  magistracy  to  wait  for  a 
general  council.  The  bishop  of  Basle  excused  himself  on 
account  of  age  and  sickness,  but  likewise  referred  to  a 
council  and  warned  against  separation.  The  bishop  of  Coire 
made  no  answer.  Most  of  the  cantons  declined  to  send 
delegates,  except  Schaffhausen  and  St.  Gall.  Unterwalden 
honestly  replied  that  they  had  no  learned  men  among  them, 
but  pious  j)riests  who  faithfully  adhered  to  the  old  faith  of 
Christendom,  which  they  preferred  to  all  innovations. 

The  second  disputation  was  held  in  the  city  hall,  and 
lasted  three  days.  There  were  present  about  nine  hundred 
persons,  including  three  hundred  and  fifty  clergymen  and  ten 
doctors.  Dr.  Vadian  of  St.  Gall,  Dr.  Hofmeister  of  Schaff- 
hausen, and  Dr.  Schappeler  of  St.  Gall  presided.  Zwingli 
and  Leo  Judse  defended  the  Protestant  cause,  and  had  the 
advantage  of  superior  Scripture  learning  and  argument. 
The  Roman  party  betrayed  much  ignorance  ;  but  Martin 
Steinli  of  Schaffhausen  ably  advocated  the  mass.  Konrad 
Schmid  of  Kiissnacht  took  a  moderate  position,  and  pro- 
duced great  effect  upon  the  audience  by  his  eloquence.  His 
judgment  was,  first  to  take  the  idolatry  out  of  the  heart 
before  abolishing  the  outward  images,  and  to  leave  the  staff 
to  the  weak  until  they  are  able  to  walk  without  it  and  to 
rely  solely  on  Christ.^ 

1  The  only  German  report  of  the  second  disputation,  in  Werke,  I.  A.  459- 
540  (conip.  BuUinger,  1. 131  sqq.),  is  from  the  pen  of  Ludwig  Hetzer,  chaplain 
at  Wadenschweil,  then  priest  at  Zurich,  an  ardent  friend  of  the  Reformation, 
who  afterwards  joined  the  Anabaptists,  and  was  beheaded  at  Constance. 
Gwalter  made  an  abridged  Latin  translation  in  Zw.  Opera,  II.  623-G46.  Zwingli 
took  the  ground  that  a  truly  Christian  congregation  was  a  better  church  than 
all  the  bishops  and  popes,  and  had  as  good  a  right  to  settle  religious  contro- 


56  THE   SWISS   KEFOEMATION. 

The  Council  was  not  prepared  to  order  the  immediate 
abolition  of  the  mass  and  the  images.  It  punished  Hottin- 
ger  and  other  "  idol-stormers  "  by  banishment,  and  appointed 
a  commission  of  ministers  and  laymen,  including  Zwingli, 
Schmidt  and  Judce,  who  should  enlighten  the  people  on  the 
subject  by  preaching  and  writing.  Zwingli  prepared  his 
"  Short  and  Christian  Introduction,"  which  was  sent  by  the 
Council  of  Two  Hundred  to  all  the  ministers  of  the  canton, 
the  bishops  of  Constance,  Basle,  and  Coire,  the  University  of 
Basle,  and  to  the  twelve  other  cantons  (Nov.  17,  1523).^  It 
may  be  compared  to  the  instruction  of  Melanchthon  for  the 
visitation  of  the  churches  of  Saxony  (1528). 

A  third  disputation,  of  a  more  private  character,  was  held 
Jan.  20,  1524.  The  advocates  of  the  mass  were  refuted  and 
ordered  not  to  resist  any  longer  the  decisions  of  the  magis- 
tracy, though  they  might  adhere  to  their  faith. 

During  the  last  disputation,  Zwingli  preached  a  sermon 
on  the  corrupt  state  of  the  clergy,  which  he  published  by 
request  in  March,  1524,  under  the  title  "The  Shepherd." ^ 
He  represents  Christ  as  the  good  Shepherd  in  contrast  with 
the  selfish  hirelings,  according  to  the  parable  in  the  tenth 
chapter  of  the  Gospel  of  John.  Among  the  false  shepherds 
he  counts  the  bishops  who  do  not  preach  at  all ;  those  priests 
who  teach  their  own  dreams  instead  of  the  Word  of  God ; 
those  who  preach  the  Word  but  for  the  glorification  of 
j)opery ;  those  who  deny  their  preaching  by  their  conduct ; 
those  who  preach  for  filthy  lucre ;  and,  finally,  all  who  mis- 
lead men  away  from  the  Creator  to  the  creature.     Zwingli 

versies  as  a  council,  where  the  Word  of  God  was  not  allowed  to  decide.  "Ja, 
Hongg  und  Kussnacht  ist  ein  gewiissere  Kilch  denn  all  ziisammen  gerotlet  hishof  iind 
pcipst."      Werke,  I.  472. 

1  Ein  kiirz  christenliche  ijnleitung,  die  ein  eersamer  rat  dei-  statt  Ziirich  den  scelsor- 
gem  und  priidicanten  .  .  .  zugesandt  hahend,  etc.  Werke,  I.  A.  541-505.  Gwalter 
gives  a  Latin  version,  Op.  I.  264-268. 

^  Der  Hirt,  luie  man  die  loaren  chrixtenlichen  hirten  und  iciderum  die  falschen 
erkennen  .  .  .  sotle.     Werke,  I.  A.  631-668. 


§  18.    THE   PUBLIC   DISPUTATIONS.  57 

treats  the  papists  as  refined  idolaters,  and  repeatedly  de- 
nounces idolatry  as  the  root  of  the  errors  and  abuses  of  the 
Church. 

During  the  summer  of  1524  the  answers  of  the  bishops 
and  the  Diet  appeared,  both  in  opposition  to  any  innovations. 
The  bishop  of  Constance,  in  a  letter  to  Zurich,  said  that  he 
had  consulted  several  universities ;  that  the  mass  and  the 
images  were  sufficiently  warranted  by  the  Scriptures,  and  had 
always  been  in  use.  The  canton  appointed  a  commission  of 
clergymen  and  laymen  to  answer  the  episcopal  document.^ 
The  Swiss  Diet,  by  a  deputation,  March  21,  1524,  expressed 
regret  that  Zurich  sympathized  with  the  new,  unchristian 
Lutheran  religion,  and  prayed  the  canton  to  remain  faithful 
to  old  treaties  and  customs,  in  which  case  the  confederates 
would  cheerfully  aid  in  rooting  out  real  abuses,  such  as  the 
shameful  trade  in  benefices,  the  selling  of  indulgences,  and 
the  scandalous  lives  of  the  clergy. 

Thus  forsaken  by  the  highest  ecclesiastical  and  civil  au- 
thorities, the  canton  of  Zurich  acted  on  its  own  responsi- 
bility, and  carried  out  the  contemplated  reforms. 

The  three  disputations  mark  an  advance  beyond  the  usual 
academic  disputations  in  the  Latin  language.  They  were  held 
before  laymen  as  well  as  clergymen,  and  in  the  vernacular. 
They  brought  religious  questions  before  the  tribunal  of  the 
people  according  to  the  genius  of  republican  institutions. 
They  had,  therefore,  more  practical  effect  than  the  disputa- 
tion at  Leipzig.  The  German  Reformation  was  decided  by 
the  will  of  the  princes ;  the  Swiss  Reformation,  by  the  will 
of  the  people :  but  in  both  cases  there  was  a  sympathy 
between  the  rulers  and  the  majority  of  the  population. 

1  The  answer  was  written  by  Zwingli,  and  printed  Aug.  18,  1524.  Werke, 
I.  A.  584-630. 


58  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

§  19.    The  Abolition  of  the  Roman  Worship.     1524. 

BuLLiNGER,  I.  173  sqq.     Fussli,  I.  142  sqq.     Egli,  234  sqq. 

By  these  preparatory  measures,  public  opinion  was  pre- 
pared for  the  practical  application  of  the  new  ideas.  The 
old  order  of  worsliip  had  to  be  abolished  before  the  new 
order  could  be  introduced.  The  destruction  was  radical,  but 
orderly.  It  was  effected  b}'  the  co-operation  of  the  preachers 
and  the  civil  magistracy,  with  the  consent  of  the  people.  It 
began  at  Pentecost,  and  was  completed  June  20,  1524. 

In  the  presence  of  a  deputation  from  the  authorities  of 
Church  and  State,  accompanied  by  architects,  masons  and 
carpenters,  the  churches  of  the  city  were  purged  of  pictures, 
relics,  crucifixes,  altars,  candles,  and  all  ornaments,  the  fres- 
coes effaced,  and  the  walls  wliitewashed,  so  that  nothing 
remained  but  the  bare  building  to  be  filled  b}"  a  worshiping 
congregation.  The  pictures  were  broken  and  burnt,  some 
given  to  those  who  had  a  claim,  a  few  preserved  as  antiqui- 
ties. The  bones  of  the  saints  were  buried.  Even  the  organs 
were  removed,  and  the  Latin  singing  of  the  choir  abolished, 
but  fortunately  afterwards  replaced  by  congregational  sing- 
ing of  psalms  and  hymns  in  the  vernacular  (in  Basle  as 
early  as  1526,  in  St.  Gall  1527,  in  Zurich  in  1598).  "Within 
thirteen  days,"  says  Bullinger,  "  all  the  churches  of  the  city 
were  cleared ;  costly  works  of  painting  and  sculpture,  espe- 
cially a  beautiful  table  in  the  Waterchurch,  were  destroj^ed. 
The  superstitious  lamented;  but  the  true  believers  rejoiced 
in  it  as  a  great  and  joyous  worship  of  God."  ^ 

In  the  following  year  the  magistracy  melted,  sold,  or  gave 
away  the  rich  treasures  of  the  Great  Minster  and  the  Frauen- 
minster,  —  chalices,  crucifixes,  and  crosses  of  gold  and  silver, 

^  1. 175.  Bullinger  justifies  the  abolition  of  church  music  (which  took  place 
in  the  Grossmiinster,  Dec.  9,  1527)  with  St.  Paul's  objection  to  the  unintelli- 
gible glossolalia  without  interpretation  (1  Cor.  14:6-9).  He  must,  of  course, 
mean  the  chanting  of  a  choir  in  Latin.  The  Swiss  Reformed  churches  excel 
in  congregational  singing. 


§  19.     THE    ABOLITION    OF    THE    KOMAN    WORSHIP.        59 

precious  relics,  clerical  robes,  tapestry,  and  other  ornaments.^ 
In  1533  not  a  copper's  worth  was  left  in  the  sacristy  of  the 
Great  Minster.^  Zwingli  justified  this  vandalism  b}^  the 
practice  of  a  conquering  army  to  spike  the  guns  and  to 
destroy  the  forts  and  provisions  of  the  enemy,  lest  he  might 
be  tempted  to  return. 

The  same  work  of  destruction  took  place  in  the  village 
churches  in  a  less  orderly  way.  Nothing  was  left  but  the 
bare  buildings,  empty,  cold  and  forbidding. 

The  Swiss  Reformers  proceeded  on  a  strict  construction  of 
the  second  commandment  as  understood  by  Jews  and  Mos- 
lems. They  regarded  all  kinds  of  worship  paid  to  images 
and  relics  as  a  species  of  idolatry.  They  opposed  chiefly  the 
paganism  of  popery ;  while  Luther  attacked  its  legalistic 
Judaism,  and  allowed  the  pictures  to  remain  as  works  of  art 
and  helps  to  devotion.  For  the  classical  literature  of  Greece 
and  Rome,  however,  Zwingli  had  more  respect  than  Luther. 
It  should  be  remarked  also  that  he  was  not  opposed  to 
images  as  such  any  more  than  to  poetry  and  music,  but  only 
to  their  idolatrous  use  in  churches.  In  his  reply  to  Valentin 
Compar  of  Uri  (1525),  he  says,  "  The  controversy  is  not 
about  images  which  do  not  offend  the  faith  and  the  honor  of 
God,  but  about  idols  to  which  divine  honors  are  paid.  Where 
there  is  no  danger  of  idolatry,  the  images  may  remain ;  but 
idols  should  not  be  tolerated.  All  the  papists  tell  us  that 
images  are  the  books  for  the  unlearned.  But  where  has  God 
commanded  us  to  learn  from  such  books  ? "  He  thought 
that  the  absence  of  images  in  churches  would  tend  to  in- 
crease the  hunger  for  the  Word  of  God.^ 

1  Egli,  p.  269  (No.  614,  Jan.  9,  1525)  ;  Morikofer,  I.  315  sq.  Janssen  (III. 
84  sq.)  dwells  with  circumstantial  minuteness  on  the  confiscation  and  robbery 
of  these  church  treasures,  some  of  which  dated  from  the  time  of  Charlemagne. 

-  Egli,  p.  893  (No.  2004,  c.  1533).  Uetinger  declared  that  between  1524 
and  15-32  all  the  treasury  of  the  sacristy  was  squandered,  and  nobody  knew 
what  had  become  of  it.     "  Prorsus  nihil  supererat." 

3  Werke,  II.  A.  17-59.     Comp.  Morikofer,  I.  269-274. 


60  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

The  Swiss  iconoclasm  passed  into  the  Reformed  Churches 
of  France,  Holland,  Scotland,  and  North  America.  In  recent 
times  a  reaction  has  taken  place,  not  in  favor  of  image  wor- 
ship, which  is  dead  and  gone,  but  in  favor  of  Christian  art ; 
and  more  respect  is  paid  to  the  decency  and  beauty  of  the 
house  of  God  and  the  comfort  of  worshipers. 

§  20.    Tlie  Reformed  Celebration  of  the  Lord's  ^up'per. 
ZwiNGLi,  Werlce,  II.  B.  233.     Bullixgee,  I.  263.     Fussli,  IV.  64. 

The  mass  was  gone.  The  preaching  of  the  gospel  and 
the  celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper  by  the  whole  congrega- 
tion, in  connection  with  a  kind  of  Agape,  took  its  place. 

The  first  celebration  of  the  communion  after  the  Reformed 
usage  was  held  in  the  Holy  Week  of  April,  1525,  in  the 
Great  Minster.  There  were  three  services,  —  first  for  the 
youth  on  Maundy-Thursday,  then  for  the  middle-aged  on 
Good  Friday,  and  last  for  the  old  people  on  Easter.  The 
celebration  was  plain,  sober,  solemn.  The  communicants 
were  seated  around  long  tables,  which  took  the  place  of  the 
altar,  the  men  on  the  right,  the  women  on  the  left.  They 
listened  reverently  to  the  prayers,  the  words  of  institution, 
the  Scripture  lessons,  taken  from  the  eleventh  chapter  of  the 
first  Corinthians  and  the  mysterious  discourse  in  the  sixth 
chapter  of  John  on  the  spiritual  eating  and  drinking  of 
Christ's  flesh  and  blood,  and  to  an  earnest  exhortation  of 
the  minister.  They  then  received  in  a  kneeling  posture  the 
sacred  emblems  in  wooden  plates  and  wooden  cups.  The 
whole  service  was  a  commemoration  of  Christ's  atoning  death 
and  a  spiritual  communion  with  him,  according  to  the  theory 
of  Zwingli. 

In  the  liturgical  part  he  retained  more  from  the  Catholic 
service  than  we  might  expect ;  namely,  the  Introit,  the  Gloria 
in  Excelsis,  the  Creed,  and  several  responses ;  but  all  were 
translated  from  Latin  into  the  Swiss  dialect,  and  with  curious 


§  20.     CELEBRATION    O^    THE    LORD's    SUPPER.  61 

modifications.  Thus  the  Gloria  in  Excelsis,  the  Creed,  and 
the  One  Hundred  and  Third  Psalm  were  said  alternately  by 
the  men  and  the  women,  instead  of  the  minister  and  the 
deacon,  as  in  the  Catholic  service,  or  the  minister  and  the 
congregation,  as  in  the  Lutheran  and  Episcopal  services.^ 
In  most  of  the  Reform.ed  churches  (except  the  Anglican) 
the  responses  passed  out  of  use,  and  the  kneeling  posture 
in  receiving  the  communion  gave  way  to  the  standing  or 
sitting  posture. 

The  communion  service  was  to  be  held  four  times  in  the 
year,  — •  at  Easter,  Whitsunday,  autumn,  and  Christmas.  It 
was  preceded  by  preparatory  devotions,  and  made  a  season 
of  special  solemnity.  The  mass  was  prohibited  at  first  only 
in  the  city,  afterwards  also  in  the  country. 

Zwingli  furnished  also  in  1525  an  abridged  baptismal  ser- 
vice in  the  vernacular  language,  omitting  the  formula  of 
exorcism  and  all  those  elements  for  which  he  found  no 
Scripture  warrant.^ 

The  Zwinglian  and  Calvinistic  worship  depends  for  its 
effect  too  much  upon  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  power  of 
the  minister,  who  can  make  it  either  very  solemn  and  impres- 
sive, or  very  cold  and  barren.  The  Anglican  Church  has 
the  advantage  of  an  admirable  liturgy. 

1  Werke,  II.  B.  237  sqq.     I  give  a  specimen  from  the  Gloria  in  Excepts :  — 

Der  pfarbeb  :  Eer  sye  gott  in  den  hohinnen  ! 

Die  MANN  :    Und  frid  uf  erden  ! 

Die  wyber  :   Den  nienschen  ein  recht  giniit ! 

Die  MANN  •    Wir  lohend  dich,  ivir  prysend  dlch. 

Die  wyber  :    Wir  betend  dich  an,  wir  verehrend  dich,  etc. 

Shorter  responses,  however,  occur  between  the  minister  or  deacon  and  the 

congregation. 

2  The  first  German  baptismal  service  by  Zwingli  and  Leo  .Judae  appeared 
in  the  summer  of  1523,  the  second  in  May,  1525.  Werke,  II.  B.  224  sqq.; 
230  sq. 


62  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

§   21.    Other   Changes.      A    Theological   School.       The    Caro- 
Unum.      A  System  of  Theology. 

Other  changes  completed  the  Reformation.  The  Corpus 
Christi  festival  was  abolished,  and  the  Christian  year  reduced 
to  the  observance  of  Christmas,  Good  Friday,  Easter,  and 
Pentecost.  Processions  and  pilgrimages  ceased.  The  prop- 
erty of  convents  was  confiscated  and  devoted  to  schools  and 
hospitals.  The  matrimonial  legislation  was  reconstructed, 
and  the  care  of  the  poor  organized.  In  1528  a  synod 
assembled  for  the  first  time,  to  which  each  congregation 
sent  its  minister  and  two  lay  delegates. 

A  theological  college,  called  Carolinum,  was  established 
from  the  funds  of  the  Great  Minster,  and  opened  June  19, 
1525.  It  consisted  of  the  collegium  humanitatis,  for  the 
study  of  the  ancient  languages,  philosophy  and  mathematics, 
and  the  Carolinum  proper,  for  the  study  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, which  were  explained  in  daily  lectures,  and  popular- 
ized by  the  pastors  for  the  benefit  of  the  congregation.  This 
was  called  prophesying  (1  Cor.  14 : 1).^  Zwingli  wrote  a 
tract  on  Christian  education  (1526).^  He  organized  this 
school  of  the  prophets,  and  explained  in  it  several  books 
of  the  Old  Testament,  according  to  the  Septuagint.  He 
recommended  eminent  scholars  to  professorships.  Among 
the  earliest  teachers  were  Ceporin,  Pellican,  Myconius,  Collin, 
Megander,  and  Bibliander.  To  Zwingli  Zurich  owes  its  the- 
ological and  literary  reputation.  The  Carolinum  secured  an 
educated  ministry,  and  occupied  an  influential  position  in 
the  development  of  theological  science  and  literature  till  the 

1  Comp.  Pestalozzi,  Leo  Judce,  p.  76,  and  Glider  on  "  Prophezei,"  in  Herzog^, 
XII.  288. 

-  Republished  by  Emil  Egli,  U.  ZwincjJi's  Lehmhchlein,  oder  icie  man  die 
Jngend  in  cjuten  Bitten  und  chrisllirher  Zucht  auferziehen  und  lehren  soJIe.  Zurich, 
1884.  With  an  appendix  of  documents  relating  to  the  school  at  Zurich  in 
Zwingli's  time. 


Zurich  in  the  Sixteenth  Century. 


L  EL  o    Iud^kTheologu^  , 


Inter TiGURiNA.  li c c le. 5i a.  PaiJt oats  et 

MrNr5TR05   N"ON  P06TRE,M;Ui5  ANN05XI5C.ET  ANfPLIUS: 
V^ferii-  Tiftatmnii  iil^ros  Heht-^Atcos,  JimpUci  ei  pam  dicH 
onz,   cjiura,  Hct^rczofum  lingua,, in  LcLtinamd  Gertrianicant 
\:ra\tJi\xUi,  jide,  ei  \rcVtQ'\.oncJ\x,nim.ci: 


§  22.     THE   TRANSLATION    OF    THE   BIBLE.  63 

nineteenth  century,  when  it  was  superseded  by  the  organiza- 
tion of  a  full  university.! 

Zwingli  wrote  in  the  course  of  three  months  and  a  half  an 
important  work  on  the  true,  evangelical,  as  opposed  to  the 
false,  popish  faith,  and  dedicated  it  to  Francis  I.,  king  of 
France,  in  the  vain  hope  of  gaining  him  to  the  cause  of  the 
Reformation.^  It  completes  his  theological  opposition  to 
the  papacy.  It  is  the  first  systematic  exposition  of  the  Re- 
formed faith,  as  Melanchthon's  Loci  was  the  first  system  of 
Lutheran  theology ;  but  it  was  afterwards  eclipsed  by  Cal- 
vin's Institutes^  which  were  addressed  to  the  same  king  with 
no  better  effect.  Francis  probably  never  read  either;  but 
the  dedication  remains  as  a  connecting  link  between  the 
Swiss  and  the  French  Reformation.  The  latter  is  a  child  of 
the  former. 

§  22.    The   Translation  of  the  Bible.      Leo  Judce. 

Metzger  (Antistes  in  Schaffhausen)  :  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Bibelubersetzung 
der  schweizerischen  reformirten  Kirche.  Basel,  1876.  Pestalozzi  :  Leo 
Judce.     Elberfeld,  1860. 

A  most  important  part  of  the  Reformation  was  a  vernacu- 
lar translation  of  the  Bible.  Luther's  New  Testament  (1522) 
was  reprinted  at  Basel  with  a  glossary.  In  Zurich  it  was 
adapted  to  the  Swiss  dialect  in  1524,  and  revised  and  im- 
proved in  subsequent  editions.  The  whole  Bible  was  pub- 
lished in  German  by  Froschauer  at  Zurich  in  1530,  four 

^  Prof.  Dr.  Georg  von  Wyss,  in  his  festive  discourse  on  the  University  of 
Zurich  (Z)je  Hochschule  Zurich  in  d.  Jahren  1833-18S3,  Zurich,  1883),  gives 
a  brief  sketch  of  the  development  of  the  Carolinum.  The  first  theological 
faculty  of  the  university  consisted  of  three  Zurichers,  Hirzel,  Schulthess  and 
Salomon  Hess,  who  had  been  professors  of  the  Carolinum,  and  two  Germans, 
Rettig  and  Hitzig.  Besides  there  were  five  Privatdocenten,  ministers  of 
Zurich.  See  also  Prof.  Steiner's  Festrede  zur  50  jdhrigen  Stiftungsfeier  der 
ZUricher  Universitdt,  1883. 

2  Commentarius  de  vera  et  falsa  religione,  March,  1525.  Opera,  III.  145-325. 
Leo  Judae  published  a  German  translation,  1526.  When  Erasmus  received 
the  book,  he  said,  "0  hone  Zwingli,  quid  scribis,  quod  ipse  prius  non  scripserim"^" 
So  Zwingli  reports  in  a  letter  to  Vadian,  Opera,  VII.  399. 


64  THE   SWISS   EEFOKMATION. 

years  before  Luther  completed  his  version  (1534). ^  The 
translation  of  the  Prophets  and  the  Apocrypha  was  prepared 
by  Conrad  Pellican,  Leo  Judte,  Theodor  Bibliander,  and  other 
Zurich  divines.  The  beautiful  edition  of  1531  contained  also 
a  new  version  of  the  Poetical  books,  with  an  introduction 
(probably  by  Zwingli),  summaries,  and  parallel  passages. 

The  Swiss  translation  cannot  compare  with  Luther's  in 
force,  beauty,  and  popularity ;  but  it  is  more  literal,  and 
in  subsequent  revisions  it  has  kept  pace  with  the  progress  of 
exegesis.  It  brought  the  Word  of  God  nearer  to  the  heart 
and  mind  of  the  Swiss  people,  and  is  in  use  to  this  day 
alongside  of  the  Lutheran  version.^ 

The  chief  merit  in  this  important  service  belongs  to  Leo 
Jud  or  JudtE.^  He  was  born  in  1482,  the  son  of  a  priest  in 
Alsass,  studied  with  Zwingli  at  Basle,  and  became  his  suc- 
cessor as  priest  at  Einsiedeln,  1519,  and  his  colleague  and 
faithful  assistant  as  minister  of  St.  Peter's  in  Zurich  since 
1523.  He  married  in  the  first  year  of  his  pastorate  at 
Zurich.  His  relation  to  Zwingli  has  been  compared  with 
the  relation  of  Melanchthon  to  Luther.  He  aided  Zwingli 
in  the  second  disputation,  in  the  controversy  with  the  Ana- 
baptists, and  with  Luther,  edited  and  translated  several  of 
his  writings,  and  taught  Hebrew  in  the  Carolinum.  Zwingli 
called  him  his  "  dear  brother  and  faithful  co-worker  in  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ."  He  was  called  to  succeed  the 
Reformer  after  the  catastrophe  of  Cappel ;  but  he  declined 
on  account  of   his  unfitness  for  administrative  work,  and 

1  Five  complete  editions  of  the  Bible  were  printed  in  Zurich  before  1534. 
Pestalozzi,  Leo  Judie,  p.  77. 

^  On  the  different  editions  see  Metzger,  I.e.  109  sqq.,  and  Fritzsche,  in 
Herzog'-,  XII.  555  sq.  The  versicular  division  was  first  introduced  in  the 
edition  of  1589.  The  first  thorough  revision  was  prepared  by  Antistes  Brei- 
tinger,  1629.  Other  revisions  followed  in  1665,  1724,  1755,  1772,  1817,  1860, 
and  1868.  The  last  is  pronounced  by  Fritzsche  one  of  the  best  translations, 
based  upon  a  conscientious  use  of  the  latest  exegetical  labors. 

3  He  avoided  his  family  name  Jud  (Jew)  ;  and  the  Zurichers  called  him 
"Master  Leu"  (Leo).     In  all  his  Latin  writings  he  uses  the  Latin  form. 


§  23.    CHURCH    AND    STATE.  65 

recommended  Bullinger,  who  was  twenty  years  younger. 
He  continued  to  preach  and  to  teach  till  his  death,  and 
declined  several  calls  to  Wurtemberg  and  Basle.  He  advo- 
cated strict  discipline  and  a  separation  of  religion  from 
politics.  He  had  a  melodious  voice,  and  was  a  singer, 
musician,  and  poet,  but  excelled  chiefly  as  a  translator  into 
German  and  Latin. ^  He  wrote  a  Latin  and  two  German 
catechisms,  and  translated  Thomas  a  Kempis'  Imitatio  Christie 
Augustin's  De  Spiritu  et  Litera^  the  first  Helvetic  Confession, 
and  other  useful  books  into  German,  besides  portions  of  the 
Bible.  He  prepared  also  a  much  esteemed  Latin  version  of 
the  Old  Testament,  which  is  considered  his  best  work.  He 
often  consulted  in  it  his  colleagues  and  Michael  Adam,  a 
converted  Jew.  He  did  not  live  to  see  the  completion,  and 
left  this  to  Bibliander  and  Pellican.  It  appeared  in  a  hand- 
some folio  edition,  1543,  Avith  a  preface  by  Pellican,  and  was 
several  times  reprinted.^  He  lived  on  a  miserable  salary 
with  a  large  family,  and  yet  helped  to  support  the  poor  and 
entertained  strangers,  aided  by  his  industrious  and  pious 
wife,  known  in  Zurich  as  "  Mutter  Leuin."  Four  days 
before  his  death,  June  19,  1542,  he  summoned  his  colleagues 
to  his  chamber,  spoke  of  his  career  with  great  humility  and 
gratitude  to  God,  and  recommended  to  them  the  care  of  the 
church  and  the  completion  of  his  Latin  Bible.  His  death 
was  lamented  as  a  great  loss  by  Bullinger  and  Calvin  and 
the  people  of  Zurich.'^ 

§  23.    Ckiireh  and  State. 

The  Reformation  of   Zurich  was  substantially  completed 
in  1525.     It  was  brought  about  by  the  co-operation  of  the 

1  Pellican  says  of  him,  "Utilissima  fraiistulit  admodum  felictter." 

■^  On  his  Latin  Bible  see  Pestalozzi,  70  sqq.,  165,  and  Fritzsche  in  Herzog- 

VIII.  403. 

^  On  his  works  see  Pestalozzi,  pp.  90-106.    His  hymns  and  versified  Psalms 

are  printed  in  Wackernagel,  Das  Deutsche  Kirchenlied,  vol.  III.  p.  722  sqq. 

(Nos.  832-837). 


QQ  THE   SWISS   EEFOEMATION. 

secular  and  spiritual  powers.  Zwingli  aimed  at  a  reforma- 
tion of  the  whole  reljgious,  political,  and  social  life  of  the 
people,  on  the  basis  and  by  the  power  of   the   Scriptures.^ 

The  i^atriot,  the  good  citizen,  and  the  Christian  were  to 
him  one  and  the  same.  He  occupied  the  theocratic  stand- 
point of  the  Old  Testament.  The  preacher  is  a  prophet : 
his  duty  is  to  instruct,  to  exhort,  to  comfort,  to  rebuke  sin 
in  high  and  low  places,  and  to  build  up  the  kingdom  of  God; 
his  weapon  is  the  Word  of  God.  The  duty  of  the  magistracy 
is  to  obey  the  gospel,  to  protect  religion,  to  punish  wicked- 
ness. Calvin  took  the  same  position  in  Geneva,  and  carried 
it  out  much  more  fully  than  Zwingli. 

The  bishop  of  Constance,  to  whose  diocese  Zurich  be- 
longed, opposed  the  Reformation ;  and  so  did  the  other 
bishops  of  Switzerland.  Hence  the  civil  magistracy  assumed 
the  episcopal  rights  and  jurisdiction,  under  the  spiritual 
guidance  of  the  Reformers.  It  first  was  impartial,  and 
commanded  the  preachers  of  the  canton  to  teach  the  Word 
of  God,  and  to  be  silent  about  the  traditions  of  men  (1520). 
Then  it  prohibited  the  violation  of  the  Church  fasts  (1522), 
and  punished  the  image-breakers,  in  the  interest  of  law  and 
order  (1523).  But  soon  afterwards  it  openly  espoused  the 
cause  of  reform  in  the  disputation  of  1523,  and  authorized 
the  abolition  of  the  old  worship  and  the  introduction  of  the 
new  (1524  and  1525).  It  confiscated  the  property  of  the 
churches  and  convents,  and  took  under  its  control  the  regu- 
lation of  marriage,  the  care  of  the  poor,  and  the  education 
of  the  clergy.     The  Church  was  reduced  legally  to  a  state  of 

1  Bluntschli  (^Geschichte  des  sckweizerischen  Bundesrechtes,  Stuttgart,  1875, 
2d  ed.  I.  293  sq.)  :  "  Zwingli  wur  von  Anfang  an  und  durch  sein  gauzes  Leben 
hindurch  haum  viel  weniger  darauf  hedacht,  politisch  einzugreifen  ah  die  Kirche 
zu  re/ormiren.  Wahrend  Luther  mit  ganzer  Seele  die  Wiederbelebung  tind  Reinigung 
d^s  christlichen  Glaubens  anstrebte  und  sich  ausschliesslich  dieser  Aufgahe  widmete, 
wollte  Zwingli  nicht  bloss  Kirchen-,  sondern  zugleich  auch  Staatsmann  sein.  Indem 
sich  Zwingli  der  kirchlichen  Reformation  in  der  Schweiz  bemdchtigte  und  diese 
von  Zurich  aus  ilber  die  ganze  Schweiz  zu  verbreiten  trachtete,  ging  er  zugleich  mit 
Planen  um,  die  Schweiz  politisch  umzugestalten." 


§  23.    CHURCH   AND    STATE.  67 

dependence,  though  she  was  really  the  moving  and  inspiring 
power  of  the  State,  and  was  supported  by  public  sentiment. 
In  a  republic  the  majority  of  the  people  rule,  and  the  minor- 
ity must  submit.  The  only  dissenters  in  Zurich  Avere  a  small 
number  of  Romanists  and  Anabaptists,  who  were  treated 
with  the  same  disregard  of  the  rights  of  conscience  as  the 
Protestants  in  Roman  Catholic  countries,  only  with  a  lesser 
degree  of  severity.  The  Reformers  refused  to  others  the 
right  of  protest  which  they  claimed  and  exercised  for  them- 
selves, and  the  civil  magistracy  visited  the  poor  Anabaptists 
with  capital  punishment. 

The  example  of  Zurich  was  followed  by  the  other  cantons 
in  which  the  Reformation  triumphed.  Each  has  its  own 
ecclesiastical  establishment,  which  claims  spiritual  juris- 
diction over  all  the  citizens  of  its  territory.  There  is  no 
national  Reformed  Church  of  Switzerland,  with  a  centre  of 
unity. 

This  state  of  things  is  the  same  as  that  in  Protestant 
Germany,  but  differs  from  it  as  a  republic  differs  from  a 
monarchy.  In  both  countries  the  bishops,  under  the  com- 
mand of  the  Pope,  condemned  Protestantism,  and  lost  the 
control  over  their  flock.  The  Reformers,  who  were  mere 
presbyters,  looked  to  the  civil  rulers  for  the  maintenance  of 
law  and  order.  In  Germany,  after  the  Diet  of  Speier  in 
1526,  the  princes  assumed  the  episcopal  supervision,  and 
regulated  the  Church  in  their  own  territories  for  good  or 
evil.  The  people  were  passive,  and  could  not  even  elect 
their  own  pastors.  In  Switzerland,  we  have  instead  a  sort 
of  democratic  episcopate  or  republican  Csesaropapacy,  where 
the  people  hold  the  balance  of  power,  and  make  and  unmake 
their  government. 

In  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  Church  and 
State,  professing  the  same  religion,  had  common  interests, 
and  worked  in  essential  harmony ;  but  in  modern  times  the 
mixed   character,  the   religious   indifferentism,  the  hostility 


68  THE    SWISS    REFORMATION. 

and  the  despotism  of  the  State,  have  loosened  the  connection, 
and  provoked  the  organization  of  free  churches  in  several 
cantons  (Geneva,  Vaud,  Neuchatel),  on  the  basis  of  self- 
support  and  self-government.  The  State  must  first  and  last 
be  just,  and  either  support  all  the  religions  of  its  citizens 
alike,  or  none.  It  owes  the  protection  of  law  to  all,  within 
the  limits  of  order  and  peace.  But  the  Church  has  the  right 
of  self-government,  and  ought  to  be  free  of  the  control  of 
politicians.^ 

Among  the  ministers  of  the  Reformation  period,  Zwingli, 
and,  after  his  death,  BuUinger,  exercised  a  sort  of  episcopate 
in  fact,  though  not  in  form ;  and  their  successors  in  the 
Great  Minster  stood  at  the  head  of  the  clergy  of  the  canton. 
A  similar  position  is  occupied  by  the  Antistes  of  Basle  and 
the  Antistes  of  Schaffhausen.  They  correspond  to  the  Super- 
intendents of  the  Lutheran  churches  in  Germany. 

Zwingli  was  the  first  among  the  Reformers  who  organized 
a  regular  synodical  Church  government.  He  provided  for  a 
synod  composed  of  all  ministers  of  the  city  and  canton,  two 
lay  delegates  of  every  parish,  four  members  of  the  small 
and  four  members  of  the  great  council.  This  mixed  body 
represented  alike  Church  and  State,  the  clergy  and  the  laity. 
It  was  to  meet  twice  a  year,  in  spring  and  fall,  in  the  city 
hall  of  Zurich,  Avith  power  to  superintend  the  doctrine  and 
morals  of  the  clergy,  and  to  legislate  on  the  internal  affairs 
of  the  Church.  The  first  meeting  was  held  at  Easter,  1528. 
Zwingli  presided,  and  at  his  side  was  Leo  Judse.  The  second 
meeting  took  place  May  19,  1528.  The  proceedings  show 
that  the  synod  exercised  strict  discipline  over  the  morals  of 

^  The  government  of  the  Protestant  cantons  of  Switzerland  tolerates  and 
supports  now,  in  the  pulpit  and  the  chair,  all  sorts  of  errors  and  heresies  far 
worse  than  those  for  which  the  Anabaptists  were  drowned  in  the  sixteenth 
century.  In  1839  the  magistracy  of  Zurich  called  the  infidel  Dr.  Strauss  to 
the  chair  of  dogmatic  theology  in  the  university ;  but  on  that  occasion  the 
country  people  asserted  their  sovereignty,  upset  the  rule  of  the  radical  party, 
and  defeated  its  aim. 


§  24.    ZWINGLI'S   CONFLICT    WITH    RADICALISM.  69 

the  clergy  and  people,  and  censured  intemperance,  extrava- 
gance in  dress,  neglect  of  Church  ordinances,  etc.^ 

But  German  Switzerland  never  went  to  such  risrors  of 
discipline  as  Geneva  under  the  influence  of  Calvin. 

§  24.    ZwingWs   Conflict  with  Radicalism. 

Comp.  Literature  in  vol.  VI.,  §  102,  p.  606  sq. 

I.  Sources  : 

In  the  Staatsarchiv  of  Zurich  there  are  preserved  about  two  hundred  and 
fifty  documents  under  the  title,  WiederUiuferacten,  — *Egli  :  Actensammlung  zur 
Gesch.  der  Ziircher  Reformation,  Zurich,  1879  (see  the  Alph.  Index,  p.  920,  sub 
Wiedertaufer) .  The  official  reports  are  from  their  opponents.  The  books  of 
the  Anabaptists  are  scarce.  A  large  collection  of  them  is  in  the  Baptist 
Theological  Seminary  at  Rochester,  N.Y.  The  principal  ones  are  the  tracts 
of  Dr.  Hiibmaier  (see  vol.  VI.  606)  ;  a  few  letters  of  Grebel,  Hut,  Reubli,  etc., 
and  other  documents  mentioned  and  used  by  Cornelius  (Gesch.  des  Munster- 
schen  Aufruhrs)  ;  the  Moravian,  Austrian,  and  other  Anabaptist  chronicles 
(see  Beck,  below)  ;  and  the  Anabaptist  hymns  reprinted  in  Wackernagel's 
Deutsche  Kirchenlied,  vols.  III.  and  V.  (see  below). 

ZwiNGLi :  Wer  Ursach  gebe  zu  Aufruhr,  wer  die  wahren  Aufriihrer  seien,  etc., 
Dec.  7,  1524.  A  defence  of  Christian  unity  and  peace  against  sedition. 
(^Werke,  II.  A.  376-425.)  Vom  Touff,  vom  Wiedertouff,  itnd  vom  Kinder- 
touff.  May  27,  1525  (in  Werke,  II.  A.  280-303.  Republished  in  modern 
German  by  Christoffel,  Ziirich,  1843.  The  book  treats  in  three  parts  of 
baptism,  rebaptism,  and  infant  baptism).  Answer  to  Balthasar  Hiibmaier, 
Nov.  5,  1525  (Werke,  II.  A.  337  sqq.).  Elenchus  contra  Catabaptistas,  1527 
(Opera,  III.  357  sqq.).  His  answer  to  Schwenkfeld's  64  Theses  concern- 
ing baptism  (in  Op.  III.  563-583;  comp.  A.  Baur,  II.  245-267).  CEco- 
LAMPADius :  Ein  gesprech  etlicher  predicanten  zu  Basel  gehalten  mit  etlichen 
Bekennern  des  Wiedertouffs,  Basel,  1525.  Bullinger  (Heinrich)  :  Der 
Wiedertdufferen  ursprung,  furgang,  Sekten,  etc.  Zurich,  1560.  (A  Latin 
translation  by  J.  Simler.)     See  also  his  Reformationsgeschichte,  vol.  I. 

II.  Later  Discussions  : 

Ott  (J.  H.)  :  Annales  Anahaptistici.     Basel,  1672. 

Erbkam  (H.  W.)  :  Geschichte  der  protestantischen  Secten  im  Zeitalter  der  Refor- 
viation.     Hamburg  und  Gotha,  1848.     pp.  519-583. 

Heberle  :  Die  Anjange  des  Anabaptismus  in  der  Schweiz,  in  the  "  Jahrbiicher 
fur  deutsche  Theologie,"  1858. 

*  Cornelius  (C.  A.,  a  liberal  Roman  Catholic):  Geschichte  des  Milnsterschen 
Aufruhrs.  Leipzig,  1855.  Zweites  Buch :  Die  Wiedertaufe.  1860.  He 
treats  of  the  Swiss  Anabaptists  (p.  15  sqq.),  and  adds  historical  docu- 
ments from  many  archives  (p.  240  sqq.).     A  very  important  work. 

1  Opera,  III.  B.  19  sqq. ;  Morikofer,  IL  121  sq. 


70  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

MoRiKOTEB.:  U.  Zwingli.  Zurich,  1867.  I.  279-313;  II.  69-76.  Very  unfavor- 
able to  the  Anabaptists. 

R.  VON  LiLiENKRON  :  Zur  Liederdichtung  der  Wiedertdufer.     Miinchen,  1877. 

*Egli   (Emil)  :    Die    Ziiricker    Wiedertdufer  zur  Reformationszeit.      Nach  den 

Quellen  des  Staatsarchivs.     Ziirich,  1878  (104  pp.).     By  the  same:  Die  St. 

Galler  Tdufer.     Zurich,  1887.      Important  for  the   documents  and  the 

external  history. 
*  BuRRAGE   (Henry  S.,  American  Baptist)  :    The  Anabaptists  in   Switzerland. 

Philadelphia,  1882,  231  pp.     An  account  from  the  Baptist  point  of  view. 

Comp.  his  Baptist  Hymn  Writers,  Portland,  1888,  pp.  1-25. 

UsTERi  (J.  M.)  :  DarsteUung  der  Tauflehre  Zwingli's,  in  the  "  Studien  und 
Kritiken  "  for  1882,  pp.  205-284. 

*Beck  (Joseph):  Die  Geschichtsbiicher  der  Wiedertdufer  in  Oestreich-Umjarn  .  .  . 
von  1526  bis  1785.  Wien,  1883.  Publ.  by  the  Imperial  Academy  of 
Sciences  in  Vienna. 

Strasser  (G.)  :  Der  schweizerische  Anabaptismiis  zur  Zeit  der  Reformation,  in 
the  "  Berner  Beitrage,"  1884. 

NiTSCHE  (Richard,  Roman  Catholic):  Geschichte  der  Wiedertdufer  in  der  Schweiz 
zur  Reformationszeit.  Einsiedeln,  New  York,  Cincinnati  and  St.  Louis  (Ben- 
ziger),  1885  (107  pp.).     He  gives  a  list  of  literature  on  pp.  vi.-viii. 

Keller  (Ludwig)  :  Die  Reformation  und  die  dltern  Reformparteien.  Leipzig, 
1885,  pp.  364-435.  He  is  favorable  to  the  Anabaptists,  and  connects 
them  with  the  Waldensian  Brethren  and  other  medieval  sects  by  novel, 
but  arbitrary  combinations  and  conjectures.  He  mistakes  coincidences 
for  historical  connections. 

Baur  (Aug.)  :  Zwingli's  Theologie,  vol.  II.  (1888),  1-267.  An  elaborate  dis- 
cussion and  defence  of  Zwingli's  conduct  towards  the  radicals,  with  full 
extracts  from  his  writings,  but  unjust  to  the  Baptists. 

The  monographs  of  Schreiber  on  Huhmaier  (1839  and  1840,  unfinished), 
Keim  on  Ludwig  Hdtzer  (1856),  and  Keller  on  Hans  Denck  {Ein  Apostel  der 
Wiedertdufer,  1882),  touch  also  on  the  Anabaptist  movement  in  Switzerland. 
Kurtz,  in  the  tenth  ed.  of  his  Kirchengeschichte  (1887),  II.  150-164,  gives  a 
good  general  survey  of  the  Anabaptist  movement  in  Germany,  Switzerland, 
and  Holland,  including  the  Mennonites. 

Having  considered  Zwingli's  controversy  with  Romanism, 
we  must  now  review  his  conflict  with  Radicalism,  which  ran 
parallel  with  the  former,  and  exhibits  the  conservative  and 
churchly  side  of  his  reformation.  Radicalism  was  identical 
with  the  Anabaptist  movement,  but  the  baptismal  question 
was  secondar3\  It  involved  an  entire  reconstruction  of  the 
Church  and  of  the  social  order.  It  meant  revolution.  The 
Romanists  pointed  triumphantly  to  revolution  as  the  legiti- 


§  24.     ZWINGLI'S    CONFLICT   WITH   RADICALISM.  71 

mate  and  inevitable  result  of  the  Reformation ;  but  history- 
has  proved  the  difference.  Liberty  is  possible  without  license, 
and  differs  as  widely  from  it  as  from  despotism. 

The  Swiss  Reformation,  like  the  German,  was  disturbed 
and  checked  by  the  radical  excesses.  It  was  placed  between 
the  two  fires  of  Romanism  and  Ultraprotestantism.  It  was 
attacked  in  the  front  and  rear,  from  without  and  within,  — 
by  the  Romanists  on  the  ground  of  tradition,  by  the  Radicals 
on  the  ground  of  the  Bible.  In  some  respects  the  danger 
from  the  latter  was  greater.  Liberty  has  more  to  fear  from 
the  abuses  of  its  friends  than  from  the  opposition  of  its  foes. 
The  Reformation  would  have  failed  if  it  had  identified  itself 
with  the  revolution.  Zwingli  applied  to  the  Radicals  the 
words  of  St.  John  to  the  antichristian  teachers :  "  They 
went  out  from  us,  but  the}'-  were  not  of  us  "  (1  John  2 :  19). 
He  considered  the  controversy  with  the  Papists  as  mere 
child's  play  when  compared  to  that  with  the  Ultraprotes- 
tants.^ 

The  Reformers  aimed  to  reform  the  old  Church  by  the 
Bible ;  the  Radicals  attempted  to  build  a  new  Church  from 
the  Bible.  The  former  maintained  the  historic  continuity ; 
the  latter  went  directly  to  the  apostolic  age,  and  ignored  the 
intervening  centuries  as  an  apostasy.  The  Reformers  founded 
a  popular  state-church,  including  all  citizens  with  their  fami- 
lies; the  Anabaptists  organized  on  the  voluntary  principle 
select  congregations  of  baptized  believers,  separated  from 
the  world  and  from  the  State.  Nothing  is  more  character- 
istic of  radicalism  and  sectarianism  than  an  utter  want  of 
historical  sense  and  respect  for  the  past.  In  its  extreme 
form  it  rejects  even  the  Bible  as  an  external  authority,  and 
relies  on  inward  inspiration.  This  was  the  case  with  the 
Zwickau  Prophets  who  threatened  to  break  up  Luther's 
work  at  Wittenberg. 

1  He  wrote  to  Vadian,  May  28,  1525  {Opera,  VII.  398):  "omnes  pugna 
priores  lusus  fuerunt  prce  ista." 


72  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

The  Radicals  made  use  of  the  right  of  protest  against  the 
Reformation,  which  the  Reformers  so  effectually  exercised 
against  popery.  They  raised  a  protest  against  Protestantism. 
They  charged  the  Reformers  with  inconsistency  and  semi- 
popery  ;  yea,  Avith  the  worst  kind  of  popery.  They  de- 
nounced the  state-church  as  worldly  and  corrupt,  and  its 
ministers  as  mercenaries.  They  were  charged  in  turn  with 
Pharisaical  pride,  Avith  revolutionary  and  socialistic  tenden- 
cies. They  were  cruelly  persecuted  by  imprisonment,  exile, 
torture,  fire  and  sword,  and  almost  totally  suppressed  in 
Protestant  as  well  as  in  Roman  Catholic  countries.  The  age 
was  not  ripe  for  unlimited  religious  liberty  and  congrega- 
tional self-government.  The  Anabaptists  perished  bravely 
as  martyrs  of  conscience.^ 

Zwingli  took  essentially,  but  quite  independently,  the 
same  position  towards  the  Radicals  as  Luther  did  in  his 
controversy  with  Carlstadt,  Miinzer,  and  Hiibmaier.^  Luther, 
on  the  contrary,  radically  misunderstood  Zwingli  by  con- 
founding him  with  Carlstadt  and  the  Radicals.  Zwingli  was 
in  his  way  just  as  conservative  and  churchly  as  the  Saxon 
Reformer.  He  defended  and  preserved  the  state-church, 
or  the  people's  church,  against  a  small  fraction  of  sectaries 
and  separatists  who  threatened  its  dissolution.  But  his 
position  was  more  difficult.  He  was  much  less  influenced 
by  tradition,  and  further  removed  from  Romanism.  He  him- 
self aimed  from  the  start  at  a  thorough,  practical  pui'ification 
of  church  life,  and  so  far  agreed  with  the  Radicals.  More- 
over, he  doubted  for  a  while  the  expediency  (not  the  right) 
of  infant  baptism,  and  deemed  it  better  to  put  off  the  sac- 

^  Luther  called  them  martyrs  of  the  devil ;  but  Leonhard  Kaser,  to  whom 
he  wrote  a  letter  of  comfort,  and  whom  he  held  up  as  a  model  martyr  to  the 
heretical  martyrs  (see  Letters,  ed.  De  Wette,  III.  179),  was  not  a  Lutheran, 
as  he  thought,  but  the  pastor  of  an  Anabaptist  congregation  at  Scherding. 
He  was  burnt  Aug.  18,  1527,  by  order  of  the  bishop  of  Passau.  See  Cor- 
nelius, II.  56. 

2  On  Luther  and  the  Radicals  see  vol.  VI.  375  sqq.  and  606  sqq. 


§  24.    ZWINGLI'S   CONFLICT    WITH   RADICALISM.  73 

rament  to  3^ears  of  discretion.^  He  rejected  the  Roman 
doctrine  of  the  necessity  of  baptism  for  salvation  and  the 
damnation  of  unbaptized  infants  dying  in  infancy.  He 
understood  the  passage,  Mark  16  :  16,  "  He  that  believeth 
and  is  baptized  shall  be  saved,"  as  applying  only  to  adults 
who  have  heard  the  gospel  and  can  believe,  but  not  to  chil- 
dren. On  maturer  reflection  he  modified  his  views.  He 
learned  from  experience  that  it  was  impossible  to  realize  an 
ideal  church  of  believers,  and  stopped  with  what  was  attain- 
able. As  to  infant  baptism,  he  became  convinced  of  its 
expediency  in  Christian  families.  He  defended  it  with  the 
analogy  of  circumcision  in  the  Old  Testament  (Col.  2:11), 
with  the  comprehensiveness  of  the  New  Covenant,  which 
embraces  whole  families  and  nations,  and  with  the  command 
of  Christ,  "  Suffer  little  children  to  come  unto  Me,"  from 
which  he  inferred  that  he  who  refuses  children  to  be  bap- 
tized prevents  them  from  coming  to  Christ.  He  also  appealed 
to  1  Cor.  7 :  14,  which  implies  the  church-membership  of  the 
children  of  Christian  parents,  and  to  the  examples  of  family 
baptisms  in  Acts  16  :  33,  18  :  8,  and  1  Cor.  1 :  16. 

The  Radical  movement  began  in  Zurich  in  1523,  and  lasted 
till  1532.  The  leaders  were  Conrad  Grebel,  from  one  of  the 
first  families  of  Zurich,  a  layman,  educated  in  the  univer- 
sities of  Vienna  and  Paris,  whom  Zwingli  calls  the  corypheus 
of  the  Anabaptists ;  Felix  Manz,  the  illegitimate  son  of  a 
canon  of  the  Great  Minster,  a  good  Hebrew  scholar ;  Georg 
Blaurock,  a  monk  of  Coire,  called  on  account  of  his  elo- 
quence "  the  mighty  Jorg,"  or  "  the  second  Paul " ;  and 
Ludwig  Hatzer  of  Thurgau,  chaplain  at  Wadenschwyl,  who, 

^  Hagenbach  (p.  357),  on  the  strength  of  Hottinger,  states  that  the  Council 
of  Zurich,  at  the  advice  of  Zwingli,  by  a  mandate  of  Jan.  17,  1525,  allowed 
a  delay  of  eight  years  for  the  baptism  of  children.  But  this  must  be  an 
error;  for  on  the  eighteenth  of  January,  1525,  the  Council,  after  a  disputation 
with  the  Anabaptists,  commanded  the  baptism  of  all  unbaptized  children 
within  eight  days,  on  pain  of  the  banishment  of  the  parents.  Egli,  Acten- 
sammhmg,  p.  276. 


74  THE    SWISS    REFORMATION. 

with  Hans  Denck,  prepared  the  first  Protestant  translation 
of  the  Hebrew  Prophets,^  and  acted  as  secretary  of  the 
second  Zurich  disputation,  and  edited  its  proceedings.  With 
them  were  associated  a  number  of  ex-priests  and  ex-monks, 
as  William  Reubli,  minister  at  Wyticon,  Johann  Brodli 
(Paniculus)  at  Zollicon,  and  Simon  Stumpf  at  Hong.  They 
took  an  active  part  in  the  early  stages  of  the  Reformation, 
prematurely  broke  the  fasts,  and  stood  in  the  front  rank  of 
the  image-stormers.  They  went  ahead  of  public  opinion  and 
the  orderly  method  of  Zwingli.  They  opposed  the  tithe, 
usury,  military  service,  and  the  oath.  They  denied  the  right 
of  the  civil  magistracy  to  interfere  in  matters  of  religion. 
They  met  as  "  brethren  "  for  prayer  and  Scripture-reading  in 
the  house  of  "  Mother  Manz,"  and  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Zurich,  especially  at  Zollicon. 

The  German  Radicals,  Carlstadt  and  Miinzer,  were  for  a 
short  time  in  Switzerland  and  on  the  Rhine,  but  did  not 
re-baptize  and  had  no  influence  upon  the  Swiss  Radicals,  who 
opposed  rebellion  to  the  civil  authority.  Carlstadt  gradu- 
ally sobered  down ;  Miinzer  stirred  up  the  Peasants'  War, 
seized  the  sword  and  perished  by  the  sword.  Dr.  Hiibmaier 
of  Bavaria,  the  most  learned  among  the  Anabaptists,  and 
their  chief  advocate,  took  part  in  the  October  disputation  at 
Zurich  in  1523,  but  afterwards  wrote  books  against  Zwingli 
(on  the  baptism  of  believers,  1525,  and  a  dialogue  with 
Zwingli,  1526),  was  expelled  from  Switzerland,  and  organ- 
ized flourishing  congregations  in  Moravia. 

The  Radical  opinions  spread  with  great  rapidity,  or  rose 
simultaneously,  in  Berne,  Basle,  St.  Gall,  Appenzell,  all 
along  the  Upper  Rhine,  in  South  Germany,  and  Austria. 
The  Anabaptists  were  driven  from  place  to  place,  and  trav- 
elled  as  fugitive    evangelists.      They  preached   repentance 

1  Their  translation  of  the  Prophets  appeared  at  Worms  in  1527  (and  often), 
and  preceded  that  of  the  Zurich  Bible  (in  1529),  and  that  of  Luther,  which 
was  not  completed  till  1532. 


§  24.    ZWDSTGLI'S   CONFLICT   WITH   RADICALISM.  75 

and  faith,  baptized  converts,  organized  congregations,  and 
exercised  rigid  discipline.  They  called  themselves  simply 
"brethren"  or  "Christians."  They  were  earnest  and  zealous, 
self-denying  and  heroic,  but  restless  and  impatient.  They 
accepted  the  New  Testament  as  their  only  rule  of  faith  and 
practice,  and  so  far  agreed  with  the  Reformers,  but  utterly 
broke  with  the  Catholic  tradition,  and  rejected  Luther's 
theory  of  forensic,  solifidian  justification,  and  the  real  pres- 
ence. They  emphasized  the  necessity  of  good  works,  and 
deemed  it  possible  to  keep  the  law  and  to  reach  perfection. 
They  were  orthodox  in  most  articles  of  the  common  Chris- 
tian faith,  except  Htitzer  and  Denck,  who  doubted  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Trinity  and  the  divinity  of  Christ. 

The  first  and  chief  aim  of  the  Radicals  was  not  (as  is 
usually  stated)  the  opposition  to  infant  baptism,  still  less  to 
sprinkling  or  pouring,  but  the  establishment  of  a  pure  church 
of  converts  in  opposition  to  the  mixed  church  of  the  world. 
The  rejection  of  infant  baptism  followed  as  a  necessary  con- 
sequence. They  were  not  satisfied  with  separation  from 
popery ;  they  wanted  a  separation  from  all  the  ungodly. 
They  appealed  to  the  example  of  the  disciples  in  Jerusalem, 
who  left  the  synagogue  and  the  world,  gathered  in  an  upper 
room,  sold  their  goods,  and  held  all  things  in  common.  They 
hoped  at  first  to  carry  Zwingli  with  them,  but  in  vain ;  and 
then  they  charged  him  with  treason  to  the  truth,  and  hated 
him  worse  than  the  pope. 

Zwingli  could  not  follow  the  Anabaptists  without  bring- 
ing the  Reformation  into  discredit  with  the  lovers  of  order, 
and  rousing  the  opposition  of  the  government  and  the  great 
mass  of  the  people.  He  opposed  them,  as  Augustin  opposed 
the  schismatical  Donatists.  He  urged  moderation  and  pa- 
tience. The  Apostles,  he  said,  separated  only  from  the  open 
enemies  of  the  gospel,  and  from  the  works  of  darkness,  but 
bore  with  the  weak  brethren.  Separation  would  not  cure 
the  evils  of  the  Church.      There  are  many  honest  people 


76  THE    SWISS    REFORMATION. 

who,  though  weak  and  sick,  belong  to  the  sheepfold  of 
Christ,  and  would  be  offended  at  a  separation.  He  appealed 
to  the  word  of  Christ,  "He  that  is  not  against  me,  is  for  me," 
and  to  the  parable  of  the  tares  and  the  wheat.  If  all  the 
tares  were  to  be  rooted  up  now,  there  would  be  nothing  left 
for  the  angels  to  do  on  the  day  of  final  separation. 

§  25.    The  Baptismal  Controversy. 

The  opposition  to  the  mixed  state-church  or  popular 
church,  which  embraced  all  the  baptized,  legitimately  led  to 
the  rejection  of  infant  baptism.  A  new  church  required  a 
new  baptism. 

This  became  now  the  burning  question.  The  Radicals 
could  find  no  trace  of  infant  baptism  in  the  Bible,  and 
denounced  it  as  an  invention  of  the  pope  ^  and  the  devil. 
Baptism,  they  reasoned,  presupposes  instruction,  faith,  and 
conversion,  which  is  impossible  in  the  case  of  infants.^ 
Voluntary  baptism  of  adult  and  responsible  converts  is, 
therefore,  the  only  valid  baptism.  They  denied  that  baptism 
is  necessary  for  salvation,  and  maintained  that  infants  are  or 
may  be  saved  by  the  blood  of  Christ  without  water-baptism. -^ 
But  baptism  is  necessary  for  church  membership  as  a  sign 
and  seal  of  conversion. 

From  this  conception  of  baptism  followed  as  a  further 
consequence  the  rebaptism  of  those  converts  who  wished  to 
unite  with  the  new  church.  Hence  the  name  Anabaptists 
or  Rehaptizers  QWiedertdufer'),  which   originated   with   the 

1  They  derived  it  from  Pope  Nicolas  II.  (a.d.  1059-'61),  whose  pontificate 
was  entirely  under  the  control  of  Hildebrand,  afterwards  Gregory  VII.  The 
reference  shows  the  prevailing  ignorance  of  Church  history.  Pedobaptism  is 
much  older  than  the  papacy. 

2  Hiibmaier,  when  in  Waldshut,  substituted  first  a  simple  benediction  of 
children,  in  place  of  baptism,  but  baptized  when  the  parents  wished  it.  See 
Gieseler,  III.  A.  p.  210,  note. 

3  The  Augsburg  Confession  (Art.  IX.)  condemns  the  Anabaptists  for 
teaching  " pueros  sine  baptismo  salvos  fieri." 


§  25.    THE   BAPTISMAL   CONTROVERSY.  77 

Pedobaptists,  but  which  they  themselves  rejected,  because 
they  knew  no  other  kind  of  baptism  except  that  of  converts. 

The  demand  of  rebaptism  virtually  unbaptized  and  un- 
christianized  the  entire  Christian  world,  and  completed  the 
rupture  with  the  historic  Church.  It  cut  the  last  cord  of 
union  of  the  present  with  the  past. 

The  first  case  was  the  rebaptism  of  Blaurock  by  Grebel  in 
February,  1525,  soon  after  the  disputation  with  Zwingli.  At 
a  private  religious  meeting,  Blaurock  asked  Grebel  to  give 
him  the  true  Christian  baptism  on  confession  of  his  faith, 
fell  on  his  knees  and  was  baptized.  Then  he  baptized  all 
others  who  were  present,  and  partook  with  them  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  or,  as  they  called  it,  the  breaking  of  bread.^ 
Reubli  introduced  rebaptism  in  Waldshut  at  Easter,  1525, 
convinced  Hiibmaier  of  its  necessity,  and  rebaptized  him 
with  about  sixty  persons.  Hiibmaier  himself  rebaptized 
about  three  hundred.^ 

1  Fiissli,  II.  338.  The  report  of  a  Moravian  Baptist  chronicle,  quoted  by 
Cornelius  (II.  26  sq.),  is  as  follows  :  "  Und  es  hat  slch  begeben,  dass  sie  bei  ein- 
ander  gewesen  sind,  bis  die  Angst  auf  sie  kam  und  sie  in  ihren  Herzen  gedrungen 
wurden ;  da  haben  sie  angefangen  ihre  Kniee  zu  beugen  vor  dem  hochsten  Gott  im 
Himmel,  und  ihn  angerufen,  dass  er  ihnen  geben  wolle,  seinen  gottlichen  Willen  zu 
vollhringen.  Darauf  hat  Jiirg  [Blaurock~\  sich  erhoben  und  um  Gottes  willen  gebeten, 
dass  Conrad  [Geeie/]  ihn  taufe  mit  der  reckten  wahren  christlichen  Taufe  auf 
seinen  Glauben  und  seine  Erkenntniss ;  ist  wieder  auf  die  Kniee  gefallen  und  von 
Conrad  getauft  worden  ;  und  alle  ubrigen  Amcesenden  haben  sich  dann  von  Jiirg 
taufen  lassen.  Hierndchst  hat  derselbe,  seinem  eigenen  Sericht  zufolge,  damit  die 
Briider  des  Todes  Christi  allweg  eingedenk  waren  und  sein  vergossen  Blut  nicht 
vergassen,  ihnen  den  Brauch  Christi  angezeigt,  den  er  in  seinem  Nachtmal  gehalten 
hat,  und  zugleich  mit  ihnen  das  Brot  gebrochen  und  den  Trank  getrunken,  damit  sie 
sich  erinnerten,  dass  sie  alle  durch  den  einigen  Leib  Christi  erlost  und  durch  sein 
einiges  Blut  abgeicaschen  seien,  auf  dass  sie  alle  eins  und  je  einer  des  anderen 
Bruder  und  Schwester  in  Christo  ihrem  Herrn  waren." 

Cornelius  adds  to  this  report :  "Diese  Dinge  haben  sich  wenige  Tage  nach  der 
Disputation  des  IS.  Januar  zmjetragen,  und  rasch,  noch  ehe  die  Verbunnten  ihren 
Abschied  genommen  hatten,  ist,  zum  Theil  mit  ihrer  Hiilfe,  der  Gebrauch  der  Taufe 
und  des  Herrn  Brodes  nach  ZoUikon  und  Uber  die  ganze  Genossenschaft  verbreitet 
worden." 

^  So  Hiibmaier  testified  before  the  magistrate  at  Zurich  (Egli,  Actensamm- 
lung,  p.  431)  :  "Da  kame  Wilhelm  (Reubli)  und  toiifle  ihn  (Hiibmaier),  und  lies- 
send  sich  if  dasselb  mal  mit  ihm  bi  GO  jiersonen  toufen.     Darnach  habe  er  die 


78  THE    SWISS    REFORMATION. 

Baptism  was  not  bound  to  any  particular  form  or  time  or 
place  or  person ;  any  one  could  administer  the  ordinance 
upon  penitent  believers  who  desired  it.  It  was  first  done 
mostly  in  houses,  by  sprinkling  or  pouring,  occasionally  by 
partial  or  total  immersion  in  rivers. ^ 

The  mode  of  baptism  was  no  point  of  dispute  between 
Anabaptists  and  Pedobaptists  in  the  sixteenth  century.  The 
Roman  Church  provides  for  immersion  and  pouring  as  equally 
valid.  Luther  preferred  immersion,  and  prescribed  it  in  his 
baptismal  service.^  In  England  immersion  was  the  normal 
mode  down  to  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century.^  It 
was  adopted  by  the  English  and  American  Baptists  as  the 
only  mode ;  while  the  early  Anabaptists,  on  the  other  hand, 
baptized  by  sprinkling  and  pouring  as  well.  We  learn  this 
from  the  reports  in  the  suits  against  them  at  Zurich.  Blau- 
rock  baptized  by  sprinkling,*  Manz  by  pouring.^     The  first 

Osterjirtag  Jiir  unci  fur  unci  oh  300  menschen  getouft."  Nothing  is  said  about  the 
mode.  Soon  afterwards  (July  5, 1525),  Hiibmaier  published  his  book,  Von  dem 
Christlichen  Tmijf  der  Gldubigen  against  Zwingli,  but  without  naming  him. 
Zwingli  replied  November,  1525.  See  A.  Baur,  Zwingli's  TkeoL,  II.  137  sq., 
141  sqq. 

^  Nitsche,  p.  30  :  "  Wenn  iiber  jemand  der  Geist  Gottes  ham,  beklagte  und 
beweinte  er  seine  Siinden  und  bat  den  ersten  besten,  ihn  su  taufen ;  dieser  bexpritzte 
oder  iiberschiittete  ihn  unter  Nennung  der  drei  gottlichen  Personen  mit  Wasser. 
Einem  Jormlichen  Untertauchen,  wie  es  spdter  icohl  vorkommt,  begegnen  wir  zunachst 
nicht.  .  .  .  Meistens  wurde  die  Taufe  in  irgend  einem  House  vollzogen ;  aber  auch 
im  Freien  wurde  getaujl :  so  Rudolph  Breitinger  bei  Gelegenkeit  eines  Spazierganges 
am  Neppelbach,  ein  anderer  beim  Brunnen  zu  Hirslanden."  Egli,  p.  23  sq. :  "Wie 
es  scheint,  war  Blaurock  der  eigentlich  populdre  Taujer  und  wandte  den  Gebrauch 
allgemeiner  an  auf  den  ersten  Besten,  der  iveinend  zu  ihm  kam." 

-  See  vol.  VI.  608,  note,  and  my  book  on  the  Didache,  p.  41  sqq. 

2  Edward  VI.  and  Queen  Elizabeth  were  immersed,  according  to  the  rubric 
of  the  English  Prayer  Book.  Erasmus  says,  "  With  us  "  (on  the  Continent) 
"  infants  have  the  water  poured  on  them ;  in  England  they  are  dipped." 

*  In  the  trial  of  fourteen  Anabaptists,  Feb.  7,  1525,  Marx  Bosshard  testi- 
fied that  Hans  Bruggbach  of  Zumikon,  after  the  reading  of  a  portion  of  the 
New  Testament  in  a  meeting,  confessed  and  deplored  his  sins,  and  requested, 
as  a  sign  of  his  conversion,  to  be  sprinkled  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  the 
Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost;  whereupon  Blaurock  sprinkled  him.  " Daraufhabe 
ihn  Blaurock  bespritzt."     Egli,  Actensammlung ,  p.  282. 

^  In  the  same  suit  Jorg  Schad  said,  "  er  habe  sich  lassen  begiissen  mit  Wdsser, 
und  si/g  [se«]  Felix  Manz  toifer  gesin  [  Tdufer  gewesen']."     Ibid.,  p.  283. 


§  25.    THE   BAPTISMAL   CONTROYEKSY.  79 

clear  case  of  immersion  among  the  Swiss  Anabaptists  is  that 
of  Wolfgang  Uliman  (an  ex-monk  of  Coire,  and  for  a  while 
assistant  of  Kessler  in  St.  Gall).  He  was  converted  by 
Grebel  on  a  journey  to  Schaffhausen,  and,  not  satisfied  with 
being  "  sprinkled  merely  out  of  a  dish,"  was  "  drawn  under 
and  covered  over  in  the  Rhine."  ^  On  Palm  Sunday,  April 
9,  1525,  Grebel  baptized  a  large  number  in  the  Sitter,  a  river 
a  few  miles  from  St.  Gall,  which  descends  from  the  Santis 
and  flows  into  the  Thur,  and  is  deep  enough  for  immersion.^ 

The  Lord's  Supper  was  administered  by  the  Baptists  in 
the  simplest  manner,  after  a  plain  supper  (in  imitation  of 
the  original  institution  and  the  Agape),  by  the  recital  of  the 
words  of  institution,  and  the  distribution  of  bread  and  wine. 
They  reduced  it  to  a  mere  commemoration. 

The  two  ideas  of  a  pure  church  of  believers  and  of  the  bap- 
tism of  believers  were  the  fundamental  articles  of  the  Ana- 
baptist creed.  On  other  points  there  was  a  great  variety  and 
confusion  of  opinions.  Some  believed  in  the  sleep  of  the 
soul  between  death  and  resurrection,  a  millennial  reign  of 
Christ,  and  final  restoration ;  some  entertained  communistic 
and  socialistic  opinions  which  led  to  the  catastrophe  of 
Miinster  (1534).  Wild  excesses  of  immorality  occurred  here 
and  there  .^ 

But  it  is  unjust  to  charge  the  extravagant  dreams  and 
practices  of  individuals  upon  the  whole  body.  The  Swiss 
Anabaptists  had  no  connection  with  the  Peasants'  War, 
which  barely  touched  the  border  of  Switzerland,  and  were 
upon  the  whole,  like  the  Moravian  Anabaptists,  distinguished 
for  simple  piety  and  strict  morality.      BuUinger,  who  was 

1  Kessler,  Sabbata,  I.  266  {"in  dem  Ehin  von  dem  Grebel  under  getriickt  und 
bedeckt").     Comp.  Burrage,  105. 

2  Burrage,  p.  117.  I  was  informed  by  Mr.  Steiger  of  Herisau  (Appenzell) 
that  the  modern  Baptists  in  St,  Gall  and  Appenzell  baptize  by  immersion  in 
the  Sitter;  but  their  number  has  greatly  diminished  since  the  death  of 
Schlatter. 

3  As  in  St.  Gall  and  Appenzell;  see  Cornelius,  II.  64  sq. 


80  THE   SWISS    KEFORMATION. 

opposed  to  them,  gives  the  Zurich  Radicals  the  credit  that 
they  denounced  luxury,  intemperance  in  eating  and  drink- 
ing, and  all  vices,  and  led  a  serious,  spiritual  life.  Kessler 
of  St.  Gall,  likewise  an  opponent,  reports  their  cheerful 
martyrdom,  and  exclaims,  "  Alas !  what  shall  I  say  of  the 
people  ?  They  move  my  sincere  pity ;  for  many  of  them  are 
zealous  for  God,  but  without  knowledge."  And  Salat,  a 
Roman  Catholic  contemporary,  writes  that  with  "  cheerful, 
smiling  faces,  they  desired  and  asked  death,  and  went  into 
it  singing  German  psalms  and  other  prayers."  ^ 

The  Anabaptists  produced  some  of  the  earliest  Protestant 
hymns  in  the  German  language,  which  deserve  the  attention 
of  the  historian.  Some  of  them  passed  into  orthodox  col- 
lections in  ignorance  of  the  real  authors.  Blaurock,  Manz, 
Hut,  Hatzer,  Koch,  Wagner,  Langmantel,  Sattler,  Schiemer, 
Glait,  Steinmetz,  Blichel,  and  many  others  contributed  to 
this  interesting  branch  of  the  great  body  of  Christian  song. 
The  Anabaptist  psalms  and  hymns  resemble  those  of  Schwenk- 
feld  and  his  followers.  They  dwell  on  the  inner  life  of  the 
Christian,  the  mysteries  of  regeneration,  sanctification,  and 
personal  union  with  Christ.  They  breathe  throughout  a 
spirit  of  piety,  devotion,  and  cheerful  resignation  under  suf- 
fering, and  readiness  for  martyrdom.  They  are  hymns  of 
the  cross,  to  comfort  and  encourage  the  scattered  sheep  of 
Christ  ready  for  the  slaughter,  in  imitation  of  their  divine 

Shepherd. 

NOTES. 

The  Anabaptist  hymns  appeared  in  a  collection  under  the  title  "  Aussbund 
Etlicher  schoner  Christlicher  Geseng  luie  die  in  der  Gefengniss  zii  Passau  iin  Schloss 
von  den  Schiveitzern  und  auch  von  anderen  rechigldubigen  Christen  hin  und  her 
gedicht  warden,"  1583,  and  often.  Also  in  other  collections  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  They  are  reprinted  in  Wacknernagel,  Das  Deutsche  Kirchenlied, 
vol.  III.  (1870),  pp.  440-491,  and  vol.  V.  (1877),  pp.  677-887.  He  embodies 
them  in  this  monumental  corpus  hymnologicum,  as  he  does  the  SchAvenkfeld- 

1  A.  Baur,  who  sides  altogether  with  Zwingli,  must  nevertheless  admit 
(II.  187)  that  "  the  majority  of  the  Swiss  Anabaptists  were  quiet  and  honor- 
able people  of  earnest  character  and  unblemished  reputation  as  citizens." 


§  26.    PERSECUTION   OF   THE   ANABAPTISTS.  81 

ian  and  the  Roman  Catholic  hymns  of  the  fifteenth  century,  but  under  express 
reservation  of  his  high-Lutheran  orthodoxy.  He  refuses  to  acknowledge  the 
Anabaptists  as  martyrs  any  longer  (as  he  had  done  in  his  former  work  on 
German  hymnology),  because  they  stand,  he  says  (III.  439),  " aussevhalh  der 
Wahrheit,  ausserhalb  der  heiligen  lutherischen  Kirche!"  Hymnology  is  the  last 
place  for  sectarian  exclusiveness.  It  furnishes  one  of  the  strongest  evidences 
of  Christian  union  in  the  sanctuary  of  worship,  where  theological  quarrels 
are  forgotten  in  the  adoration  of  a  common  Lord  and  Saviour.  Luther  him- 
self, as  Wackernagel  informs  us,  received  unwittingly  in  his  hymn  book  of 
1545  a  hymn  of  the  Anabaptist  Griinwald,  and  another  of  the  Schwenkfeldian 
Reusner.  Wackernagel  is  happily  inconsistent  when  he  admits  (p.  440)  that 
much  may  be  learned  from  the  Anabaptist  hymns,  and  that  a  noble  heart 
will  not  easily  condemn  those  victims  of  Rome  and  of  the  house  of  Habsburg. 
He  gives  first  the  hymns  of  Thomas  Miinzer,  who  can  hardly  be  called  an 
Anabaptist  and  was  disowned  by  the  better  portion. 

Burragc,  in  Baptist  Hymn  Writers,  Portland,  1888,  p.  1  sqq.,  gives  some 
extracts  of  Anabaptist  hymns.  The  following  stanza,  from  a  hymn  of  Schie- 
mer  or  Schoner,  characterizes  the  condition  and  spirit  of   this  persecuted 

people : — 

"  We  are,  alas,  like  scattered  sheep. 

The  shepherd  not  in  sight, 
Each  far  away  from  home  and  hearth, 

And,  like  the  birds  of  night 
That  hide  away  in  rocky  clefts, 

We  have  our  rocky  hold, 
Yet  near  at  hand,  as  for  the  birds. 

There  waits  the  hunter  bold." 

§  26.    Persecution  of  the  Atiabaptists. 

We  pass  now  to  the  measures  taken  against  the  sepa- 
ratists. At  first  Zwingli  tried  to  persuade  them  in  private 
conferences,  but  in  vain.  Then  followed  a  public  disputa- 
tion, which  took  place  by  order  of  the  magistracy  in  the 
council  hall,  Jan.  17,  1525.  Grebel  was  opposed  to  it,  but 
appeared,  together  with  Manz  and  Reubli.  They  urged  the 
usual  arguments  against  infant  baptism,  that  infants  cannot 
understand  the  gospel,  cannot  repent  and  exercise  faith. 
Zwingli  answered  them,  and  appealed  chiefly  to  circumcision 
and  1  Cor.  7 :  14,  where  Paul  speaks  of  the  children  of  Chris- 
tian parents  as  "  holy."  He  afterwards  published  his  views 
in  a  book,  "  On  Baptism,  Rebaptism,  and  Infant  Baptism " 
(May  27,  1525).  Bullinger,  who  was  present  at  the  disputa- 
tion, reports  that  the   Anabaptists  were    unable   to    refute 


82  THE   SWISS   EEFORMATIOlSr. 

Zwingli's  arguments  and  to  maintain  their  ground.  Another 
disputation  was  held  in  March,  and  a  third  in  November,  but 
with  no  better  result.  The  magistracy  decided  against  them, 
and  issued  an  order  that  infants  should  be  baptized  as  here- 
tofore, and  that  parents  who  refuse  to  have  their  children 
baptized  should  leave  the  city  and  canton  with  their  families 
and  goods. 

The  Anabaptists  refused  to  obey,  and  ventured  on  bold 
demonstrations.  They  arranged  processions,  and  passed  as 
preachers  of  repentance,  in  sackcloth  and  girdled,  through 
the  streets  of  Zurich,  singing,  praying,  exhorting,  abusing 
the  old  dragon  (Zwingli)  and  his  liorns,  and  exclaiming, 
""  Woe,  woe  unto  Zurich  !  "  ^ 

The  leaders 'were  arrested  and  shut  up  in  a  room  in  the 
Augustinian  convent.  A  commission  of  ministers  and 
magistrates  were  sent  to  them  to  convert  them.  Twenty- 
four  professed  conversion,  and  were  set  free.  Fourteen  men 
and  seven  women  were  retained  and  shut  up  in  the  Witch 
Tower,  but  they  made  their  escape  April  5. 

Grebel,  Manz,  and  Blaurock  were  rearrested,  and  charged 
with  communistic  and  revolutionary  teaching.  After  some 
other  excesses,  the  magistracy  proceeded  to  threaten  those 
who  stubbornly  persisted  in  their  error,  with  death  by  drown- 
ing.    He  who  dips,  shall  be  dipped,  —  a  cruel  irony. 

It  is  not  known  whether  Zwingli  really  consented  to  the 
death  sentence,  but  he  certainly  did  not  openly  oppose  it.^ 

1  Zwingli,  Opera,  III.  364. 

2  Egli  {Die  Ziircher  Wiedertaufer,  p.  93)  thinks  that  if  he  consented,  he  did 
it  with  reluctant  heart,  not,  like  Calvin  in  the  case  of  Servetus,  with  a  strong 
sense  of  duty.  Keller  (Die  Reformation,  p.  407,  note)  asserts,  on  the  strength 
of  Hiibmaier,  that  Zwingli  preached  in  1525  that  Anabaptists  should  be 
beheaded  "according  to  the  imperial  laws,"  but  there  is  no  proof  of  this,  and 
Baur  (II.  180)  denies  it.  Comp.  the  correspondence  of  Capito  with  Zwingli 
on  the  case  of  Manz,  Opera,  VIII.  16,  30,  44.  Capito  of  Strassburg  was  dis- 
turbed by  the  execution  of  Manz,  who  had  died  so  heroically,  as  reported 
(mortem  obiise  magnijice,  p.  16)  ;  but  Zwingli  assured  him  that  the  magistracy 
condemned  him  to  death  reluctantly  and  from  necessity  {quam  coacte  Senatus 


§  26.     PERSECUTION    OF    THE    ANABAPTISTS.  83 

Six  executions  in  all  took  place  in  Zurich  between  1527 
and  1532.  Manz  was  the  first  victim.  He  was  bound, 
carried  to  a  boat,  and  thrown  into  the  river  Limmat  near 
the  lake,  Jan.  5,  1527.  He  praised  God  that  he  was  about 
to  die  for  the  truth,  and  prayed  with  a  loud  voice,  "  Into  thy 
hands,  O  Lord,  I  commend  my  spirit !  "  BuUinger  describes 
his  heroic  death.  Grebel  had  escaped  the  same  fate  by 
previous  death  in  1526.  The  last  executions  took  place 
March  23,  1532,  when  Heinrich  Karpfis  and  Hans  Herzog 
were  drowned.  The  foreigners  were  punished  by  exile,  and 
met  death  in  Roman  Catholic  countries.  Blaurock  was 
scourged,  expelled,  and  burnt,  1529,  at  Clausen  in  the  Tyrol. 
Hiitzer,  who  fell  into  carnal  sins,  was  beheaded  for  adultery 
and  bigamy  at  Constance,  Feb.  24,  1529.  John  Zwick,  a 
Zwinglian,  says  that  "  a  nobler  and  more  manful  death  was 
never  seen  in  Constance."  Thomas  Blaurer  bears  a  similar 
testimony.^  Hiibmaier,  who  had  fled  from  Waldshut  to 
Zurich,  December,  1525,  was  tried  before  the  magistracy, 
recanted,  and  was  sent  out  of  the  country  to  recant  his  re- 
cantation.2  He  labored  successfully  in  Moravia,  and  was 
burnt  at  the  stake  in  Vienna,  March  10,  1528.  Three  days 
afterwards  his  faithful  wife,  Avhom  he  had  married  in  Walds- 
hut, was  drowned  in  the  Danube. 

Other  Swiss  cantons  took  the  same  measures  against  the 
Anabaptists  as  Zurich.  In  Zug,  Lorenz  Fiirst  was  drowned^ 
Aug.  17,  1529.  In  Appenzell,  Uliman  and  others  were  be- 
headed, and  some  women  droAvned.  At  Basle,  Qilcolampa- 
dius  held  several  disputations  with  the  Anabaptists,  but 
without  effect ;  whereupon  the  Council  banished  them,  with 
the  threat  that  they  should  be   drowned  if  they  returned 

judkis  partem  tandem  usm-pavit).     This  is,  of  course,  unsatisfactory.     Banish- 
ment in  this  case,  as  in  that  of  Servetus,  would  have  been  severe  enough. 

1  Burrage  defends  Hiitzer  against  the  charges  of  immorality  (p.  200  sqq.)  ; 
but  Keim  and  Cornelius  (II.  59)  sustain  them. 

2  Baur,  II.  173  sq.  Zwingli's  letter  to  Capito,  Jan.  1,  1526,  published  by 
Rud.  Stahelin,  Briefe  aus  der  Reformationszeit  (Basel,  1887),  p.  20. 


84  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

(Nov.  13,  1530).  The  Council  of  Berne  adopted  the  same 
course. 

In  Germany  and  in  Austria  the  Anabaptists  fared  still 
worse.  The  Diet  of  Speier,  in  April,  1529,  decreed  that 
"every  Anabaptist  and  rebaptized  person  of  either  sex  be 
put  to  death  by  sword,  or  fire,  or  otherwise."  The  decree 
was  severely  carried  out,  except  in  Strassburg  and  the  do- 
main of  Philip  of  Hesse,  where  the  heretics  were  treated 
more  leniently.  The  most  blood  was  shed  in  Roman  Catholic 
countries.  In  Gorz  the  house  in  which  the  Anabaptists  were 
assembled  for  worship  was  set  on  fire.  "  In  Tyrol  and  Gorz," 
says  Cornelius,^  "  the  number  of  executions  in  the  year  1531 
reached  already  one  thousand;  in  Ensisheim,  six  hundred. 
At  Linz  seventy-three  were  killed  in  six  weeks.  Duke 
William  of  Bavaria,  surpassing  all  others,  issued  the  fearful 
decree  to  behead  those  who  recanted,  to  burn  those  who 
refused  to  recant.  .  .  .  Throughout  the  greater  part  of 
Upper  Germany  the  persecution  raged  like  a  wild  chase.  .  .  . 
The  blood  of  these  poor  people  flowed  like  water  so  that 
they  cried  to  the  Lord  for  help.  .  .  .  But  hundreds  of  them 
of  all  ages  and  both  sexes  suffered  the  pangs  of  torture 
without  a  murmur,  despised  to  buy  their  lives  by  recanta- 
tion, and  went  to  the  place  of  execution  joyfully  and  singing 
psalms." 

The  blood  of  martyrs  is  never  shed  in  vain.  The  Anabap- 
tist movement  was  defeated,  but  not  destroyed ;  it  revived 
among  the  Mennonites,  the  Baj^tists  in  England  and  America, 
and  more  recently  in  isolated  congregations  on  the  Continent. 
The  questions  of  the  subjects  and  mode  of  baptism  still 
divide  Baptist  and  Pedobaptist  churches,  but  the  doctrine  of 
the  salvation  of  unbaptized  infants  is  no  longer  condemned 
as  a  heresy ;  and  the  principle  of  religious  liberty  and  separa- 
tion of  Church  and  State,  for  which  the  Swiss  and  German 
Anabaptists  suffered  and  died,  is  making  steady  progress. 

1  /.  c.  II.  57  sq. 


§  27.    THE   EUCHAKISTIC   CONTROVERSY.  85 

Germany  and  Switzerland  have  changed  their  poUcy,  and 
allow  to  Baptists,  Methodists,  and  other  Dissenters  from  the 
state-church  that  liberty  of  public  worship  which  was  for- 
merly denied  them ;  and  the  state-churches  reap  the  benefit 
of  being  stirred  up  by  them  to  greater  vitality.  In  England 
the  Baptists  are  one  of  the  leading  bodies  of  Dissenters,  and 
in  the  United  States  the  largfest  denomination  next  to  the 
Methodists  and  Roman  Catholics. 

§  27.    The  EucTiaristic  Controversy .     Zwingli  and  Luther. 

ZwiNGLi's  eucharistic  writings :  On  the  Canon  of  the  Mass  (1523)  ;  On  the 
same,  against  Emser  (1524)  ;  Letter  to  Matthew  Alber  at  Reutlingen 
(1524) ;  The  17th  ch.  of  his  Com.  on  the  True  and  False  Religion  (in  Latin 
and  German,  March  23,  1525)  ;  Answer  to  Bugenhagen  (1525)  ;  Letter 
to  Billicanus  and  Urbanus  Rhegius  (1526)  ;  Address  to  Osiander  of  Niirn- 
berg  (1527)  ;  Friendly  Exegesis,  addressed  to  Luther  (Feb.  20,  1527)  ; 
Reply  to  Luther  on  the  true  sense  of  the  words  of  institution  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  (1527)  ;  The  report  on  the  Marburg  Colloquy  (1529).  In 
Opera,  vol.  II.  B.,  III.,  IV.  173  sqq. 
For  an  exposition  of   Zwingli's  doctrine   on   the   Lord's  Supper  and   his 

controversy  with  Luther,  see  vol.  VI.  520-550  and  669-682 ;   and  A.  Baur, 

Zwingli's  Theol.  II.  268  sqq.  (very  full  and  fair) . 

The  eucharistic  controversy  between  Zwingli  and  Luther 
has  been  already  considered  in  connection  with  the  German 
Reformation,  and  requires  only  a  brief  notice  here.  It  lasted 
from  1524  to  1529,  and  culminated  in  the  Colloquy  at  Mar- 
burg, where  the  two  views  came  into  closer  contact  and 
collision  than  ever  before  or  since,  and  where  every  argu- 
ment for  or  against  the  literal  interpretation  of  the  words 
of  institution  and  the  corporal  presence  was  set  forth  with 
the  clearness  and  force  of  the  two  champions. 

Zwingli  and  Luther  agreed  in  the  principle  of  a  state- 
church  or  people's  church  (^Volks-Kirehe'),  as  opposed  to 
individualism,  separatism,  and  schism.  Both  defended  the 
historic  continuity  of  the  Church,  and  put  down  the  revo- 
lutionary radicalism  which  constructed  a  new  church  on  the 
voluntary  principle.     Both  retained  infant  baptism  as  a  part 


86  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

of  Christian  family  religion,  against  the  Anabaptists,  who 
introduced  a  new  baptism  with  their  new  church  of  converts. 
Luther  never  appreciated  this  agreement  in  the  general 
standpoint,  and  made  at  the  outset  the  radical  mistake  of 
confounding  Zwingli  with  Carlstadt  and  the  Radicals.^ 

But  there  was  a  characteristic  difference  between  the  two 
Reformers  in  the  general  theory  of  the  sacraments,  and 
especially  the  Lord's  Supper.  Zwingli  stood  midway  be- 
tween Luther  and  the  Anabaptists.  He  regarded  the  sacra- 
ments as  signs  and  seals  of  a  grace  already  received  rather 
than  as  means  of  a  grace  to  be  received.  They  set  forth 
and  confirm,  but  do  not  create,  the  thing  signified.  He 
rejected  the  doctrine  of  baptismal  regeneration  and  of  the 
corporal  presence ;  while  Luther  adhered  to  both  with  in- 
tense earnestness  and  treated  a  departure  as  damnable 
heresy.  Zwingli's  -iheory  reveals  the  spiritualizing  and 
rationalizing  tendency  of  his  mind;  while  Luther's  theory 
reveals  his  realistic  and  mystical  tendency.  Yet  both  were 
equally  earnest  in  their  devotion  to  the  Scriptures  as  the 
Word  of  God  and  the  supreme  rule  of  faith  and  practice. 

When  they  met  face  to  face  at  Marburg,  —  once,  and  only 
once,  in  this  life,  —  they  came  to  agree  in  fourteen  out  of 
fifteen  articles,  and  even  in  the  fifteenth  article  they  agreed 
in  the  principal  part,  namely,  the  spiritual  presence  and 
fruition  of  Christ's  body  and  blood,  differing  only  in  regard 
to  the  corporal  presence  and  oral  manducation,  which  the 
one  denied,  the  other  asserted.  Zwingli  showed  on  that 
occasion  marked  ability  as  a  debater,  and  superior  courtesy 

1  A.  Baur  (Zw.  TheoL,  II.  811)  says  on  this  misunderstanding:  "Luther 
war f  von  Anfang  an  Zwhujli  mit  Miinzer  unci  Karlstadt  zusammen.  Kein  Vorwurf 
itnd  Vorurtheil  gegen  Zwingli  ist  ungerechter,  aber  auch  kein  Vorwurf  gldnzender 
widerlegt,  als  dieser,  und  zwar  eben  durch  die  Klarheit  und  Bestimmtheit,  mit  welcher 
Zwingli  seine  Principien  gegen  die  Wiedertdufer  entfaltet.  Im  Gegentheil;  die 
maasslose  Suhjectivitdt  die  bei  Miinzer,  Karlstadt,  bei  den  Wiedertdufern  zum 
Ausbruch  Jcommt,  und  die  solche  WillkiiJir  bleibt,  auch  wenn  sie  sich  auf  den  Buch- 
staben  der  Schrift  beruft,  ist  das  vollstdndige  Gegentheil  der  Principien  Zwingli's." 


§  28.    THE   WORKS    OF   ZWINGLT.  87 

and  liberality  as  a  gentleman.  Luther  received  the  impres- 
sion that  Zwingli  was  a  "  very  good  man,"  ^  yet  of  a  "  dif- 
ferent spirit,"  and  hence  refused  to  accept  his  hand  of 
fellowship  offered  to  him  with  tears.  The  two  men  were 
differently  constituted,  differently  educated,  differently  situ- 
ated and  equipped,  each  for  his  own  people  and  country ; 
and  yet  the  results  of  their  labors,  as  history  has  proved,  are 
substantially  the  same. 

§  28.    The  Works  of  Zioingli. 

A  list  of  Zwingli's  works  in  the  edition  of  Schuler  and  Schulthess,  vol.  VIII. 
690-704 ;  of  his  theological  works,  in  Baur,  Zwiuf/li's  Theol.,  II.  834-837. 

During  the  twelve  short  years  of  his  public  labors  as  a 
reformer,  from  1519  to  1531,  Zwingli  developed  an  extraor- 
dinary literary  activity.  He  attacked  the  Papists  and  the 
Radicals,  and  had  to  reply  in  self-defence.  His  advice  was 
sought  from  the  friends  of  reform  in  all  parts  of  Switzer- 
land, and  involved  him  in  a  vast  correspondence.  He  wrote 
partly  in  Latin,  partly  in  the  Swiss-German  dialect.  Several 
of  his  books  were  translated  by  Leo  Judse.  He  handled  the 
German  with  more  skill  than  his  countrymen ;  but  it  falls 
far  short  of  the  exceptional  force  and  beauty  of  Luther's 
German,  and  could  make  no  impression  outside  of  Switzer- 
land. The  editors  of  his  complete  works  (Schuler  and 
Schulthess)  give,  in  eight  large  octavo  volumes,  eighty 
German  and  fifty-nine  Latin  books  and  tracts,  besides  two 
volumes  of  epistles  by  Zwingli  and  to  Zwingli. 

His  works  may  be  divided  into  seven  classes,  as  follows :  — 

1.   Reformatory  and  Polemical  Works:  (a)  against  popery 

and  the  papists  (on  Fasts ;  on  Images  ;  on  the  Mass ;  Against 

Faber;  Against  Eck;  Against  Compar;  Against  Emser,  etc.); 

(6)   on  the   controversy  with  the  Anabaptists ;   (<?)  on  the 

1  He  called  Zwingli  "  optimus  vir,"  in  a  letter  to  BuUinger,  written  nine  years 
later  (1538). 


0»  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

Lord's  Supper,  against  Luther's  doctrine  of  the  corporal  real 
presence. 

2.  Reformatory  and  Doctrinal :  The  Exposition  of  his  67 
Conclusions  (1524)  ;  A  Commentary  on  the  False  and  True 
Religion,  addressed  to  King  Francis  I.  of  France  (1525) ;  A 
Treatise  on  Divine  Providence  (1530) ;  A  Confession  of 
Faith  addressed  to  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  and  the  Augs- 
burg Diet  (1530)  ;  and  his  last  confession,  written  shortly 
before  his  death  (1531),  and  published  by  Bullinger. 

3.  Practical  and  Liturgical:  The  Shepherd;  Forms  of 
Baptism  and  the  Celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper;  Sermons, 
etc. 

4.  Exegetical :  Extracts  from  lectures  on  Genesis,  Exodus, 
Psalms,  Isaiah,  and  Jeremiah,  the  four  Gospels,  and  most  of 
the  Epistles,  edited  by  Leo  Judse,  Megander,  and  others. 

5.  Patriotic  and  Political:  Against  foreign  pensions  and 
military  service ;  addresses  to  the  Confederates,  and  the 
Council  of  Zurich;  on  Christian  education;  on  peace  and 
war,  etc. 

6.  Poetical :  The  Labyrinth  and  The  Fable  (his  earliest 
productions) ;  three  German  poems  written  during  the  pes- 
tilence ;  one  written  in  1529,  and  a  versified  Psalm  (69th). 

7.  Epistles.  They  show  the  extent  of  his  influence,  and 
include  letters  to  Zwingli  from  Erasmus,  Pucci,  Pope  Adrian 
VI.,  Faber,  Vadianus,  Glareanus,  Myconius,  Qi^colampadius, 
Haller,  Megander,  Beatus  Rhenanus,  Urbanus  Rhegius,  Bucer, 
Hedio,  Capito,  Blaurer,  Farel,  Comander,  Bullinger,  Fagius, 
Pirkheimer,  Zasius,  Frobenius,  Ulrich  von  Hutten,  Philip  of 
Hesse,  Duke  Ulrich  of  Wiirttemberg,  and  other  distinguished 
persons. 


§  29.    TELE   THEOLOGY  OF  ZWLSGLI.  89 

§  29.    The  Theology  of  Zwingli. 

I.  ZwixGLi:  Commentarius  de  Vera  et  Falsa  Relijione,  1525  (G«nnan  transla- 
tion by  Leo  Jadae)  ;  Fidei  Ratio  ad  Carolum  V.,  1530;  ChristiancE  Fidei 
brevis  et  clara  Erpositio,  15^31 ;  Ih  Providentia,  1530  (expansion  of  a  ser- 
mon preached  at  Marburg  and  dedicated  to  Philip  of  Hesse). 

IL  The  theology  of  Zwingli  is  discussed  by  Zellee,  Sigwabt,  Sporei, 
ScHWEizEE,  and  most  fully  and  exhaustively  by  A.  Baue.  See  lit.  §  5, 
p.  18.  Comp.  ScHAFT,  Creeds  of  Christendom,  I.  369  sqq.,  and  Church  His- 
tory,  VI.  721  sqq. 

The  dogmatic  works  of  Zwingli  contain  the  germs  of 
the  evangelical  Reformed  theology,  in  distinction  from  the 
Roman  and  the  Lutheran,  and  at  the  same  time  several 
original  features  which  separate  it  from  the  Calvini&tic  sys- 
tem. He  accepted  with  all  the  Reformers  the  oecumenical 
creeds  and  the  orthodox  doctrines  of  the  Trinity,  and  the 
divine-human  personality  of  Christ.  He  rejected  with  Luther 
the  scholastic  additions  of  the  middle  ages,  but  removed 
further  from  the  traditional  theology  in  the  doctrine  of  the 
sacraments  and  the  real  presence.  He  was  less  logical  and 
severe  than  Calvin,  who  surpassed  him  in  constructive 
genius,  classical  diction  and  rhetorical  finish.  He  drew  his 
theology  from  the  Xew  Testament  and  the  humanistic  cul- 
ture of  the  Erasmian  type.  His  love  for  the  classics  accounts 
for  his  liberal  views  on  the  extent  of  salvation  by  which  he 
differs  from  the  other  Reformers.  It  miofht  have  brought 
him  nearer  to  Melanchthon ;  but  Melanchthon  was  under 
the  overawing  influence  of  Luther,  and  was  strongly  preju- 
diced acrainst  Zwincrli.  He  was  free  from  traditional  bondasre, 
and  in  several  respects  in  advance  of  his  age. 

Zwingli's  theology  is  a  system  of  rational  supematuralism. 
more  clear  than  profound,  devoid  of  mysticism,  but  simple, 
sober,  and  practical.  It  is  prevailingly  soteriological,  that 
is,  a  doctrine  of  the  way  of  salvation,  and  rested  on  these 
fundamental  principles :  The  Bible  is  the  only  sure  directory 
of  salvation  (which  excludes  or  subordinates  human  tradi- 


90  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

tions)  ;  Christ  is  the  only  Saviour  and  Mediator  between 
God  and  men  (which  excludes  human  mediators  and  the 
worship  of  saints) ;  Christ  is  the  only  head  of  the  Church 
visible  and  invisible  (against  the  claims  of  the  pope)  ;  the 
operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  saving  grace  are  not  con- 
fined to  the  visible  Church  (which  breaks  with  the  principle 
of  exclusiveness). 

1.  Zwingli  emphasizes  the  Word  of  God  contained  in  the 
Bible,  especially  in  the  New  Testament,  as  the  only  rule  of 
Christian  faith  and  practice.  This  is  the  objective  principle 
of  Protestantism  which  controls  his  whole  theology.  Zwingli 
first  clearly  and  strongly  proclaimed  it  in  his  Conclusions 
(1523),  and  assigned  to  it  the  first  place  in  his  system ;  while 
Luther  put  his  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  or  the  sub- 
jective principle  in  the  foreground,  and  made  it  the  article 
of  the  standing  or  fallino'  church.  But  with  both  Reformers 
the  two  principles  so-called  resolve  themselves  into  the  one 
principle  of  Christ,  as  the  only  and  sufficient  source  of  sav- 
ing truth  and  saving  grace,  against  the  traditions  of  men 
and  the  works  of  men.  Christ  is  before  the  Bible,  and  is 
the  beginning  and  end  of  the  Bible.  Evangelical  Christians 
believe  in  the  Bible  because  they  believe  in  Christ,  and  not 
vice  versa.  Roman  Catholics  believe  in  the  Bible  because 
they  believe  in  the  Church,  as  the  custodian  and  infallible 
interpreter  of  the  Bible. 

As  to  the  extent  of  the  Bible,  or  the  number  of  inspired 
books,  Zwingli  accepted  the  Catholic  Canon,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  Apocalypse,  which  he  did  not  regard  as  an  apos- 
tolic work,  and  hence  never  used  for  doctrinal  purposes.^ 
Calvin  doubted  the  genuineness  of  the  Second  Epistle  of 
Peter  and  the  Pauline  origin  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews. 
Both  accepted  the  canon  on  the  internal  testimony  of  the 

1  He  missed  in  it  both  the  style  and  the  genius  of  St.  John.  "JVbn  sapit  os 
et  ingenium  Joannis."  Zwingli  and  Luther  were  both  wrong  in  their  unfavora- 
ble judgment  of  the  Revelation  of  "  the  Son  of  Thunder." 


§   20.     THE    THEOLOGY    OF    ZWINGLI.  91 

Holy  Spirit,  rather  than  the  external  authority  of  the  Church. 
Luther,  on  the  one  hand,  insisted  in  the  eucharistic  contro- 
versy on  the  most  literal  interpretation  of  the  words  of 
institution  against  all  arguments  of  grammar  and  reason ; 
and  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  he  exercised  the  boldest  subjec- 
tive criticism  on  several  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments, especially  the  Epistle  of  James  and  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews,  because  he  could  not  harmonize  them  with  his 
understanding  of  Paul's  doctrine  of  justification.  He  thus 
became  the  forerunner  of  the  higher  or  literary  criticism 
which  claims  the  Protestant  right  of  the  fullest  investigation 
of  all  tliat  pertains  to  the  origin,  history,  and  value  of  the 
Scriptures.  The  Reformed  Churches,  especially  those  of 
the  English  tongue,  while  claiming  the  same  right,  are  more 
cautious  and  conservative  in  the  exercise  of  it ;  they  lay 
greater  stress  on  the  objective  revelation  of  God  than  the 
subjective  experience  of  man,  and  on  historic  evidence  than 
on  critical  conjectures. 

2.  The  doctrine  of  eternal  election  and  providence.  Zwin- 
gli  gives  prominence  to  God's  sovereign  election  as  the 
primary  source  of  salvation.  He  developed  his  view  in  a 
Latin  sermon,  or  theological  discourse,  on  Divine  Provi- 
dence, at  the  Conference  of  Marburg,  in  October,  1529,  and 
enlarged  and  published  it  afterwards  at  Zurich  (Aug.  20, 
1530),  at  the  special  request  of  Philip  of  Hesse.^  Luther 
heard  the  discourse,  and  had  no  objection  to  it,  except  that 
he  disliked  the  Greek  and  Hebrew  quotations,  as  being  out  of 
place  in  the  pulpit.  Calvin,  in  a  familiar  letter  to  BuUinger, 
justly  called  the  essay  paradoxical  and  immoderate.  It  is 
certainly  more  paradoxical  than  orthodox,  and  contains  some 
unguarded  expressions  and  questionable  illustrations ;  yet 
it  does  not  go  beyond  Luther's  book  on  the  "  Slavery  of  the 

^  Ad  ilhistr-issimiim  Cattorum  Principem  Philippiim  Sermonis  df  Proridentia 
Dei  anamneina.  In  Opera,  vol.  IV.  79-144.  Leo  Judae  published  a  German 
translation  in  1531. 


92  THE    SWISS    REFOPwMATlON. 

Human  Will,"  and  the  first  edition  of  Melanclitlion's  Loci,  or 
Calvin's  more  mature  and  careful  statements.  All  the  Re- 
formers were  originally  strong  Augustinian  predestinarians 
and  denied  the  liberty  of  the  human  will.  Augustin  and 
Luther  proceeded  from  anthropological  premises,  namely, 
the  total  depravity  of  man,  and  came  to  the  doctrine  of  pre- 
destination as  a  logical  consequence,  but  laid  greater  stress 
on  sacramental  grace.  Zwingli,  anticipating  Calvin,  started 
from  the  theological  principle  of  the  absolute  sovereignty  of 
God  and  the  identity  of  foreknowledge  and  foreordination. 
His  Scripture  argument  is  chiefly  drawn  from  the  ninth 
chapter  of  Romans,  which,  indeed,  strongly  teaches  the  free- 
dom of  election,^  but  should  never  be  divorced  from  the 
tenth  chapter,  which  teaches  with  equal  clearness  human 
responsibility,  and  from  the  eleventh  chapter,  which  prophe- 
sies the  future  conversion  of  the  Gentile  nations  and  the 
people  of  Israel. 

Zwingli  does  not  shrink  from  the  abyss  of  supralapsarian- 
ism.  God,  he  teaches,  is  the  supreme  and  only  good,  and 
the  omnipotent  cause  of  all  things.  He  rules  and  adminis- 
ters the  world  by  his  perpetual  and  immutable  providence, 
which  leaves  no  room  for  accidents.  Even  the  fall  of  Adam, 
with  its  consequences,  is  included  in  his  eternal  will  as  well 
as  his  eternal  knowledge.  So  far  sin  is  necessary,  but  only 
as  a  means  to  redemption.  God's  agency  in  respect  to  sin 
is  free  from  sin,  since  he  is  not  bound  by  law,  and  has  no 
bad  motive  or  affection.^     Election  is  free  and  independent; 

1  P.  114:  "Nos  cum  Paulo  in  hac  sententia  sumus,  id  prcedestinatio  libera  sit, 
citra  omnem  respecturii  bene  aiit  male  factor  am."  He  refers  especially  to  what 
Paul  says  about  God  hardening  Pharaoh's  heart,  and  hating  Esau  and  loving 
Jacob  before  they  were  born.  But  this  has  reference  to  their  position  in 
history,  and  not  to  their  eternal  salvation  or  perdition. 

2Z)e  Providentia  Dei  (p.  11.3):  "Impulit  Deus  [latronem']  ut  occideret ;  sed 
ceque  impellit  judicem,  ut  percussorem  justitice  mactet.  Et  qui  impelht,  agit  sine 
omni  criminis  suspicione;  non  enim  est  ;%b  lege.  Qui  vera  impellitur,  tam  abest  ut 
sit  alienus  a  crimine,  ut  nullam  fere  rem  gerat  sine  aliqua  labia  aspergine,  quia  sub 
lege  est."      Zwingli  defends   this  view  by  the  illustration  of  the  magistracy 


§  29.    THE   THEOLOGY   OF   ZWINGLI.  93 

it  is  not  conditioned  by  faith,  but  includes  faith.^  Salvation 
is  possible  without  baptism,  but  not  without  Christ.  We  are 
elected  in  order  that  we  may  believe  in  Christ  and  bring 
forth  the  fruits  of  holiness.  Only  those  who  hear  and  reject 
the  gospel  in  unbelief  are  foreordained  to  eternal  punishment. 
All  children  of  Christian  parents  who  die  in  infancy  are 
included  among  the  elect,  whether  baptized  or  not,  and  their 
early  death  before  they  liave  committed  any  actual  sin  is  a 
sure  proof  of  their  election.^  Of  those  outside  the  Church 
we  cannot  judge,  but  may  entertain  a  charitable  hope,  as 
God's  o;race  is  not  bound.  In  this  direction  Zwinsfli  was 
more  liberal  than  any  Reformer  and  opened  a  new  path. 
St.  Augustin  moderated  the  rigor  of  the  doctrine  of  predes- 
tination by  the  doctrine  of  baptismal  regeneration  and  the 
hypothesis  of  future  purification.  Zwingli  moderated  it  by 
extending  the  divine  revelation  and  the  working  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  beyond  the  boundaries  of  the  visible  Church  and 
the  ordinary  means  of  grace. 

It  is  very  easy  to  caricature  the  doctrine  of  predestina- 
tion, and  to  dispose  of  it  by  the  plausible  objections  that  it 
teaches  the  necessity  of  sin,  that  it  leads  to  fatalism  and 
pantheism,  that  it  supersedes  the  necessity  of  personal  effort 
for  growth  in  grace,  and  encourages  carnal  security.  But 
every  one  who  knows  history  at  all  knows  also  that  the 

taking  a  man's  life.  So  a  soldier  may  kill  an  enemy  in  battle,  without  com- 
mitting murder.  Melanclithon  traced  (1521)  the  adultery  and  murder  of 
David  and  the  treason  of  Judas  to  the  Divine  impulse;  but  he  abandoned 
afterwards  (1535)  this  "  Stoic  figment  of  fatalism." 

1  P.  121:  "Fides  its  datur,  qui  ad  vitavi  eternam  electi  et  ordinati  sunt;  sic 
tamen  ut  electio  antecedat,  et  fides  velut  symbohnn  electionem  sequatur.  Sic  eniin 
habet  Paidus,  Rom.  8:29." 

2  He  reasons  thus  :  Nothing  separates  us  from  God  but  sin ;  children  have 
not  committed  actual  sin ;  Christ  has  expiated  for  original  sin ;  consequently 
children  of  Christian  parents,  about  whom  we  have  an  express  promise,  are 
certainly  among  the  elect  if  they  are  taken  away  in  infancy.  "Defunr]i  in 
illis  elect ionis  sig7iiim  est  perinde  ac  fides  in  ndultis.  Et  qui  reprohi  sunt  et  a  Deo 
repudiati,  in  hoc  statu  innocentice.  non  moriuntur,  sed  divina  providentia  seruantur 
ut  repudiatio  illorum  crtminosu  vita  notetur."      (P.  127.) 


94  THE   SWISS   EEFORMATION. 

strongest  predestinariaiis  were  among  the  most  earnest  and 
active  Christians.  It  will  be  difficult  to  find  purer  and  holier 
men  than  St.  Augustin  and  Calvin,  the  chief  champions  of 
this  very  system  which  bears  their  name.  The  personal 
assurance  of  election  fortified  the  Reformers,  the  Huguenots, 
the  Puritans,  and  the  Covenanters  against  doubt  and  de- 
spondency in  times  of  trial  and  temptation.  In  this  personal 
application  the  Reformed  doctrine  of  ^predestination  is  in 
advance  of  that  of  Augustin.  Moreover,  every  one  who  has 
some  perception  of  the  metaphysical  difficulties  of  reconcil- 
ing the  fact  of  sin  with  the  wisdom  and  holiness  of  God,  and 
harmonizing  the  demands  of  logic  and  of  conscience,  will 
judge  mildly  of  any  earnest  attempt  at  the  solution  of  the 
apparent  conflict  of  divine  sovereignty  and  human  responsi- 
bility. 

And  yet  we  must  say  that  the  Reformers,  following  the 
lead  of  the  great  saint  of  Hippo,  went  to  a  one-sided  extreme. 
Melanchthon  felt  this,  and  proposed  the  system  of  synergism, 
which  is  akin  to  the  semi-Pelagian  and  Arminian  theories. 
Q^colampadius  kept  Witliin  the  limits  of  Christian  experi- 
ence and  expressed  it  in  the  sound  sentence,  '•'•iSalus  nostra 
ex  Deo,  perditio  nostra  ex  nobis.^^  We  must  always  keep  in 
mind  both  the  divine  and  the  human,  the  speculative  and 
the  practical  aspects  of  this  problem  of  ages ;  in  other  words, 
we  must  combine  divine  sovereignty  and  human  responsi- 
bility as  complemental  truths.  There  is  a  moral  as  well  as 
an  intellectual  logic,  —  a  logic  of  the  heart  and  conscience 
as  well  as  a  logic  of  the  head.  The  former  must  keep  the 
latter  in  check  and  save  it  from  running  into  supralapsa- 
rianism  and  at  last  into  fatalism  and  pantheism,  which  is 
just  as  bad  as  Pelagianism. 

3.  Original  sin  and  guilt.  Here  Zwingli  departed  from 
the  Augustinian  and  Catholic  system,  and  prepared  the  way 
for  Arminian  and  Socinian  opinions.  He  was  far  from  de- 
nying the  terrible  curse  of  the  fall  and  the  fact  of  original 


§  29.  THE  THEOLOGY  OF  ZWINGLI.  95 

sin ;  but  he  regarded  original  sin  as  a  calamity,  a  disease,  a 
natural  defect,  which  involves  no  personal  guilt,  and  is  not 
punishable  until  it  reveals  itself  in  actual  transgression.  It 
is,  hoAvever,  the  fruitful  germ  of  actual  sin,  as  the  inborn 
rapacity  of  the  wolf  will  in  due  time  prompt  him  to  tear  the 
sheep.^ 

4.  The  doctrine  of  the  sacraments,  and  especially  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  is  the  most  characteristic  feature  of  the  Zwin- 
glian,  as  distinct  from  the  Lutheran,  theology.  Calvin's 
theory  stands  between  the  two,  and  tries  to  combine  the 
Lutheran  realism  with  the  Zwinglian  spiritualism.  This 
subject  has  been  sufficiently  handled  in  previous  chapters.^ 

5.  Eschatology.  Here  again  Zwingli  departed  further 
from  Augustin  and  the  mediseval  theology  than  any  other 
Reformer,  and  anticipated  modern  opinions.  He  believed 
(with  the  Anabaptists)  in  the  salvation  of  infants  dying  in 
infancy,  whether  baptized  or  not.  He  believed  also  in  the 
salvation  of  those  heathen  who  loved  truth  and  righteousness 
in  this  life,  and  were,  so  to  say,  unconscious  Christians,  or 
pre-Christian  Christians.  This  is  closely  connected  with  his 
humanistic  liberalism  and  enthusiasm  for  the  ancient  classics. 
He  admired  the  wisdom  and  the  virtue  of  the  Greeks  and 
Romans,  and  expected  to  meet  in  heaven,  not  only  the  saints 
of  the  Old  Testament  from  Adam  down  to  John  the  Baptist, 
but  also  such  men  as  Socrates,  Plato,  Pindar,  Aristides,  Numa, 
Cato,  Scipio,  Seneca;  yea,  even  such  mythical  characters  as 
Hercules  and  Theseus.  There  is,  he  says,  no  good  and  holy 
man,  no  faithful  soul,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the 
world,  that  shall  not  see  God  in  his  glory .^ 

1  He  describes  original  sin  in  Latin  as  defectus  naturalis  and  conditio  misera, 
in  German  as  a  Brest  or  Gebrechen,  i.e.  disease.  He  compares  it  to  the  misfor- 
tune of  one  born  in  slavery.  He  explains  his  view  more  fully  in  his  tract, 
De  peccato  originali  ad  Urhanum  Rhegium,  1526  {Opera,  III.  627-645),  and 
in  his  Confession  to  Charles  V. 

2  §  27,  p.  85  sq. ;  vol.  VI.  620  sqq.,  and  Creeds  of  Christendom,  I.  372-377. 

2  He  often  speaks  on  this  subject  in  his  epistles,  commentaries,  the  tract 


96  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

Zwingli  traced  salvation  exclusively  to  the  sovereign  grace 
of  God,  who  can  save  whom,  where,  and  how  he  pleases,  and 
who  is  not  bound  to  any  visible  means.  But  he  had  no  idea 
of  teaching  salvation  without  Christ  and  his  atonement,  as 
he  is  often  misunderstood  and  misrepresented.  "Christ,"  he 
says  (in  the  third  of  his  Conclusions),  ''  is  the  only  wisdom, 
righteousness,  redemption,  and  satisfaction  for  the  sins  of 
the  whole  world.  Hence  it  is  a  denial  of  Christ  when  we 
confess  another  ground  of  salvation  and  satisfaction."  He 
does  not  say  (and  did  not  know)  where,  when,  and  how 
Christ  is  revealed  to  the  unbaptized  subjects  of  his  saving 
grace :  this  is  hidden  from  mortal  eyes ;  but  we  have  no 
right  to  set  boundaries  to  the  infinite  wisdom  and  love  of 
God. 

The  Roman  Catholic  Church  teaches  the  necessity  of  bap- 
tism for  salvation,  and  assigns  all  heathen  to  hell  and  all 
unbaptized  children  to  the  limbus  infantum  (a  border  region 
of  hell,  alike  removed  from  burning  pain  and  heavenly  bliss). 
Lutheran  divines,  who  accept  the  same  baptismal  theory, 
must  consistently  exclude  the  unbaptized  from  beatitude,  or 
leave  them  to  the  uncovenanted  mercy  of  God.  Zwingli 
and  Calvin  made  salvation  depend  on  eternal  election,  which 
may  be  indefinitely  extended  beyond  the  visible  Church 
and  sacraments.  The  Scotch  Presbyterian  Confession  con- 
demns the  "horrible  dogma"  of  the  papacy  concerning  the 
damnation  of  unbaptized  infants.  The  Westminster  Con- 
fession teaches  that  "elect  infants  dying  in  infancy,"  and 
"all  other  elect  persons,  who  are  incapable  of  being  out- 
wardly called  by  the   ministry  of  the  word,  are  saved  by 


on  Providence,  and  most  confidently  at  the  close  of  his  Exposition  of  the 
Christian  Faith,  addressed  to  the  king  of  France.  See  the  passages  in  Schaff, 
Creeds  of  Christendom,  I.  382,  and  A.  Baur,  I.e.  II.  772.  Comp.  also  Zeller, 
I.e.  p.  163 ;  Alex.  Schweizer,  Die  Prat.  Centraldogmen,  I.  94  sqq.,  and  Reform. 
Glaubenslehre,  II.  10  sq. ;  Dorner,  Gesch.  der  protest.  TheoL,  p.  284  (who  with 
his  usual  fairness  vindicates  Zwingli  against  misrepresentations). 


§  29.  THE  THEOLOGY  OF  ZWINGLI.  97 

Christ  through  the  Spirit,  who  worketh  when,  and  where, 
and  how  he  pleaseth."  ^ 

The  old  Protestant  eschatology  is  deficient.  It  rejects  the 
papal  dogma  of  purgatory,  and  gives  nothing  better  in  its 
place.  It  confounds  Hades  with  Hell  (in  the  authorized 
translations  of  the  Bible  2),  and  obliterates  the  distinction 
between  the  middle  state  before,  and  the  final  state  after,  the 
resurrection.  The  Roman  purgatory  gives  relief  in  regard 
to  the  fate  of  imperfect  Christians,  but  none  in  regard  to  the 
infinitely  greater  nund^er  of  unbaptized  infants  and  adults 
who  never  hear  of  Christ  in  this  life.  Zwingli  boldly  ven- 
tured on  a  solution  of  the  mj'sterious  problem  which  is  more 
charitable  and  hopeful  and  more  in  accordance  with  the 
impartial  justice  and  boundless  mercy  of  God. 

His  charitable  hope  of  the  salvation  of  infants  dying  in 
infancy  and  of  an  indefinite  number  of  heathen  is  a  renewal 
and  enlargement  of  the  view  held  by  the  ancient  Greek 
Fathers  (Justin  Martyr,  Clement  of  Alexandria,  Origen, 
Gregory  of  Nyssa).  It  was  adopted  by  the  Baptists,  Arme- 
nians, Quakers,  and  Methodists,  and  is  now  held  by  the  great 
majority  of  Protestant  divines  of  all  denominations. 

1  Chapter  X.  3.  "  Elect"  infants,  however,  implies,  in  the  strict  Calvinistic 
system,  "  reprobate "  infants  who  are  lost.  This  negative  feature  has  died 
out.  See  on  this  subject  Schaff,  Creeds  of  Christendom,  I.  378-384,  and  hi& 
Creed  Revision  in  the  Presbyterian  Churches,  New  York,  1890,  p.  17  sqq. 

2  This  serious  error  is  corrected  in  the  Revised  English  Version  of  1881. 
It  is  an  anachronism  when  a  scholar  of  the  nineteenth  century  denies  the 
distinction  between  Hades  or  Sheol  {i.e.  the  spirit-world  or  realm  of  the  dead) 
and  Gehenna  (i.e.  hell,  or  the  place  and  state  of  the  lost). 


CHAPTER   IV. 

SPREAD   OF   THE   REFORMATION   IN   SWITZERLAND. 

§  30.    The  jSwiss  Diet  mid  the   Conference  at  Badeti,  1526. 

Thomas  Murner  :  Die  Disputacion  vor  den  XII  Orten  einer  loblichen  Eidgenos- 
senschaft  .  .  .  zu  Baden  gekalten.  Luzern,  1527.  This  is  the  official  Catholic 
report,  which  agrees  with  four  otlier  protocols  preserved  in  Zurich. 
(Muller-Hottinger,  VII.  84.)  Murner  published  also  a  Latin  edition, 
ijausa  Helvetica  orthodoxce  fidei,  etc.  Lucerna?,  1528.  Bellinger,  I.  331 
:sqq.'  The  writings  of  Zwingli,  occasioned  by  the  Disputation  in  Baden, 
in  his  Opera,  vol.  II.  B.  396-522. 

HoTTiNGER :  Geschichte  der  Eidgenossen  wiihrend  der  Zeit  der  Kirchentrennung , 
pp.  77-96.  MoRiKOFER :  Zw.,  II.  34-43.  Merle  :  Reform.,  Bk.  XI.  ch.  13. 
Herzog  :  Oekolampad,  vol.  II.  ch.  1.  Hagenbach  :  Oekolampad,  pp.  90-98. 
A.  Bacr:  Zw.'s  TheoL,  I.  501-518. 

The  Diet  of  Switzerland  took  the  same  stand  against  the 
Zwinglian  Keformation  as  the  Diet  of  the  German  Ent- 
pire  against  the  Lutheran  movement.  Both  Diets  consisted 
only  of  one  house,  and  this  was  composed  of  the  hereditary 
nobility  and  aristocracy.  The  people  were  not  directly  rep- 
resented by  delegates  of  their  own  choice.  The  majority  of 
voters  were  conservative,  and  in  favor  of  the  old  faith ;  but 
the  majority  of  the  people  in  the  larger  and  most  prosperous 
cantons  and  in  the  free  imperial  cities  favored  progress  and 
reform,  and  succeeded  in  the  end. 

The  question  of  the  Reformation  was  repeatedly  brought 
before  the  Swiss  Diet,  and  not  a  few  liberal  voices  were 
heard  in  favor  of  abolishing  certain  crying  abuses ;  but  the 
majority  of  the  cantons,  especially  the  old  forest-cantons 
around  the  lake  of  Lucerne,  resisted  every  innovation. 
Berne  was  anxious  to  retain  her  political  supremacy,  and 
vacillated.     Zwingli  liad  made  many  enemies  by  his  opposi- 


§  30.    THE   SWISS   DIET.  99 

tion  to  the  foreign  military  service  and  pensions  of  his  coun- 
trymen. Dr.  Faber,  the  general  vicar  of  the  diocese  of 
Constance,  after  a  visit  to  Rome,  openly  turned  against  his 
former  friend,  and  made  every  effort  to  unite  the  interests 
of  the  aristocracy  with  those  of  the  hierarchy.  "  Now,"  he 
said,  "the  priests  are  attacked,  the  nobles  will  come  next."  ^ 

At  last  the  Diet  resolved  to  settle  the  difficulty  by  a  public 
disputation.  Dr.  Eck,  well  known  to  us  from  the  disputa- 
tion at  Leipzig  for  his  learning,  ability,  vanity  and  conceit,^ 
offered  his  services  to  the  Diet  in  a  flattering  letter  of  Aug. 
13,  1524.  He  had  then  just  returned  from  a  third  visit  to 
Rome,  and  felt  confident  that  he  could  crush  the  Protestant 
heresy  in  Switzerland  as  easily  as  in  Germany.  He  spoke 
contemptuously  of  Zwingli,  as  one  who  "had  no  doubt 
milked  more  cows  than  he  had  read  books."  About  the 
same  time  the  Roman  counter-reformation  had  begun  to  be 
organized  at  the  convent  of  Regensburg  (June,  1524),  under 
the  lead  of  Bavaria  and  Austria. 

The  disputation  was  opened  in  the  Catholic  city  of  Baden, 
in  Aargau,  May  21,  1526,  and  lasted  eighteen  days,  till  the 
8th  of  June.  The  cantons  and  four  bishops  sent  deputies, 
and  many  foreign  divines  were  present.  The  Protestants 
were  a  mere  handful,  and  despised  as  "  a  beggarly,  miserable 
rabble."  Zwingli,  who  foresaw  the  political  aim  and  result 
of  the  disputation,  was  prevented  by  the  Council  of  Zurich 
from  leaving  home,  because  his  life  was  threatened ;  but  he 
influenced  the  proceedings  by  daily  correspondence  and 
secret  messengers.  No  one  could  doubt  his  courage,  which 
he  showed  more  than  once  in  the  face  of  greater  danger, 
as  when  he  went  to  Marburg  through  hostile  territory,  and 
to  the  battlefield  at  Cappel.  But  several  of  his  friends  were 
sadly  disapjDointed  at  his  absence.  He  would  have  equalled 
Eck  in  debate  and  excelled  him  in  biblical  learning.     Eras- 

1  "Jetzst  ge/it's  iiher  die  Geistlichen,  dann  kommt  es  an  die  Junker." 

2  Comp.  vol.  VI.  §  37,  p.  178  sqq. 


100  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

mus  was  invited,  but  politely  declined  on  account  of  sick- 
ness. 

The  arrangements  for  the  disputation  and  the  local  sym- 
pathies were  in  favor  of  the  papal  party.  Mass  was  said 
every  morning  at  five,  and  a  sermon  preached ;  the  pomp  of 
ritualism  was  displayed  in  solemn  processions.  The  presid- 
ing officers  and  leading  secretaries  were  Romanists ;  nobody 
besides  them  was  permitted  to  take  notes.^  The  disputation 
turned  on  the  real  presence,  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass,  the 
invocation  of  the  Virgin  Mary  and  of  saints,  on  images,  pur- 
gatory, and  original  sin.  Dr.  Eck  was  the  champion  of  the 
Roman  faith,  and  behaved  with  the  same  polemical  dex- 
terity and  overbearing  and  insolent  manner  as  at  Leipzig : 
robed  in  damask  and  silk,  decorated  with  a  golden  ring, 
chain  and  cross ;  surrounded  by  patristic  and  scholastic 
folios,  abounding  in  quotations  and  arguments,  treating  his 
opponents  with  proud  contempt,  and  silencing  them  with  his 
stentorian  voice  and  final  appeals  to  the  authority  of  Rome. 
Occasionally  he  uttered  an  oath,  '■'•Potz  Marter.''^  A  contem- 
porary poet,  Nicolas  Manuel,  thus  described  his  conduct :  — 

"  Eck  stamps  with  his  feet,  and  claps  his  hands, 
He  raves,  he  swears,  he  scolds; 
'  I  do,'  cries  he,  '  what  the  Pope  commands, 
And  teach  whatever  he  holds.' "^ 

CEcolampadius  of  Basle  and  Haller  of  Berne,  both  plain 
and  modest,  but  able,  learned  and  earnest  men,  defended 
the  Reformed  opinions.  CEcolampadius  declared  at  the 
outset  that  he  recognized  no  other  rule  of  judgment  than 
the  Word  of  God.      He  was  a  match  for  Eck  in  patristic 

1  Nevertheless,  two  young  friends  of  the  Reformation  published  reports 
from  memory. 

2  In  Eck's  und  Faber's  Badenfahrt  : 

"Eck  zappelt  mit  Fiissen  und  Hdnden, 
Fing  an  zu  schelten  und  schdnden. 
Er  sprach :  Ich  hlib  by  dem  Versfand, 
Den  Papst,  Cardinal,  und  Blshofhand." 


§  30.     THE    SWISS    DIET.  101 

learning,  and  in  solid  arguments.  His  friends  said,  "  Q^co- 
iampadius  is  vanquished,  not  by  argument,  but  by  vocifera- 
tion." ^  Even  one  of  the  Romanists  remarked,  "  If  only 
this  pale  man  were  on  our  side  ! "  His  host  judged  that  he 
must  be  a  very  pious  heretic,  because  he  saw  him  constantly 
engaged  in  study  and  prayer ;  while  Eck  was  enjoying  rich 
dinners  and  good  wines,  which  occasioned  the  remark,  "  Eck 
is  bathing  in  Baden,,  but  in  wine."^ 

The  papal  party  boasted  of  a  complete  victory.  All  inno- 
vations were  forbidden ;  Zwingli  was  excommunicated ;  and 
Basle  was  called  upon  to  depose  CEcolampadius  from  the 
pastoral  office.  Faber,  not  satisfied  with  the  burning  of 
heretical  books,  advocated  even  the  burning  of  the  Protes- 
tant versions  of  the  Bible.  Thomas  Murner,  a  Franciscan 
monk  and  satirical  poet,  who  was  present  at  Baden,  heaped 
upon  Zwingli  and  his  adherents  such  epithets  as  tyrants, 
liars,  adulterers,  church  robbers,  fit  only  for  the  gallows ! 
He  had  formerly  (1512)  chastised  the  vices  of  priests  and 
monks,  but  turned  violently  against  the  Saxon  Reformer,  and 
earned  the  name  of  "  Luther-Scourge  "  (^Luther omastix).  He 
was  now  made  lecturer  in  the  Franciscan  convent  at  Lucerne, 
and  authorized  to  edit  the  acts  of  the  Baden  disputation.^ 

1  "Nicht  uberdisputirt,  aber  uberschrieen  isi  er." 

2  In  another  witty  poem,  quoted  by  BuUinger  (I.  357  sq.),  the  two  disputants 
are  thus  contrasted  :  — 

"Alsofing  an  die  Disputaz  : 
Hans  Eck  empfing  da  manchen  Kratz, 
Das  that  ihn  libel  sclinierzen, 
Denn  alles,  iras  er  furherhracht. 
That  ihm  Hans  Husschyn  [Cb'kolampadius]  k.'.rzeu. 

Herr  Doctor  Husschyn  hochgelehrt 
Hat  sich  gen  Eckcn  tapfer  gwehrt, 
Oft  gnommen  Schwert  und  Stangen. 
Eckfloh  dann  zu  dem  rom'schen  Stuhl 
Und  auch  all  sin  Anhangen." 

3  He  also  issued,  in  1527,  an  almanac  with  satirical  caricatures  of  heretics, 
where  Zwingli  is  represented  hanging  on  the  gallows,  and  is  called  "Kirchen- 
dieb,"  "Feigenfresser,"  "Geiger  des  hell.  EvangeUums  und  Laiitenschldger  des  Alten 
und  Neuen  Testaments,"  etc.  Kessler's  Sabbata,  Schaffhausen,  1865,  and  Hagen- 
bach,  p.  372. 


102    .  THE    SWISS    REFORMATION. 

The  result  of  the  Baden  disputation  was  a  temporary 
triumph  for  Rome,  but  turned  out  in  the  end,  like  the  Leip- 
zig disputation  of  1519,  to  the  furtherance  of  the  Reforma- 
tion. Impartial  judges  decided  that  the  Protestants  had 
been  silenced  by  vociferation,  intrigue  and  despotic  meas- 
ures, rather  than  refuted  by  sound  and  solid  arguments  from 
the  Scriptures.  After  a  temporary  reaction,  several  cantons 
which  had  hitherto  been  vacillating  between  the  old  and  the 
new  faith,  came  out  in  favor  of  reform. 


§  31.    The  Reformation  in  Berne. 

I.  The  acts  of  the  disputation  of  Berne  were  published  in  1528  at  Zurich  and 

Strassburg,  afterwards  repeatedly  at  Berne,  and  are  contained,  together 
with  two  sermons  of  Zwingli,  in  Zwingli's  Werke,  II.  A.  63-229. — 
Valerius  Anshelm  :  Berner  Chronik,  new  ed.  by  Stierlin  and  Wyss. 
Bern,  1884,  '86,  2  vols.  Sturler  :  Urkunden  der  Bernischen  Kirchenreform. 
Bern,  1862.     Strickler:  Akteiisammlung ,  etc.     Zurich,  1878  (I.  1). 

II.  IvuHN :  Die  Reformatoren  Berns.  Bern,  1828.  Sam.  Fischer  :  Gesckichte 
der  Disputation  zuBern.-  Ziirich,  1828.  Melcii.  Kikchiiofer  :  Berthold 
Haller  oder  die  Reformation  zu  Bern.  Zurich,  1828.  C.  Pestalozzi  :  B. 
Holler,  nacli  handschriftl.  und  gleichzeitigen  Quellen.  Elberfeld,  1861.  The 
monographs  on  Niclans  Manuel  by  Grxjneisen,  Stuttgart,  1837,  and  by 
Bachthold,  Prauenfeld,  1878.  Hunueshagen:  Die  Conflicte  des  Zivin- 
glianismus,  Lutherthums  und  Calvinismus  in  der  Bernischen  Landeskirche  von 
1532-58.  Bern,  1842.  F.  Trechsel:  articles  Berner  Disputation  and 
Berner  Synodus,  and  Haller,  in  Herzog^,  II.  313-324,  and  V  556-561. 
Berner  Beitriige,  etc.,  1884,  quoted  on  p.  15.  See  also  the  lit.  by  Nippold 
in  his  Append,  to  Hagenbach's  Reform.  Gesch.,  p.  695  sq. 

III.  Karl  Ludwig  von  Haller  (a  distinguished  Bernese  and  convert  to 
Romanism,  expelled  from  the  Protestant  Council  of  Berne,  1820;  d.  1854): 
Geschichte  der  kirchlichen  Revolution  oder  protestantischen  Reform  des  Kantons 
Bern  und  umliegender  Gegenden.  Luzern,  1836  (346  pages).  French  trans- 
lation, Histoire  de  la  revolution  religieuse  dans  la  Swiss  occidentale.  Paris, 
1839.  This  is  a  reactionary  account  professedly  drawn  from  Protestant 
sources  and  represents  the  Swiss  Reformation  as  the  mother  of  the 
Revolution  of  1789.  To  the  French  version  of  this  book  Archbishop 
Spalding  of  Baltimore  (he  does  not  mention  the  original)  confesses  to 
be  "  indebted  for  most  of  the  facts  "  in  his  chapter  on  the  Swiss  Reforma- 
tion which  he  calls  a  work  established  "by  intrigue,  chicanery,  persecu- 
tion, and  open  violence !  "  Hist,  of  the  Prot.  Ref  in  Germany  and  Su-itz- 
erland,  I.  181,  186  (8th  ed.,  Baltimore,  1875). 


§  31.    THE   REFORMATION    IN   BERNE.  103 

Berne,  the  largest,  most  conservative  and  aristocratic  of 
the  Swiss  cantons,  which  contains  the  political  capital  of 
the  Confederacy,  was  the  first  to  follow  Zurich,  after  consid- 
erable hesitation.     This  Avas  an  event  of  decisive  importance. 

The  Reformation  was  prepared  in  the  city  and  throughout 
the  canton  by  three  ministers,  Sebastian  Meyer,  Berthold 
Haller,  and  Francis  Kolb,  and  by  a  gifted  layman,  Niclaus 
Man,uel,  —  all  friends  of  Zwingli.  Meyer,  a  Franciscan 
monk,  explained  in  the  convent  the  Epistles  of  Paul,  and  in 
the  i^ulpit,  the  Apostles'  Creed.  Haller,  a  native  of  Wiirt- 
emberg,  a  friend  and  fellow-student  of  Melanchthon,  an 
instructive  preacher  and  cautious  reformer,  of  a  mild  and 
modest  disposition,  settled  in  Berne  as  teacher  in  1518,  was 
elected  chief  pastor  at  the  cathedral  1521,  and  labored  there 
faithfully  till  his  death  (1536).  He  was  often  in  danger, 
and  wished  to  retire ;  but  Zwingli  encouraged  him  to  remain 
at  the  post  of  duty.  AVithout  brilliant  talents  or  great 
learning,  he  proved  eminently  useful  by  his  gentle  piety  and 
faithful  devotion  to  duty.  Manuel,  a  poet,  painter,  warrior 
and  statesman,  helped  the  cause  of  reform  by  his  satirical 
dramas,  which  were  played  in  the  streets,  his  exposure  of 
Eck  and  Faber  after  the  Baden  disputation,  and  his  intlii- 
ence  in  the  council  of  the  city  (d.  1530).  His  services  to 
Zwincrli  resemble  the  services  of  Hutten  to  Luther.  The 
Great  Council  of  the  Two  Hundred  protected  the  ministers 
in  preaching  the  pure  gospel. 

The  Peasants'  War  in  Germany  and  the  excesses  of  the 
Radicals  in  Switzerland  produced  a  temporary  reaction  in 
favor  of  Romanism.  The  government  prohibited  religious 
controversy,  banished  Meyer,  and  ordered  Haller,  on  his 
return  from  the  Baden  disputation,  to  read  Romish  mass 
again ;  but  he  declined,  and  declared  that  he  would  rather 
give  up  his  position,  as  he  preferred  the  Word  of  God  to  his 
daily  bread.  The  elections  in  1527  turned  out  in  favor  of 
the  party  of  progress.     The  Romish  measures  were  revoked. 


104  THE   SWISS   llEFORMATION. 

and  a  disputation  ordered  to  take  place  Jan.  6,  1528,  in 
Berne. 

The  disputation  at  Berne  lasted  nineteen  days  (from  Jan. 
6  to  26).  It  was  the  Protestant  counterpart  of  the  disputa- 
tion at  Baden  in  composition,  arrangements  and  result.  It 
had  the  same  effect  for  Berne  as  the  disputations  of  1523  had 
for  Zurich.  The  invitations  were  general ;  but  the  Roman 
Catholic  cantons  and  the  four  bishops  who  were  invited 
refused,  with  the  exception  of  the  bishop  of  Lausanne,  to 
send  delegates,  deeming  the  disputation  of  Baden  final.  Dr. 
Eck,  afraid  to  lose  his  fresh  laurels,  was  unwilling,  as  he  said, 
"to  follow  the  heretics  into  their  nooks  and  corners";  but 
he  severely  attacked  the  proceedings.  The  Reformed  party 
was  strongly  represented  by  delegates  from  Zurich,  Basel, 
and  St.  Gall,  and  several  cities  of  South  Germany.  Zurich 
sent  about  one  hundred  ministers  and  laymen,  with  a  strong 
protection.  The  chief  speakers  on  the  Reformed  side  were 
Zwingli,  Haller,  Kolb,  Q^colampadius,  Capito,  and  Bucer 
from  Strassburg;  on  the  Roman  side.  Grab,  Huter,  Treger, 
Christen,  and  Burgauer.  Joachim  von  Watt  of  St.  Gall 
presided.  Popular  sermons  were  preached  during  the  dis- 
putation by  Blaurer  of  Constance,  Zwingli,  Bucer,  QEcolam- 
padius,  Megander,  and  others. 

The  Reformers  carried  an  easy  and  complete  victor}^,  and 
reversed  the  decision  of  Baden.  The  ten  Theses  or  Con- 
clusions, drawn  up  by  Haller  and  revised  by  Zwingli,  were 
fully  discussed,  and  adopted  as  a  sort  of  confession  of  faith 
for  the  Reformed  Church  of  Berne.     They  are  as  follows  :  — 

1.  The  holy  Christian  Church,  whose  only  Head  is  Christ,  is  born  of  the 
"Word  of  God,  and  abides  in  the  same,  and  listens  not  to  the  voice  of  a 
stranger. 

2.  The  Church  of  Christ  makes  no  laws  and  commandments  without  the 
Word  of  God.  Hence  human  traditions  are  no  more  binding  on  us  than  as 
far  as  they  are  founded  in  the  Word  of  God. 

3.  Christ  is  the  only  wisdom,  righteousness,  redemption,  and  satisfaction 
for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world.  Hence  it  is  a  denial  of  Christ  when  we 
confess  another  ground  of  salvation  and  satisfaction. 


§  31.     THE    REFORMATION    IN    BERNE.  105 

4.  The  essential  and  corporal  presence  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ 
cannot  be  demonstrated  from  the  Holy  Scripture. 

5.  The  mass  as  now  in  use,  in  which  Christ  is  offered  to  God  the  Father 
for  the  sins  of  the  living  and  the  dead,  is  contrary  to  the  Scripture,  a  bla.s- 
phemy  against  the  most  holy  sacrifice,  passion,  and  death  of  Clirist,  and  on 
account  of  its  abuses  an  abomination  before  God. 

6.  As  Christ  alone  died  for  us,  so  he  is  also  to  be  adored  as  the  only 
Mediator  and  Advocate  between  God  the  Father  and  the  believers.  There- 
fore it  is  contrary  to  the  Word  of  God  to  propose  and  invoke  other  mediators. 

7.  Scripture  knows  nothing  of  a  purgatory  after  this  life.  Hence  all 
masses  and  other  offices  for  the  dead  ^  are  useless. 

8.  The  worship  of  images  is  contrary  to  Scripture.  Therefore  images 
should  be  abolished  when  they  are  set  up  as  objects  of  adoration. 

9.  Matrimony  is  not  forbidden  in  the  Scripture  to  any  class  of  men ;  but 
fornication  and  unchastity  are  forbidden  to  all. 

10.  Since,  according  to  the  Scripture,  an  open  fornicator  must  be  excom- 
municated, it  follows  tliat  unchastity  and  impure  celibacy  are  more  pernicious 
to  the  clergy  than  to  any  other  class. 

All  to  the  glory  of  God  and  his  holy  Word. 

Zwingli  preached  twice  during  the  disputation.^  He  was 
in  excellent  spirits,  and  at  the  height  of  his  fame  and  pubHc 
usefulness.  In  the  first  sermon  he  explained  the  Apostles' 
Creed,  mixing  in  some  Greek  and  Hebrew  words  for  his 
theolosfical  hearers.  In  the  second,  he  exhorted  the  Bernese 
to  persevere  after  the  example  of  Moses  and  the  heroes  of 
faith.  Perseverance  alone  can  complete  the  triumph.  (^Fe- 
rendovinciturfortuna.')  Behold  these  idols  conquered,  mute, 
and  scattered  before  you.  The  gold  you  spent  upon  them 
must  henceforth  be  devoted  to  the  good  of  the  living  images 
of  God  in  their  poverty.  "  Hold  fast,"  he  said  in  conclusion, 
"to  the  liberty  wherewith  Christ  has  set  us  free  (Gal.  5:1). 
You  know  how  much  we  have  suffered  in  our  conscience, 
how  we  were  directed  from  one  false  comfort  to  another, 
from  one  commandment  to  another  which  only  burdened 
our  conscience  and  gave  us  no  rest.  But  now  ye  have  found 
freedom  and  peace  in  the  knowledge  and  faith  of  Jesus 
Christ.     From  this  freedom  let  notliing  separate  you.     To 

1  "  All  todtetidienst,  als  vir/il,  seelmess,  seelgrdt,  sibend,  dryssfjest,  jarzyt,  kerzen, 
und  derglychen." 

2  The  sermons  are  printed  in  Werke,  II.  B.  203-229. 


106  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

hold  it  fast  requires  great  fortitude.  You  know  how  our 
ancestors,  thanks  to  God,  have  fought  for  our  bodily  liberty ; 
let  us  still  more  zealously  guard  our  spiritual  liberty  ;  not 
doubting  that  God,  who  has  enlightened  and  drawn  you, 
will  in  due  time  also  draw  our  dear  neighbors  and  fellow- 
confederates  to  him,  so  that  we  may  live  together  in  true 
friendship.  May  God,  who  created  and  redeemed  us  all, 
grant  this  to  us  and  to  them.     Amen." 

By  a  reformation  edict  of  the  Council,  dated  Feb.  7, 
1528,  the  ten  Theses  were  legalized,  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
bishops  abolished,  and  the  necessary  changes  in  worship 
and  discipline  provisionally  ordered,  subject  to  fuller  light 
from  the  Word  of  God.  The  parishes  of  the  city  and  can- 
ton were  separately  consulted  by  delegates  sent  to  them 
Feb.  13  and  afterwards,  and  the  great  majority  adopted  the 
reformation  by  popular  vote,  except  in  the  highlands  where 
the  movement  was  delayed. 

After  the  catastrophe  of  Cappel  the  reformation  was  con- 
solidated by  the  so-called  "  Berner  Synodus,"  which  met 
Jan.  9-14,  1532.  All  the  ministers  of  the  canton,  two  hun- 
dred and  twenty  in  all,  were  invited  to  attend.  Capito,  the 
reformer  of  Strassburg,  exerted  a  strong  influence  by  his 
addresses.  The  Synod  adopted  a  book  of  church  polity  and 
discipline ;  the  Great  Council  confirmed  it,  and  ordered 
annual  synods.  Hundeshagen  pronounces  this  constitution 
a  "  true  masterpiece  even  for  our  times,"  and  Trechsel  char- 
acterizes it  as  excelling  in  apostolic  unction,  warmth,  sim- 
plicity and  practical  wisdom. ^ 

Since  that  time  Berne  has  remained  faithful  to  the  Re- 
formed Church.  In  1828  the  Canton  by  order  of  the  gov- 
ernment celebrated  the  third  centenary  of  the  Reformation. 

1  The  constitution  was  printed  at  Basle  in  the  same  year,  and  repeatedly 
since.     Trechsel  gives  an  epitome  of  it  in  Herzog^,  II.  320  sqq. 


32.     THE    IIEFOKMATION    IN    BASEL.  107 


§  32.     The  Reformation  in  Basel.     (Ecolampadius. 

I.  The  sources  are  chiefly  in  tlie  Bibliotheca  Antistitii  and  the  University  Library 
of  Basel,  and  in  the  City  Library  of  Ziirich ;  letters  of  OEcolampadios  to 
Zwingli,  in  Bibliander's  Epistolw  Jo/i.  (Ecolampadii  et  Huldr.  Zwinglii  (Basel, 
1536,  foL);  in  Zwingli's  Opera,  vols.  VII.  and  VIII.;  and  in  Herminjard, 
Correspondance  des  Refurmateurs,  passim.  Several  letters  of  Erasmus,  and 
his  Consilium  Senatui  Basiliensi  in  negotio  Lutherano  anno  1525  exhibitum. 
Antiquitates  Gernleriame,  Tom.  I.  and  IL  An  important  collection  of  let- 
ters and  documents  prepared  by  direction  of  Antistes  Lukas  Gernlek  of 
Basel  (1(325-1675),  who  took  part  in  the  Helvetic  Consensus  Formula. 
The  AthencB  Rauricce  sive  Catalogus  Professorum  Academice  Basiliensis,  by 
Herzog,  Basel,  1778.  The  Busier  Chroniken,  publ.  by  the  Hist.  Soc.  of 
Basel,  ed.  y/iih  comments  by  W.  Vischer  (son),  Leipz.  1872. 

II.  Pet.  Ochs  :  Geschichte  der  Stadt  nnd  Landschaft  Basel.  Berlin  and  Leip- 
zig, 1786-1822.  8  vols.  The  Reformation  is  treated  in  vols.  V.  and  VI., 
but  without  sympathy.  Jak.  Burckhardt:  Kurze  Geschichte  der  Refor- 
mation in  Basel.  Basel,  1819.  K.  R.  Hagenbach  :  Kirchliche  Denkwiir- 
digkeiten  zur  Geschichte  Basels  seil  der  Reformation.  Basel,  1827  (pp.  268). 
The  first  part  also  under  the  special  title :  Kritische  Geschichte  und  Schick- 
sale  der  ersten  Busier  Confession.  By  the  same :  Die  Theologische  Schule 
Basels  und  ihrer  Lehrer  von  Stiftung  der  Hochschule  1460  his  zu  De  Wette's 
Tod  1849  (pp.  75).  Jarke  (R.  Cath.)  :  Studien  und  Skizzen  zur  Ge- 
schichte der  Reformation.  Schaffhausen  (Hurter),  1846  (pp.  576).  Fried. 
Fischer  :  Der  Bildersturm  in  der  Schweiz  und  in  Basel  insbesondere.  In 
the  "Basler  Jahrbuch"  for  1850.  W.  Vischer:  ActenstUcke  zur  Geschichte 
der  Reformation  in  Basel.  In  the  "  Basler  Beitriige  zur  vaterliindischen 
Geschichte,"  for  1854.  By  the  same :  Geschichte  der  Universitdt  Basel 
von  der  Griindung  1460  bis  zur  Reformation  1529.  Basel,  1860.  Boos: 
Geschichte  der  Stadt  Basel.  Basel,  1877  sqq.  The  first  volume  goes  to 
1501 ;  the  second  has  not  yet  appeared. 

III.  Biographical.  S.  Hess  :  Lebensgeschichte  Joh.  Oekolampads.  Zurich,  1793 
(chiefly  from  Ziirich  sources,  contained  in  the  Simler  collection).  J.  J. 
Herzog  (editor  of  the  well-known  "  Encyclopaedia,"  d.  1882)  :  Das  Lehen 
Joh.  Oekolampads  und  die  Reformation  der  Kirche  zu  Basel.  Basel,  1843. 
2  vols.  Comp.  his  article  in  Herzog  -,  vol.  X.  708-724.  K.  R.  Hagenbach  : 
Johann  Oekolampad  und  Oswald  Myconius,  die  Reformatoren  Basels.  Leben 
und  ausgewdhlte  Schriften.  Elberfeld,  1859.  His  Reformationsgesch.,  5th  ed., 
by  Nippold,  Leipzig,  1887,  p.  386  sqq.  On  CEcolampadius'  connection 
with  the  Eucharistic  Controversy  and  part  in  the  Marburg  Colloquy,  see 
ScHAFF,  vol.  VI.  620,  637,  and  642. 

The  example  of  Berne  was  followed  by  Basel,  the  wealth- 
iest and  most  literary  city  in  Switzerland,  an  episcopal  see 
since  the  middle  of   the  eighth  century,  the  scene  of   the 


108  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

reformatory  Council  of  1430-1448,  the  seat  of  a  University 
since  1460,  the  centre  of  the  Swiss  book  trade,  favorably 
situated  for  commerce  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine  and  on  the 
borders  of  Germany  and  France.  The  soil  was  prepared 
for  the  Reformation  by  scholars  like  Wyttenbach  and  Eras- 
mus, and  by  evangelical  preachers  like  Capito  and  Hedio. 
Had  Erasmus  been  as  zealous  for  religion  as  he  was  for 
letters,  he  would  have  taken  the  lead,  but  he  withdrew  more 
and  more  from  the  Reformation,  although  he  continued  to 
reside  in  Basel  till  1529  and  returned  there  to  die  (1536).^ 

The  chief  share  in  the  work  fell  to  the  lot  of  Qilcolampa- 
dius  (1482-1531).  He  is  the  second  in  rank  and  importance 
among  the  Reformers  in  German  Switzerland.  His  relation 
to  Zwingli  is  similar  to  that  sustained  by  Melanchthon  to 
Luther,  and  by  Beza  to  Calvin,  —  a  relation  in  part  subor- 
dinate, in  part  supplemental.  He  was  inferior  to  Zwingli  in 
originality,  force,  and  popular  talent,  but  surpassed  him  in 
scholastic  erudition  and  had  a  more  gentle  disposition.  He 
was,  like  Melanchthon,  a  mai!  of  thought  rather  than  of 
action,  but  circumstances  forced  liim  out  of  his  quiet  study 
to  the  public  arena. 

Johann  Qj^colampadius^  was  born  at  Weinsberg  in  the 
present  kingdom  of  Wiirtemberg  in  1482,  studied  law  in 
Bologna,  philology,  scholastic  philosophy,  and  theology  in 
Heidelberg  and  Tiibingen  with  unusual  success.  He  was  a 
precocious  genius,  like  Melanchthon.  In  his  twelfth  year  he 
composed  (according  to  Capito)  Latin  poems.  In  1501  he 
became  Baccalaureus,  and  soon  afterwards  Master  of  Arts. 
He  devoted  himself  chiefly  to  the  study  of  the  Greek  and 

1  On  Erasmus  and  his  relation  to  the  Eeformation,  see  above,  p.  24  sq.,  and 
especially  vol.  VI.  399-434. 

^  A.  Greek  name  given  him  for  Hausschein  or  Husschyn  (^Houselamp)  ;  but 
in  the  university  register  of  Heidelberg  he  is  entered  under  the  family  name 
of  Hussgen  or  Heussgen,  i.e.  Little  House.  His  mother  was  descended  of  the 
old  Basel  family  of  Pfister.  Hence  he  says  in  the  Preface  to  his  Commentary 
on  Isaiah  :  "  Basilea  mihi  ab  avo  patria."     See  Hagenbach,  OekoL,  p.  3  sq. 


§  32.     THE   KEFOIIMATION   IN   BASEL.  109 

Hebrew  Scriptures.  Erasmus  gave  him  the  testimony  of 
being  the  best  Hebraist  (after  Reuchlin).  At  Tiibingen  he 
formed  a  friendship  with  Melanchthon,  his  junior  by  fifteen 
years,  and  continued  on  good  terms  with  him  notwithstand- 
ing their  difference  of  opinion  on  the  Eucharist.  He  delivered 
at  Weinsberg  a  series  of  sermons  on  the  Seven  Words  of 
Christ  on  the  Cross,  which  were  published  by  Zasius  in  1512, 
and  gained  for  him  the  reputation  of  an  eminent  preacher  of 
the  gospel.  * 

In  1515  he  received  a  call,  at  Capito's  suggestion,  from 
Christoph  von  Utenheim,  bishop  of  Basel  (since  1502),  to 
the  pulpit  of  the  cathedral  in  that  city.  In  the  year  follow- 
ing he  acquired  the  degree  of  licentiate,  and  later  that  of 
doctor  of  divinity.  Christoph  von  Utenheim  belonged  to  the 
better  class  of  prelates,  who  desired  a  reformation  within  the 
Church,  but  di-ew  back  after  the  Diet  of  Worms,  and  died  at 
Delsberof  in  1522.  His  motto  was :  "  The  cross  of  Christ  is 
my  hope  ;  I  seek  mercy,  not  works."  ^ 

fficolampadius  entered  into  intimate  relations  with  Eras- 
mus, who  at  that  time  took  up  his  permanent  abode  in  Basel. 
He  rendered  him  important  service  in  his  Annotations  to  the 
New  Testament,  and  in  the  second  edition  of  the  Greek 
Testament  (concerning  the  quotations  from  the  Septuagint 
and  Hebrew).  The  friendship  afterwards  cooled  down  in 
consequence  of  their  different  attitude  to  the  question  of 
reform. 

In  1518  CEcolampadius  showed  his  moral  severity  and  zeal 
for  a  reform  of  the  pulpit  by  an  attack  on  the  prevailing 
custom  of  entertaining  the  people  in  the  Easter  season  with 
all  kinds  of  jokes.  "What  has,"  he  asks,  "a  preacher  of 
repentance  to  do  with  fun  and  laughter  ?  Is  it  necessary  for 
us  to  yield  to  the  impulse  of  nature  ?  If  we  can  crush  our 
sins  by  laughter,  what  is  the  use  of  repenting  in  sackcloth 

1  "  S'pes  mea  crux  Christi ;  gratiam,  non  opera  qncero."  The  motto  of  Gersoii 
and  many  mystics. 


110  THE   SWISS   EEFOKMATION. 

and  ashes  ?  What  is  the  use  of  tears  and  cries  of  sorrow  ?  .  .  . 
No  one  knows  that  Jesus  laughed,  but  every  one  knows  that 
he  wept.  The  Apostles  soAved  the  seed  weeping.  Many  as 
are  the  symbolic  acts  of  the  prophets,  no  one  of  them  lowers 
himself  to  become  an  actor.  Laughter  and  song  were  repug- 
nant to  them.  They  lived  righteously  before  the  Lord, 
rejoicing  and  yet  trembling,  and  saw  as  clear  as  the  sun  at 
noonday  that  all  is  vanity  under  the  sun.  They  saw  the  net 
being  drawn  everywhere  and  the  near  approach  of  the  judge 
of  the  world."  1 

After  a  short  residence  at  Weinsberg  and  Augsburg, 
Qicolampadius  surprised  his  friends  by  entering  a  convent 
in  1520,  but  left  it  in  1522  and  acted  a  short  time  as  chaplain 
for  Franz  von  Sickingen  at  Ebernburg,  near  Creuznach,  where 
he  introduced  the  use  of  the  German  language  in  the  mass. 

By  the  reading  of  Luther's  writings,  he  became  more  and 
more  fixed  in  evangelical  convictions.  He  cautiously  attacked 
transubstantiation,  Mariolatry,  and  the  abuses  of  the  confes- 
sional, and  thereby  attracted  the  favorable  attention  of  Luther, 
who  wrote  to  Spalatin  (June  10,  1521)  :  "  I  am  surprised  at 
his  spirit,  not  because  he  fell  upon  the  same  theme  as  I,  but 
because  he  has  shown  himself  so  liberal,  prudent,  and  Chris- 
tian. God  grant  him  growth."  In  June,  1523,  Luther  ex- 
pressed to  Q^colampadius  much  satisfaction  at  his  lectures 
on  Isaiah,  notwithstanding  the  displeasure  of  Erasmus,  who 
would  probably,  like  Moses,  die  in  the  land  of  Moab.  "  He 
has  done  his  part,"  he  says,  "  by  exposing  the  bad ;  to  show 
the  good  and  to  lead  into  the  land  of  promise,  is  beyond  his 
power."  Lutlier  and  CEcolampadius  met  personally  at  Mar- 
burg in  1520,  but  as  antagonists  on  the  doctrine  of  the  Lord's 
Supper,  in  which  the  latter  stood  on  the  side  of  Zwingli. 

In  Nov.  17,  1522,  CEcolampadius  settled  permanently  in 
Basel  and  labored  there  as  preacher  of  the  Church  of  St. 
Martin  and  professor  of  theology  in  the  University  till  his 

1  De  Risu  Puschali,  printed  by  Frobenius  at  Basel,  1518. 


§  32.     THE    REFORMATION    IN    BASEL.  Ill 

death.  Now  began  his  work  as  reformer  of  the  church  of 
Basel,  which  followed  the  model  of  Ziirich.  He  sought  the 
friendship  of  Zwingli  in  a  letter  full  of  admiration,  dated 
Dec.  10,  1522.1  They  continued  to  co-operate  in  fraternal 
harmony  to  the  close  of  their  lives. 

QEcolampadius  preached  on  Sundays  and  week  days,  ex- 
plaining whole  books  of  the  Bible  after  the  example  of 
Zwingli,  and  attracted  crowds  of  people.  With  the  consent 
of  the  Council,  he  gradually  abolished  crying  abuses,  distrib- 
uted the  Lord's  Supper  under  both  kinds,  and  published  in 
1526  a  German  liturgy,  which  retained  in  the  first  editions 
several  distinctively  Catholic  features  such  as  priestly  abso- 
lution and  the  use  of  lights  on  the  altar. 

In  1525  he  began  to  take  an  active  part  in  the  unfortunate 
Eucharistic  controversy  by  defending  the  figurative  inter- 
pretation of  the  words  of  institution :  "  This  is  (the  figure 
of)  my  body,"  chiefly  from  the  writings  of  the  fathers,  with 
which  he  was  very  familiar.^  He  agreed  in  substance  with 
Zwingli,  but  differed  from  him  by  placing  the  metaphor  in 
the  predicate  rather  than  the  verb,  which  simply  denotes 
a  connection  of  the  subject  with  the  predicate  whether  real 
or  figurative,  and  which  was  not  even  used  by  our  Lord  in 
Aramaic.  He  found  the  key  for  the  interpretation  in  John 
6  :  63,  and  held  fast  to  the  truth  that  Clii-ist  himself  is  and 
remains  the  true  bread  of  the  soid  to  be  partaken  of  hy  faith. 
At  the  conference  in  Marburg  (1529)  he  was,  next  to 
Zwingli,  the  chief  debater  on  the  Reformed  side.  By  this 
course  he  alienated  his  old  friends,  Brentius,  Pirkheimer, 
Billican,  and  Luther.  Even  Melanchthon,  in  a  letter  to  him 
(1529),  regretted  that  the  "  horr'ibilis  dissensio  de  Ccena 
Domini "  interfered  with  the  enjoyment  of  their  friendship, 


1  Opera  Zwinglii,  VII.  251,  and  Zwingli's  reply,  p.  261.     Hagenbach  gives 
a  German  translation  of  the  letters,  p.  26  sq.  and  38. 

^  De  genuina  verhorum  Domini  "hoc  est  corjms  meum  "  juxta  vetustissiinos  auc- 
tores  expositione.     (Strassburg),  September,  1525.     Corap.  vol.  VI.  612  sqq. 


112  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

though  it  did  not  shake  his  good  will  towards  him  ("  benevo- 
lentiam  erga  te  meam''''^.  He  concluded  to  be  hereafter  "a 
spectator  rather  than  an  actor  in  this  tragedy." 

CEcolampadius  had  also  much  trouble  with  the  Anabaptists, 
and  took  the  same  conservative  and  intolerant  stand  against 
them  as  Luther  at  Wittenberg,  and  Zwingli  at  Ziirich.  He 
made  several  fruitless  attempts  in  public  disputations  to  con- 
vince them  of  their  error.^ 

The  civil  government  of  Basel  occupied  for  a  while  middle 
ground,  but  the  disputation  of  Baden,  at  which  CEcolampadius 
was  the  champion  of  the  Reformed  doctrines,^  brought  on 
the  crisis.  He  now  took  stronger  ground  against  Rome  and 
attacked  what  he  regarded  as  the  idolatry  of  the  mass.  The 
triumph  of  the  Reformation  in  Berne  in  1528  gave  the  final 
impetus. 

On  the  9th  of  February,  1529,  an  unbloody  revolution 
broke  out.  Aroused  by  the  intrigues  of  the  Roman  party, 
the  Protestant  citizens  to  the  number  of  two  thousand  came 
together,  broke  to  pieces  the  images  still  left,  and  compelled 
the  reactionary  Council  to  introduce  everywhere  the  form  of 
religious  service  practised  in  Zurich. 

Erasmus,  who  had  advised  moderation  and  quiet  waiting 
for  a  general  Council,  was  disgusted  with  these  violent  meas- 
ures, which  he  describes  in  a  letter  to  Pirkheimer  of  Niirn- 
berg.  May  9,  1529.  "  The  smiths  and  workmen,"  he  says, 
"  removed  the  pictures  from  the  churches,  and  heaped  such 
insults  on  the  images  of  the  saints  and  the  crucifix  itself, 
that  it  is  quite  surprising  there  was  no  miracle,  seeing  how 
many  there  always  used  to  occur  whenever  the  saints  Avere 
even  slightly  offended.  Not  a  statue  was  left  either  in  the 
churches,  or  the  vestibules,  or  the  porches,  or  the  monasteries. 
The  frescoes  were  obliterated  by  means  of  a  coating  of  lime ; 

1  See  above,  p.  69  sqq.,  and  the  extracts  of  his  disputations  with  the 
Anabaptists  in  Hagenbach,  p.  108  sqq. ;  Herzog,  I.  299  sqq.,  and  II.  75  sqq. 

2  See  above,  p.  100. 


§  32.    THE   REFORMATION   IN   BASEL.  113 

whatever  would  burn  was  thrown  into  the  fire,  and  the  rest 
pounded  into  fragments.  Nothing  was  spared  for  either  love 
or  money.  Before  long  the  mass  was  totally  abolished,  so 
that  it  was  forbidden  either  to  celebrate  it  in  one's  own  house 
or  to  attend  it  in  the  neighboring  villages."  ^ 

The  great  scholar  who  had  done  so  much  preparatory  work 
for  the  Reformation,  stopped  half-way  and  refused  to  identify 
himself  with  either  party.  He  reluctantly  left  Basel  (April 
13, 1529)  with  the  best  wishes  for  her  prosperity,  and  resided 
six  years  at  Freiburg  in  Baden,  a  sickly,  sensitive,  and  dis- 
contented old  man.  He  was  enrolled  among  the  professors 
of  the  University,  but  did  not  lecture.  He  returned  to  Basel 
in  August,  1535,  and  died  in  his  seventieth  year,  July  12, 1536, 
without  priest  or  sacrament,  but  invoking  the  mercy  of  Christ, 
repeating  again  and  again,  "  O  Lord  Jesus,  have  mercy  on 
me  ! "     He  was  buried  in  the  Minster  of  Basel. 

Glareanus  and  Beatus  Rhenanus,  humanists,  and  friends  of 
Zwingli  and  Erasmus,  likewise  withdrew  from  Basel  at  this 
critical  moment.  Nearly  all  the  professors  of  the  Univer- 
sity emigrated.  They  feared  that  science  and  learning  would 
suffer  from  theological  quarrels  and  a  rupture  with  the 
hierarchy. 

The  abolition  of  the  mass  and  the  breaking  of  images,  the 
destruction  of  the  papal  authority  and  monastic  institutions, 
would  have  been  a  great  calamity  had  they  not  been  followed 
by  the  constructive  work  of  the  evangelical  faith  which  was 
the  moving  power,  and  which  alone  could  build  up  a  new 
Church  on  the  ruins  of  the  old.  The  Word  of  God  was 
preached  from  the  fountain.  Christ  and  the  Gospel  were 
put  in  the  place  of  the  Church  and  tradition.  German  service 
with  congregational  singing  and  communion  was  substituted 

1  The  modern  revival  of  archaeological  and  artistic  taste  in  Switzerland 
has  brought  about  a  restoration  of  the  old  frescoes  and  sculptures  of  the 
beautiful  Minster  and  Cloister  of  Basel,  and  of  the  chamber  where  the  great 
Council  was  held. 


114  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

for  the  Latin  mass.  The  theological  faculty  was  renewed 
by  the  appointment  of  Simon  Giyniius,  Sebastian  Miinster, 
Oswald  Myconius,  and  other  able  and  pious  scholars  to 
professorships. 

Qj^colampadius  became  the  chief  preacher  of  the  Minster 
and  Antistes,  or  superintendent,  of  the  clergy  of  Basel. 

On  the  1st  of  April,  1529,  an  order  of  liturgical  service 
and  church  discipline  was  published  by  the  Council,  which 
gave  a  solid  foundation  to  the  Reformed  Church  of  the  city 
of  Basel  and  the  surrounding  villages.^  This  document 
breathes  the  spirit  of  enthusiasm  for  the  revival  of  apostolic 
Christianity,  and  aims  at  a  reformation  of  faith  and  morals. 
It  contains  the  chief  articles  which  were  afterwards  formu- 
lated in  the  Confession  of  Basel  (1534),  and  rules  for  a 
corresponding  discipline.  It  retains  a  number  of  Catholic 
■customs  such  as  daily  morning  and  evening  worship,  weekly 
€ommunion  in  one  of  the  city  churches,  the  observance  of 
the  great  festivals,  including  those  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  the 
Apostles,  and  the  Saints. 

To  give  force  to  these  institutions,  the  ban  was  introduced 
in  1530,  and  confided  to  a  council  of  three  pious,  honest,  and 
brave  laymen  for  each  of  the  four  parishes  of  the  city ;  two 
to  be  selected  by  the  Council,  and  one  by  the  congregation, 
who,  in  connection  with  the  clergy,  were  to  watch  over  the 
morals,  and  to  discipline  the  offenders,  if  necessary,  by 
excommunication.  In  accordance  with  the  theocratic  idea 
of  the  relation  of  Church  and  State,  dangerous  heresies 
which  denied  any  of  the  twelve  articles  of  the  Apostles' 
Creed,  and  blasphemy  of  God  and  the  sacrament,  were  made 
punishable  with  civil  penalties  such  as  confiscation  of  prop- 
erty, banishment,  and  even  death.  Those,  it  is  said,  "  shall 
be  punished  according  to  the  measure  of  their  guilt  in  body, 
life,  and  property,  who  despise,  spurn,  or  contemn  the  eternal, 
pure,  elect  queen,  the  blessed  Virgin  Mary,  or  other  beloved 

1  In  Ochs,  I.e.  V.  686  sq. ;  Bullinger,  II.  82  sqq. 


§  32.    THE   REFORMATION   IN   BASEL.  115 

saints  of  God  who  now  live  with  Christ  in  eternal  blessed- 
ness, so  as  to  say  that  the  mother  of  God  is  only  a  woman 
like  other  women,  that  she  had  more  children  than  Christ, 
the  Son  of  God,  that  she  was  not  a  virgin  before  or  after 
his  birth,"  etc.  Such  severe  measures  have  long  since  passed 
away.  The  mixing  of  civil  and  ecclesiastical  punishments 
caused  a  good  deal  of  trouble.  CEcolampadius  opposed  the 
supremacy  of  the  State  over  the  Church.  He  presided  over 
the  first  synods. 

After  the  victory  of  the  Reformation,  fficolampadius  con- 
tinued unto  the  end  of  his  life  to  be  indefatigable  in  preach- 
ing, teaching,  and  editing  valuable  commentaries  (chiefly  on 
the  Prophets).  He  took  a  lively  interest  in  French  Prot- 
estant refugees,  and  brought  the  Waldenses,  who  sent  a 
deputation  to  him,  into  closer  affinity  with  the  Reformed 
churches.^  He  was  a  modest  and  humble  man,  of  a  delicate 
constitution  and  ascetic  habits,  and  looked  like  a  church 
father.  He  lived  with  his  mother ;  but  after  her  death,  in 
1528,  he  married,  at  the  age  of  forty-five,  Wilibrandis  Rosen- 
blatt, the  widow  of  Cellarius  (Keller),  who  afterwards 
married  in  succession  two  other  Reformers  (Capito  and 
Bucer),  and  survived  four  husbands.  This  tempted  Erasmus 
to  make  the  frivolous  joke  (in  a  letter  of  March  21,  1528), 
that  his  friend  had  lately  married  a  good-looking  girl  to 
crucify  his  flesh,  and  that  the  Lutheran  Reformation  was  a 
comedy  rather  than  a  tragedy,  since  the  tumult  always  ended 
in  a  wedding.  He  afterwards  apologized  to  him,  and  dis- 
claimed any  motive  of  unkindness.  QEcolampadius  had  three 
children,  whom  he  named  Eusebius,  Alitheia,  and  Irene  (God- 
liness, Truth,  Peace),  to  indicate  what  were  the  pillars  of  his 
theology  and  his  household.  His  last  days  were  made  sad 
by  the  news  of  Zwingli's  death,  and  the  conclusion  of  a  peace 
unfavorable  to  the  Reformed  churches.  The  call  from  Zurich 
to  become  Zwingli's  successor  he  declined.      A  few  weeks 

1  See  Herzog,  II.  239  sqq.;  Hagenbach,  150  sqq. 


116  THE   SWISS    REFORMATION. 

later,  on  the  24th  of  November,  1531,  he  passed  away  in  peace 
and  full  of  faith,  after  having  partaken  of  the  holy  com- 
munion with  his  family,  and  admonished  his  colleagues  to 
continue  faithful  to  the  cause  of  the  Reformation.  He  was 
buried  behind  the  Minster.^ 

His  works  have  never  been  collected,  and  have  only  his- 
torical interest.  They  consist  of  commentaries,  sermons, 
exegetical  and  polemical  tracts,  letters,  and  translations  from 
Chrysostom,  Theodoret,  and  Cyril  of  Alexandria.^ 

Basel  became  one  of  the  strongholds  of  the  Reformed 
Church  of  Switzerland,  together  Avith  Ziirich,  Geneva,  and 
Berne.  The  Church  passed  through  the  changes  of  German 
Protestantism,  and  the  revival  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
She  educates  evangelical  ministers,  contributes  liberally  from 
her  great  wealth  to  institutions  of  Christian  benevolence  and 
the  spread  of  the  Gospel,  and  is  (since  1816)  the  seat  of  the 
largest  Protestant  missionary  institute  on  the  Continent, 
which  at  the  annual  festivals  forms  a  centre  for  the  friends 
of  missions  in  Switzerland,  Wiirtemberg,  and  Baden.  The 
neighboring  Chrischona  is  a  training  school  of  German  min- 
isters for  emigrants  to  America. 

§  33.    The  Reformation  in  Crlarus.     Tschudi.     Glarean. 

Valentin  Tschudi  :  Chronik  der  Reformationsjahre  1521-1533.  Mit  Glossar 
und  Coiiiinentar  von  Dr.  Joh.  Strickler.  Glarus,  1888  (pp.  258).  Publ.  in 
the  "  Jalirbuch  des  historischen  Vereins  des  Kantons  Glarus,"  Heft  XXIV., 
also  separately  issued.  The  first  edition  of  Tschudi's  Chronik  (Bescliryb 
oder  Erzellung,  etc.)  was  published  by  Dr.  J.  J.  Blumer,  in  vol.  IX.  of  the 
"Archiv  fiir  schweizerische  Geschichte,"  1853,  pp.  332-447,  but  not  in 
the  original  spelling  and  without  comments. 

^  Malignant  enemies  spread  the  rumor  that  he  committed  suicide  or  was 
fetched  by  the  devil.  See  Hagenbach,  p.  181.  A  similar  rumor  was  started 
about  Luther's  death,  and  revived  in  our  days  by  Majunke  in  Luther's  Lebens- 
ende,  4th  ed.  Mainz,  1890,  but  refuted  by  Kolde  and  Kawerau. 

-  Hess  (pp.  413-430)  gives  a  chronological  list  of  his  works,  which  is  sup- 
plemented by  Herzog  (II.  255  sqq.).  Hagenbach's  biography,  p.  191  sqq., 
gives  extracts  from  his  sermons  and  catechetical  writings. 


§  33.    THE   REFORMATION   IN    GLARUS.  117 

Blumee  and  Heer  :  Der  Kanton  Glariis,  aistorisch,  geographisch  und  topo- 
graphisch  beschrieben.  St.  Gallen,  1846.  Dr.  J.  J.  Blumer  :  Die  Refor- 
mation im  Lande  Glarus.  In  the  "  Jahrbuch  des  historischen  Vereins  des 
Kantons  Glarus."  Zurich  and  Glarus,  1873  and  1875  (Heft  IX.  0-48  ; 
XI.  3-26).  H.  G.  Sulzberger:  Die  Beformation  des  Kant.  Glarus  und 
des  St.  GaUischen  Bezirks  Werdenherg.     Heiden,  1875  (pp.  44). 

Heinrich  Schreiber  :  Heinrich  Loriti  Glareanus,  gekronter  Dichter,  Philolog 
und  Mathematiker  aiis  dem  16ten  Jahrhundert.  Freiburg,  1837.  Otto 
Fridolin  Fritzsche  (Prof,  of  Church  hist,  in  Zurich)  :  Glarean,  sein 
Leben  und  seine  Schriften.  Frauenfeld,  1890  (pp.  136).  Comp.  also 
Geiger:  Renaissance  und  Humanismus  (1882),  pp.  420-423,  for  a  good 
estimate  of  Glarean  as  a  humanist. 

The  canton  Glarus  with  the  capital  of  the  same  name 
occupies  the  narrow  Liiiththal  surrounded  by  high  moun- 
tains, and  borders  on  the  territory  of  Protestant  Ziirich  and 
of  Catholic  Schwyz.  It  wavered  for  a  good  while  between 
the  two  opposing  parties  and  tried  to  act  as  peacemaker. 
Landammann  Hans  Aebli  of  Glarus,  a  friend  of  Zwingli  and 
an  enemy  of  the  foreign  military  service,  prevented  a  bloody 
collision  of  the  Confederates  in  the  first  war  of  Cappel.  Tliis 
is  characteristic  of  the  position  of  that  canton. 

Glarus  was  the  scene  of  the  first  public  labors  of  Zwingli 
from  1506  to  1516.^  He  gained  great  influence  as  a  classical 
scholar,  poptilar  preacher,  and  zealous  patriot,  but  made  also 
enemies  among  the  friends  of  the  foreign  military  service, 
the  evils  of  which  he  had  seen  in  the  Italian  campaigns.  He 
established  a  Latin  school  and  educated  the  sons  of  the  best 
families,  including  the  Tschudis,  who  traced  their  ancestry 
back  to  the  ninth  century.  Three  of  them  are  connected 
with  the  Reformation,  —  JEgidius  and  Peter,  and  their  cousin 
Valentin. 

-^gidius  (Gilg)  Tschudi,  the  most  famous  of  this  family, 
the  Herodotus  of  Switzerland  (1505-1572),  studied  first  with 
Zwingli,  then  with  Glarean  at  Basel  and  Paris,  and  occupied 
important  public  positions,  as  delegate  to  the  Diet  at  Ein- 
siedeln  (1529),  as  governor  of  Sargans,  as  Landammann  of 

1  See  above,  p.  23  sqq. 


118  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

Glarus  (1558),  and  as  delegate  of  Switzerland  to  the  Diet 
of  Augsburg  (1559).  He  also  served  a  short  time  as  officer 
in  the  French  army.  He  remained  true  to  the  old  faith,  but 
enjoyed  the  confidence  of  both  parties  by  his  moderation. 
He  expressed  the  highest  esteem  for  Zwingli  in  a  letter  of 
February,  1517.^  His  History  of  Switzerland  extends  from 
A.D.  1000  to  1470,  and  is  the  chief  source  of  the  period  before 
the  Reformation.  He  did  not  invent,  but  he  embellished 
the  romantic  story  of  Tell  and  of  Griitli,  which  has  been 
relegated  by  modern  criticism  to  the  realm  of  innocent 
poetic  fiction.^  He  wrote  also  an  impartial  account  of  the 
Cappeler  War  of  1531.3 

His  elder  brother,  Peter,  was  a  faithful  follower  of  Zwingli, 
but  died  early,  at  Coire,  1532.^ 

Valentin  Tschudi  also  joined  the  Reformation,  but  showed 
the  same  moderation  to  the  Catholics  as  his  cousin  jiEgidius 

1  In  Zwingli's  Opera,  VII.  20  sq.     See  above,  p.  3. 

2  The  full  title  of  his  history  is :  JEgidii  Tschudii  gewesenen  Landammanns 
zu  Glarus  Ckronicon  Helveticum  oder  griindliche  Beschreibung  der  merkwiirdigsten 
Begegnussen  loblicher  Eidgenossenschaft,  first  printed  in  Basel,  1734,  '36,  in 
2  large  fol.  vols.  The  continuation  from  1470-1564  is  preserved  in  Ms. 
in  the  monastic  library  at  Engelberg.  His  graphic  narrative  of  Tell, 
reproduced  by  John  von  Miiller  and  dramatized  by  Schiller,  though  dis- 
proved by  modern  criticism,  will  live  in  story  and  song.  We  may  apply 
to  it  Schiller's  lines  :  — 

"  Alles  tciederhoU  sich  nur  im  Lebeti, 
Eioig  jting  ist  nur  die  Phantasie  : 
Was  sich  nie  unci  nirgends  hat  begeben. 
Das  allein  veraltet  nie." 

See  Jakob  Vogel:  Egid.  Tschudi  als  Staatsmarin  und  Oeschichtschreiber.  Mit 
dessen  Bildniss.  Ziirich,  1856.  Blumer :  Tschudi  als  Geschichtschreiber ,  187 i 
("Jahrbuch  des  hist.  Vereins  des  Kant.  Glarus,"  pp.  81-100).  Georg  von 
Wyss :  Die  eigenhandige  Handschrift  der  eidgenoss.  Chronik  des  Aeg.  Tschudi 
in  der  Stadt-Bibl.  in  Ziirich  ("Neujahrblatt "  of  the  City  Library  of  Zurich  for 
1889).  Blumer  and  Von  Wyss  give  the  best  estimate  of  Tschudi.  Goethe  says 
that  Tschudi's  Swiss  History  and  Aventin's  Bavarian  History  are  sufficient 
to  educate  a  useful  public  man  without  any  other  book. 

^  Published  from  MS.  in  the  "  Helvetica,"  ed.  by  Jos.  Ant.  Balthasar, 
vol.  II.     Aarau  and  Berne,  1826  (pp.  165  sqq.). 

*  See  his  letters  to  Zwingli  of  Dec.  27, 1529,  and  Dec.  15, 1530,  from  Coire. 
In  Zwingli's  Opera,  VIII.  386  and  562. 


§  33.    THE   REFORMATION   IN   GLARUS.  119 

showed  to  the  Protestants.  After  studying  several  years 
under  Zwingli,  he  went,  in  1516,  with  his  two  cousins  to  the 
classical  school  of  Glarean  at  Basel,  and  followed  him  to 
Paris.  From  that  city  he  wrote  a  Greek  letter  to  Zwingli, 
Nov.  15,  1520,  which  is  still  extant  and  shows  his  progress 
in  learning.!  On  Zwingli's  recommendation,  he  was  elected 
his  successor  as  pastor  at  Glarus,  and  was  installed  by  him, 
Oct.  12,  1522.  Zwingli  told  the  congregation  that  he  had 
formerly  taught  them  many  Roman  traditions,  but  begged 
them  now  to  adhere  exclusively  to  the  Word  of  God. 

Valentin  Tschudi  adopted  a  middle  way,  and  was  supported 
by  his  deacon,  Jacob  Heer.  He  pleased  both  parties  by  read- 
ing mass  early  in  the  morning  for  the  old  believers,  and  after- 
wards preaching  an  evangelical  sermon  for  the  Protestants. 
He  is  the  first  example  of  a  latitudinarian  or  comprehensive 
broad-churchman.  In  1530  he  married,  and  ceased  to  read 
mass,  but  continued  to  preach  to  both  parties,  and  retained 
the  respect  of  Catholics  by  his  culture  and  conciliatory 
manner  till  his  death,  in  1555.  He  defended  his  moderation 
and  reserve  in  a  long  Latin  letter  to  Zwingli,  March  15, 1530.^ 
He  says  that  the  controversy  arose  from  external  ceremonies, 
and  did  not  touch  the  rock  of  faith,  which  Catholics  and 
Protestants  professed  alike,  and  that  he  deemed  it  his  duty 
to  enjoin  on  his  flock  the  advice  of  Paul  to  the  Romans 
(ch.  14),  to  exercise  mutual  forbearance,  since  each  stands 
or  falls  to  the  same  Lord.  The  unity  of  the  Spirit  is  the  best 
guide.  He  feared  that  by  extreme  measures,  more  harm  was 
done  than  good,  and  that  the  liberty  gained  may  degenerate 
into  license,  impiety,  and  contempt  of  authority.  He  begs 
Zwingli  to  use  his  influence  for  the  restoration  of  order  and 
peace,  and  signs  himself  "  forever  yours  "  (^semper  futurus 
tuus).      The   same   spirit   of    moderation    characterizes   his 

^  There  are  nine  of  his  letters  in  Zwingli's  Opera,  VII.  nntl  VIII. 
-  In  Strickler's  edition  of  his  Chronik,  pp.  241-244,  and  in  Zwingli's  Opera, 
VIII.  433-436. 


120  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

Chronicle  of  the  Reformation  period,  and  it  is  difficult  to 
find  out  from  this  colorless  and  unimportant  narrative,  to 
which  of  the  two  parties  he  belonged. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the  influence  of  Tschudi's 
example  is  felt  to  this  day  in  the  peaceful  joint  occupation 
of  the  church  at  Glarus,  where  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass  is 
offered  by  a  priest  at  the  altar,  and  a  sermon  preached  from 
the  pulpit  by  a  Reformed  pastor  in  the  same  morning.^ 

Another  distinguished  man  of  Glarus  and  friend  of 
Zwingli  in  the  earlier  part  of  his  career,  is  Heinrich  Loriti, 
or  Loreti,  better  known  as  Glareanus,  after  the  humanistic 
fashion  of  that  age.^  He  was  born  at  Mollis,  a  small  village 
of  that  canton,  in  1488,  studied  at  Cologne  and  Basel,  sided 
with  Reuchlin  in  the  quarrel  with  the  Dominican  obscuran- 
tists,^ travelled  extensively,  was  crowned  as  poet-laureate  by 
the  Emperor  Maximilian  (1512),  taught  school  and  lectured 
successively  at  Basel  (1514),  Paris  (1517),  again  at  Basel 
(1522),  and  Freiburg  (since  1529).  He  acquired  great  fame 
as  a  philologist,  poet,  geographer,  mathematician,  musician, 
and  successful  teacher.  Erasmus  called  him,  in  a  letter  to 
Zwingli  (1514),*  the  prince  and  champion  of  the  Swiss 
humanists,  and  in  other  letters  he  praised  him  as  a  man  pure 
and  chaste  in  morals,  amiable  in  society,  well  versed  in  his- 
tory, mathematics,  and  music,  less  in  Greek,  averse  to  the 
subtleties  of  the  schoolmen,  bent  upon  learning  Christ  from 
the  fountain,  and  of  extraordinary  working  power.  He  was 
full  of  wit  and  quaint  humor,  but  conceited,  sanguine,  irri- 
table, suspicious,  and  sarcastic.     Glarean  became  acquainted 

1  The  old  church  of  Glarus  in  which  Zwingli  and  Tschudi  preached, 
burned  down  in  1861 ;  but  the  same  custom  is  continued  in  tlie  new  Roman- 
esque church,  to  the  satisfaction  of  both  parties.  So  I  was  informed  by  the 
present  pastor,  Dr.  Buss,  in  1890. 

2  From  his  native  canton,  Glarus  (^Glareana,  also  Glarona  or  Clarona ;  for 
the  natives:  Glareanus  or  Glaronensis).  For  another  derivation  see  Fritzsche, 
I.e.  p.  8. 

^  He  figures  in  the  Epistolce  Virorum  Obscurorum  as  a  terrible  heretic. 
*  Zwingli's  Opera,  VII.  10. 


§  33.    THE   REFORMATION   IN   GLARUS.  121 

with  Zwingli  in  1510,  and  continued  to  correspond  with  him 
till  1523.1  jjg  bought  books  for  him  at  Basel  (e.g.  the  Aldine 
editions  of  Lactantius  and  Tertullian)  and  sought  a  place 
as  canon  in  Ziirich.  In  his  last  letter  to  him  he  called 
him  "the  truly  Christian  theologian,  the  bishop  of  the  Church 
of  Ziirich,  his  very  great  friend."  ^  He  read  Luther's  book 
on  the  Babylonian  Captivit}'  three  times  with  enthusiasm. 
But  when  Erasmus  broke  both  with  Zwingli  and  Luther,  he 
withdrew  from  the  Reformation,  and  even  bitterly  opposed 
Zwingli  and  Q^colampadius. 

He  left  Basel,  Feb.  20,  1529,  for  Catholic  Freiburg,  and 
was  soon  followed  by  Erasmus  and  Amerbach.  Here  he 
labored  as  an  esteemed  professor  of  poetry  and  fruitful 
author,  until  his  death  (1563).  He  was  surrounded  by 
Swiss  and  German  students.  He  corresponded,  now,  as  con- 
fidentially with  JEgidius  Tschudi  as  he  had  formerly  corre- 
sponded with  Zwingli,  and  co-operated  with  him  in  saving 
a  portion  of  his  countrymen  for  the  Catholic  faith.^  He 
gave  free  vent  to  his  disgust  with  Protestantism,  and  yet 
lamented  the  evils  of  the  Roman  Church,  the  veniality  and 
immorality  of  priests  who  cared  more  for  Venus  than  for 
Christ.'^  A  fearful  charo-e.  He  received  a  Protestant  stu- 
dent  from  Ziirich  Avith  the  rude  words :  "  You  are  one  of 
those  who  carry  the  gospel  in  the  mouth  and  the  devil  in 
the  heart "  ;  but  when  reminded  that  he  did  not  show  the 
graces  to  the  muses,  he  excused  himself  by  his  old  age,  and 

1  We  have  from  him  twenty-eight  letters  to  Zwingli  from  Julj^  13,  1510, 
to  Feb.  16,  1523,  printed  in  Zwingli's  Opera,  VII.  and  VIII.,  from  the  origi- 
nals in  the  State  Archives  of  Zurich.  Zwingli's  letters  to  Glarean  are  lost,  and 
were  probably  destroyed  after  his  rupture  with  the  Reformer. 

2  "  Theologo  vere  Christiana,  Ecclesia;  Tigurinai  episcopo,  amico  nostra  sinnmo." 
Zwingli's  Opera,  VII.  274. 

3  There  are  thirty-eight  MS.  letters  of  Glarean  to  Tschudi,  from  1533  to 
1561,  in  the  City  Library  of  Ziirich  ;  another  copy  in  the  cantonal  library  of 
Glarus. 

*  Nov.  21,  1556 :  "  Onuies  clerici  ad  Venerem  magis  quam  ad  Christum 
inclinant." 


122  THE   SWISS   REFOEMATION. 

treated  the  young  man  with  the  greatest  civility.  He  became 
a  pessimist,  and  expected  the  speedy  coUapse  of  the  world. 
His  friendship  with  Erasmus  was  continued  with  interrup- 
tions, and  at  last  suffered  shipwreck.  He  charged  him  once 
with  plagiarism,  and  Erasmus  ignored  him  in  his  testament.^ 
It  was  a  misfortune  for  both  that  they  could  not  understand 
the  times,  which  had  left  them  behind.  The  thirty  works 
of  Glarean  (twenty-two  of  them  written  in  Freiburg)  are 
chiefly  philological  and  musical,  and  have  no  bearing  on 
theology .2  They  were  nevertheless  put  on  the  Index  by 
Pope  Paul  IV.,  in  1559.  He  bitterly  complained  of  this 
injustice,  caused  by  ignorance  or  intrigue,  and  did  all  he 
could,  with  the  aid  of  Tschudi,  to  have  his  name  removed, 
which  was  done  after  the  seven  Catholic  cantons  had  testified 
that  Glarean  was  a  good  Christian.^ 

The  Reformation  progressed  in  Glarus  at  first  without 
much  opposition.  Fridolin  Brunner,  pastor  at  Mollis,  wrote 
to  Zwingli,  Jan.  15,  1527,  that  the  Gospel  was  gaining 
ground  in  all  the  churches  of  the  canton.  Johann  Schindler 
preached  in  vSchwanden  with  great  effect.  The  congrega- 
tions decided  for  the  Reformed  preachers,  except  in  Nafels. 
The  reverses  at  Cappel    in  1531  produced  a  reaction,  and 


1  But  Ur.  Bonifacius  Amerbach,  the  chief  heir,  sent  Glarean  a  silver  cup 
of  Erasmus.  See  the  hiventarium  uher  die  Hinterlassenschaft  des  Erasmus  vom 
22  Juli,  1536,  p.  13.  This  curious  document  of  nineteen  pages  was  published 
in  1889  by  Dr.  Ludwig  Sieber,  librarian  of  the  University  of  Basel.  He  also 
published  Das  Testament  des  Erasmus  vom  22  Jan.  1527,  Basel,  1890. 

2  The  most  important  is  his  Dodekachordon  (Basel,  1547),  which  makes  an 
epoch  in  the  history  of  music.  "  His  theory  of  the  twelve  church  modes  as 
parallel  to  the  ancient  Greek  modes,  will  assure  for  Glareanus  a  lasting  place 
among  writers  on  the  science  of  music."  (Glover's  Dictionary  of  Music  and 
Musicians,  1889,  vol.  I.  598.)  Music  was  to  him  a  sacred  art.  His  editions 
of  Greek  and  Latin  classics  with  critical  notes,  especially  on  Livy,  are  esteemed 
and  used  by  modern  philologists.  Fritzsche  gives  a  full  account  of  his  works, 
pp.  83-127. 

3  His  name  was  left  out  of  the  Indexes  of  the  sixteenth  century  after  that 
of  1559,  but  strangely  reappears  again  in  the  Index  Matriti,  1667,  p.  485. 
Fritzsche,  p.  74. 


§  34.    THE   REFORMATION   IN   ST.    GALL.  123 

caused  some  losses,  but  the  Reformed  Cliurch  retained  the 
majority  of  the  population  to  this  day,  and  with  it  the  pre- 
ponderance of  intelligence,  enterprise,  wealth,  and  prosperity, 
although  the  numerical  relation  has  recently  changed  in 
favor  of  the  Catholics,  in  consequence  of  the  emigration  of 
Protestants  to  America,  and  the  immigration  of  Roman- 
Catholic  laborers,  who  are  attracted  by  the  busy  industries 
(as  is  the  case  also  in  Zurich,  Basel,  and  Geneva).^ 

§  34.    The  Reformatio7i  in  St.  Grall,  Toggenburg,  and  A})pen- 
zell.      Watt  and  Kessler. 

The  sources  and  literature  in  the  City  Library  of  St.  Gall  which  bears  the 
name  of  Vadian  (Watt)  and  contains  his  MSS.  and  printed  works. 

I.  The  historical  works  of  Vadianus,  especially  his  Chronicle  of  the  Abbots  of 

St.  Gall  from  1200-1540,  and  his  Diary  from  1529-33,  edited  by  Br.  E. 
Goetzinger,  St.  Gallen,  1875-79,  3  vols. — Joachimi  Vadiani  Vita  per  Joun- 
nem  Kesslerum  conscripta.  Edited  from  the  MS.  by  Dr.  Goetzinger  for  the 
Historical  Society  of  St.  Gall,  18G5.  —  Johannes  Kessler's  Sabbata. 
Chronik  der  Jahre  1523-1539.  Herausgegeben  von  Dr.  Ernst  Goetzinger. 
St.  Gallen,  1866.  In  "  Mittheilungen  zur  vaterlilndischen  Geschichte  "  of 
the  Historical  Society  of  St.  Gall,  vols.  V.  and  VI.  The  MS.  of  532 
pages,  written  in  the  Swiss  dialect  by  Kessler's  own  hand,  is  preserved 
in  the  Vadian  library. 

II.  J.  V.  Arx  (Rom.  Cath.,  d.  1833)  :  Geschichte  des  Kant.  St.  Gallen.  St. 
Gallen,  1810-'13,  3  vols.  — J.  M.  Fels:  Denkmal  Schweizerischer  Beforma- 
toren.  St.  Gallen,  1819.  —  Joh.  Fr.  Franz:  Die  schwdrmerischen  Gratiel- 
scenen  der  St.  Galler  Wiedertdufer  zu  Anfang  der  Reformation.  Ebnat  in 
Toggenberg,  1824.  —  Joh.  Jakob  Bernet  :  Johann  Kessler,  genannt  Ahena- 
rius,  Burger  und  Beformator  zu  Sankt  Gallen.  St.  Gallen,  1826.  —  K. 
Wegelin  :  Geschichte  der  Grafschaft  Toggenburg.  St.  Gallen,  18o0-'33, 
2  Parts. — Fr.  "Weidmann  :  Geschichte  der  Stiftsbibliothek  St.  Gallens. 
1841.  —  A.  Naf  :  Chronik  oder  Denkiciirdigkeiten  der  Stadt  und  Landschaft 
St.  Gallen.  Ziirich,  1851.  —  J.  K.  Bijchler:  Die  Reformation  im  Lande 
Appenzell.  Trogen,  1860.  In  the  "  Appenzellische  Jahrbiicher."  —  G. 
Jak.  Baumgartner:  Geschichte  des  Schweizerischen  Freistaates  und  Kan- 
tons  St.  Gallen.  Ziirich,  1868,  2  vols. —  H.  G.  Sulzberger:  Geschichte 
der  Reformation  in  Toggenburg ;  in  St.  Gallen;  im  Bheinthal ;  in  den  eidge- 
nossischen  Herrschaften  Sargans  und  Gaster,  sowie  in  Rapper schwil ;  in 
Hohensax-Forsteck ;  in  Appenzell.  Several  pamphlets  reprinted  from  the 
"  Appenzeller  Sonntagsblatt,"  1872  sqq. 

1  In  1850  the  Protestant  population  of  Glarus  numbered  26,281 ;  the  Cath- 
olic, 3,932.     In  1888  the  proportion  was  25,935  to  7,790.     See  Fritzsche,  p.  53. 


124  THE    SWISS    REFORMATION. 

III.  Theod.  Pressel:  Joachim  Vadian.  In  the  ninth  volume  of  the  "  Leben 
und  ausgewahlte  Schriften  der  Vater  und  Begriinder  der  reformirten 
Kirche."  Elberfeld,  1861  (pp.  103).  —  Rud.  Stahelin:  Die  reformato- 
rische  Wirksamkeit  des  St.  Galler  Humanisten  Vadian,  in  "  Beitrage  zur 
vaterlandischen  Geschichte,"  Basel,  1882,  pp.  193-262 ;  and  his  art.  "  Watt " 
in  Herzog2,  XVI.  (1885),  pp.  663-668.  Comp.  also  Meyer  von  Knonau, 
"  St.  Gallen,"  in  Herzog-^,  IV.  725-735. 

The  Reformation  in  the  northeastern  parts  of  Switzerland 
—  St.  Gall,  Toggenburg,  Schaffhausen,  Appenzell,  Thurgau, 
Aargau  —  followed  the  course  of  Zurich,  Berne,  and  Basel. 
It  is  a  variation  of  the  same  theme,  on  the  one  hand,  in 
its  negative  aspects :  the  destruction  of  the  papal  and  epis- 
copal authority,  the  abolition  of  the  mass  and  superstitious 
rites  and  ceremonies,  the  breaking  of  images  and  relics  as 
symbols  of  idolatry,  the  dissolution  of  convents  and  confisca- 
tion of  Church  property,  the  marriage  of  priests,  monks,  and 
nuns ;  on  the  other  hand,  in  its  positive  aspects :  the  intro- 
duction of  a  simpler  and  more  spiritual  worship  with  abun- 
dant preaching  and  instruction  from  the  open  Bible  in  the 
vernacular,  the  restoration  of.  the  holy  communion  under 
both  kinds,  as  celebrated  by  the  congregation,  the  direct 
approach  to  Christ  without  priestly  mediation,  the  raising 
of  the  laity  to  the  privileges  of  the  general  priesthood  of 
believers,  care  for  lower  and  higher  education.  These  changes 
were  made  by  the  civil  magistracy,  which  assumed  the  epis- 
copal authority  and  function,  but  acted  on  the  initiative  of 
the  clergy  and  with  the  consent  of  the  majority  of  the  peo- 
ple, which  in  democratic  Switzerland  was  after  all  the  sover- 
eign power.  An  Antistes  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the 
ministers  as  a  sort  of  bishop  or  general  superintendent. 
Synods  attended  to  legislation  and  administration.  The 
congregations  called  and  supported  their  own  pastors. 

St.  Gall  —  so-called  from  St.  Gallus  (Gilian),  an  Irish 
missionary  and  pupil  of  Columban,  who  with  several  her- 
mits settled  in  the  wild  forest  on  the  Steinach  about  613  — 
was  a  centre  of  Christianization  and  civilization  in  Alemannia 


§  34.    THE   REFORMATION   IN   ST.    GALL.  125 

and  Eastern  Switzerland.  A  monastery  was  founded  about 
720  by  St.  Othmar  and  became  a  royal  abbey  exempt  from 
episcopal  jurisdiction,  and  very  rich  in  revenues  from  landed 
possessions  in  Switzerland,  Swabia,  and  Lombardy,  as  well  as 
in  manuscripts  of  classical  and  ecclesiastical  learning.  Church 
poetry,  music,  architecture,  sculpture,  and  painting  flourished 
there  in  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries.  Notker  Balbulus,  a 
monk  of  St.  Gall  (d.  c.  912),  is  the  author  of  the  sequences 
or  hymns  in  rhythmicpJ  prose  (^prosce},  and  credited  with 
the  mournful  meditation  on  death  Q'' Media  vita  in  morte 
sumus''^')^  which  is  still  in  use,  but  of  later  and  uncertain 
origin.  With  the  increasing  wealth  of  the  abbey  the  disci- 
pline declined  and  worldliness  set  in.  The  missionary  and 
literary  zeal  died  out.  The  bishop  of  Constance  was  jealous 
of  the  independence  and  powers  of  the  abbot.  The  city  of 
St.  Gall  grew  in  prosperity  and  longed  for  emancipation  from 
monastic  control.  The  clergy  needed  as  much  reformation 
as  the  monks.  Many  of  them  lived  in  open  concubinage, 
and  few  were  able  to  make  a  sermon.  The  high  festivals 
were  profaned  by  scurrilous  popular  amusements.  The  sale 
of  indulgences  was  carried  on  with  impunity. 

The  Reformation  was  introduced  in  the  city  and  district 
of  St.  Gall  by  Joachim  von  Watt,  a  layman  (1484-1551), 
and  John  Kessler,  a  minister  (1502-1574).  The  co-operation 
of  the  laity  and  clergy  is  congenial  to  the  spirit  of  Protestant- 
ism which  emancipated  the  Church  from  hierarchical  control. 

Joachim  von  Watt,  better  known  by  his  Latin  name 
Vadianus,  excelled  in  his  day  as  a  humanist,  poet,  historian, 
physician,  statesman,  and  reformer.  He  was  descended  from 
an  old  noble  family,  the  son  of  a  wealthy  merchant,  and 
studied  the  humanities  in  the  University  of  Vienna  (1502), ^ 

1  He  arrived  at  Vienna  in  the  autumn  of  1502,  shortly  after  Zwingli  had 
left  the  University.  See  Stiihelin,  I.e.,  who  refers  for  confirmation  to  Egli, 
Aschbach,  and  Horawitz.  The  usual  opinion  is  that  Vadian  and  Zwingli 
(and  Glareanus)  studied  together  and  formed  their  friendship  at  Vienna.  So 
also  Pressel,  I.e.,  p.  11. 


126  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

wliich  was  then  at  the  height  of  its  prosperity  under  the 
teaching  of  Celtes  and  Cuspinian,  tAvo  famous  humanists  and 
Latin  poets.  He  acquired  also  a  good  knowledge  of  philos- 
ophy, theology,  law,  and  medicine.  After  travelling  through 
Poland,  Hungary,  and  Italy,  he  returned  to  Vienna  and 
taught  classical  literature  and  rhetoric.  He  was  crowned 
poet  and  orator  by  Maximilian  (March  12, 1514),  and  elected 
rector  of  the  University  in  1516.  He  published  several  clas- 
sical authors  and  Latin  poems,  orations,  and  essays.  He 
stood  in  friendly  correspondence  with  Reuchlin,  Hutten, 
Hesse,  Erasmus,  and  other  leaders  of  the  new  learning,  and 
especially  also  with  Zwingli.^ 

In  1518  Watt  returned  to  St.  Gall  and  practised  as  physi- 
cian till  his  death,  but  took  at  the  same  time  an  active  part 
in  all  23ublic  affairs  of  Church  and  State.  He  was  repeatedly 
elected  burgomaster.  He  was  a  faithful  co-worker  of  Zwingli 
in  the  cause  of  reform.  Zwingli  called  him  "  a  physician  of 
body  and  soul  of  the  city  of  St.  Gall  and  the  whole  confed- 
eracy," and  said,  ''I  know  no  Swiss  that  equals  him."  Calvin 
and  Beza  recognized  in  him  "  a  man  of  rare  piety  and  equally 
rare  learning."  He  called  evangelical  ministers  and  teachers 
to  St.  Gall.  He  took  a  leading  part  in  the  religious  disputa- 
tions at  Ziirich  (1523-1525),  and  presided  over  the  disputa- 
tion at  Berne  (1528). 

St.  Gall  was  the  first  city  to  follow  the  example  of  Ziirich 
under  his  lead.  The  images  were  removed  from  the  churches 
and  publicly  burnt  in  1526  and  1528 ;  only  the  organ  and 
the  bones  of  St.  Othmar  (the  iirst  abbot)  and  Notker  were 
saved.  An  evangelical  church  order  was  introduced  in  1527. 
At  the  same  time  the  Anabaptists  endangered  the  Reforma- 
tion by  strange  excesses  of  fanaticism.  Watt  had  no  serious 
objection  to  their  doctrines,  and  was  a  friend  and  brother-in- 

1  His  published  correspondence  with  Zwingli  begins  with  a  letter  from 
Vienna,  April  9,  1511,  and  embraces  four  letters  of  Vadian,  and  thirty-eight 
letters  of  Zwingli,  iu  Zwingli's  Opera,  vols.  VII.  and  VIII. 


§  34.     THE   REFORMATION   IN   ST.    GALL.  127 

law  of  Grebel,  their  leader,  but  he  opposed  them  in  the  inter- 
est of  peace  and  order. 

The  death  of  the  abbot,  March  21,  1529,  furnished  the 
desired  opportunity,  at  the  advice  of  Zurich  and  Zwingli,  to 
abolish  the  abbey  and  to  confiscate  its  rich  domain,  with  the 
consent  of  the  majority  of  the  citizens,  but  in  utter  disregard 
of  legal  rights.  This  was  a  great  mistake,  and  an  act  of 
injustice. 

The  disaster  of  Cappel  produced  a  reaction,  and  a  portion 
of  the  canton  returned  to  the  old  church.  A  new  abbot  was 
elected,  Diethelm  Blaurer ;  he  demanded  the  property  of  the 
convent  and  sixty  thousand  guilders  damages  for  what  had 
been  destroyed  and  sold.  The  city  had  to  yield.  He  held  a 
solemn  entry.  He  attended  the  last  session  of  the  Council 
of  Trent  and  took  a  leading  part  in  the  counter-Reformation. 

Watt  showed,  during  this  critical  period,  courage  and  mod- 
eration. He  retained  the  confidence  of  his  fellow-citizens, 
who  elected  him  nine  times  to  the  highest  civil  office.  He 
did  what  he  could,  in  co-operation  with  Kessler  and  Bullinger, 
to  save  and  consolidate  the  Reformed  Church  during  the 
remaining  years  of  his  life.  He  was  a  portly,  handsome,  and 
dignified  man,  and  wrote  a  number  of  geographical,  histori- 
cal, and  theological  works. ^ 

John  Kessler  (Chessellius  or  Ahenarius),  the  son  of  a  clay- 
laborer  of  St.  Gall,  studied  theology  at  Basel,  and  Wittenberg. 
He  was  one  of  the  two  students  who  had  an  interesting  inter- 
view with  Dr.  Luther  in  the  hotel  of  the  Black  Bear  at  Jena 
in  March,  1522,  on  his  return  as  Knight  George  from  the 
Wartburg.2  It  was  the  only  friendly  meeting  of  Luther  with 
the  Swiss.    Had  he  shown  the  same  kindly  feeling  to  Zwingli 

^  Pressel.pp.  100-103,  gives  the  titles  of  twenty-seven  of  his  writings,  mostly 
Latin,  published  between  1510  and  1548. 

-  Reported  by  him  in  the  Swiss  dialect  with  charming  naivete  in  Sabbata, 
pp.  145-151:  "Wie  mir  M.  Luther  uff  der  strass  IBeise']  gen  Wittenherg'begegnet 
ist."  Kessler's  companion  was  John  Spengler.  See  an  account  of  the  inter- 
view, in  vol.  VI.  p.  385. 


128  THE   SWISS   EEFORMATION. 

at  Marburg,  the  cause  of  the  Reformation  would  have  been 
the  gainer. 

Kessler  supported  himself  by  the  trade  of  a  saddler,  and 
preached  in  the  city  and  surrounding  villages.  He  was  also 
chief  teacher  of  the  Latin  school.  In  1571,  a  year  before  his 
death,  he  was  elected  Antistes  or  head  of  the  clergy  of  St. 
Gall.  He  had  a  wife  and  eleven  children,  nine  of  whom 
survived  him.  He  was  a  pure,  amiable,  unselfish,  and  useful 
man  and  promoter  of  evangelical  religion.  His  portrait  in 
oil  adorns  the  City  Library  of  St.  Gall. 

The  county  of  Toggenburg,  the  home  of  Zwingli,  was 
subject  to  the  abbot  of  St.  Gall  since  1468,  but  gladly 
received  the  Reformed  preachers  under  the  influence  of 
Zwingli,  his  relatives  and  friends.  In  1524  the  council 
of  the  community  enjoined  upon  the  ministers  to  teach  noth- 
ing but  what  they  could  prove  from  the  sacred  Scriptures. 
The  people  resisted  the  interference  of  the  abbot,  the  bishop 
of  Constance,  and  the  canton  Schwyz.  In  1528  the  Refor- 
mation was  generally  introduced  in  the  towns  of  the  district. 
With  the  help  of  Ziirich  and  Glarus,  tlie  Toggenburgers 
bougfht  their  freedom  from  the  abbot  of  St.  Gall  for  fifteen 
hundred  guilders,  in  1530  ;  but  were  again  subjected  to  his 
authority  in  1536.  The  county  was  incorporated  in  the 
canton  St.  Gall  in  1803.  The  majority  of  the  people  are 
Protestants. 

The  canton  Appenzell  received  its  first  Protestant  preach- 
ers—  John  Schurtanner  of  Teufen,  John  Dorig  of  Herisau, 
and  Walter  Klarer  of  Hundwil  —  from  the  neisrhborinCT  St. 
Gall,  through  the  influence  of  Watt.  The  Reformation  was 
legally  ratified  by  a  majority  vote  of  the  people,  Aug.  26, 
1528.  The  congregations  emancipated  themselves  from  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  abbot  of  St.  Gall,  and  elected  their  own 
pastors.  The  Anabaptist  disturbances  promoted  the  Roman- 
Catholic  reaction.  The  population  is  nearly  equally  divided, 
—  Innerrhoden,  with  the  town  of  Appenzell,  remained  Catho- 


§  35.     REFOEMATION   IN    SCHAFFHAUSEN.  129 

lie;   Ausserrhoden,  with  Herisau,  Trogen,  and  Gais,  is  Re- 
formed, and  more  industrious  and  prosperous. 

The  Reformation  in  Thurgau  and  Aargau  presents  no 
features  of  special  interest.^ 

§  35.    Reformation  in  Scliaffhausen.     Hofmeister. 

Melchior  Kirchofer:  Schaffhauserische  Jahrbilcher  von  1519-1539,  oder 
Geschichte  der  Reformation  der  Stadt  und  Landschaft  Scliaffhausen.  Schaff- 
hausen,  1819;  2d  ed.  Frauenfeld,  1838  (pp.  152).  By  the  same:  Sebas- 
tian Wagner,  genannt  Hofmeister.  Zurich,  1808.  —  Edav.  Im-Thurm  und 
Hans  W.  Harder:  Chronik  der  Stadt  Schaffhausen  (till  1790).  Scliaff- 
hausen, 1844. —  H.  G.  Sulzberger:  Geschichte  der  Reformation  des  Kant. 
Schaffhausen.     Scliaffhausen,  1876  (pp.  47). 

Scliaffhausen  on  the  Rhine  and  the  borders  of  Wiirttem- 
berg  and  Baden  followed  the  example  of  the  neighboring 
canton  Ziirich,  under  the  lead  of  Sebastian  Hofmeister 
(1476-1533),  a  Franciscan  monk  and  doctor  and  professor 
of  theology  at  Constance,  where  the  bishop  resided.  He 
addressed  Zwingli,  in  1520,  as  "  the  firm  preacher  of  the 
truth,"  and  wished  to  become  his  helper  in  healing  the  dis- 
eases of  the  Church  of  Switzerland.^  He  preached  in  his 
native  city  of  Schaffhausen  against  the  errors  and  abuses  of 
Rome,  and  attended  as  delegate  the  religious  disputations 
at  Ziirich  (January  and  October,  1523),  which  resulted  in 
favor  of  the  Reformation. 

He  was  aided  by  Sebastian  Meyer,  a  Franciscan  brother 
who  came  from  Berne,  and  by  Ritter,  a  priest  who  had  formerly 
opposed  him. 

The  Anabaptists  appeared  from  Ziirich  with  their  radical 
views.     The    community   was    thrown   into   disorder.      The 

1  Comp.  Oelhafen,  Chronik  der  Stadt  Aarau,  1840;  Sulzhergev,  Refoi-mation 
>m  Kanton  Aargau,  1881 ;  Pupikofer,  Geschichte  des  Thurgau's,  1828-'30,  2  vols.; 
second  ed.  1889-90;  Sulzberger,  Die  Reformation  im  Kanton  Thurgau,  1872. 

-  Hofmeister's  letters  in  Zwingli's  Opera,  Yll.  146,  289;  II.  166,  348.  He 
subscribes  himself  Sebastianus  CEcononius  seu  Hofmeister.  His  last  letter  is 
dated  from  Zofingen  (1529),  and  very  severe  against  Luther's  writings  on  the 
sacramental  controversy. 


130  THE   SWISS   EEFORMATION. 

magistracy  held  Hofmeister  and  ]Myer  responsible,  and  ban- 
ished them  from  the  canton.  A  reaction  followed,  but  the 
Reformation  triumphed  in  1529.  The  villages  followed  the 
city.  Some  noble  families  remained  true  to  the  old  faith, 
and  emigrated. 

Schaffhausen  was  favored  by  a  succession  of  able  and 
devoted  ministers,  and  gave  birth  to  some  distinguished 
historians.! 

§  36.    The  Grrisons  (^G-rauhundeii). 

Colonel  Landamniann  Theofil  Sprecher  a  Bernegg  at  Maienfeld,  Grau- 
biinden,  has  a  complete  library  of  the  history  of  the  Grisons,  including  some 
of  the  manuscripts  of  Campell  and  De  Porta.  I  was  permitted  to  use  it  for 
this  and  the  following  two  sections  under  his  hospitable  roof  in  June,  1890. 
[  have  also  examined  the  Kantons-Bibliothek  of  Graubiinden  in  the  "  Rajtische 
Museum"  at  Coire,  which  is  rich  in  the  (Romanic)  literature  of  the  Grisons. 

I.  Ulrici  Campelh  Ratm  Alpestris  Topographica  Descriptio,  edited  by 
Chr.  J.  KixD,  Basel  (Schneider),  1884,  pp.  448,  and  Historia  Rcetica, 
edited  by  Plac.  Plattxer,  Basel,  tom.  I.,  1877,  pp.  724,  and  torn.  II., 
1890,  pp.  781.  These  two  works  form  vols.  VII.,  VIII.,  and  IX.  of  Quellen 
zur  Schweizer-Geschichte,  published  by  the  General  Historical  Society  of 
Switzerland.  They  are  the  foundation  for  the  topography  and  history 
of  the  Grisons  in  the  sixteenth  century.  Campell  was  Reformed  pastor 
at  Siis  in  the  Lower  Engadin,  and  is  called  "the  father  of  the  historians 
of  Riitia."  De  Porta  says  that  all  historians  of  Riitia  liave  ploughed  with 
his  team.  An  abridged  German  translation  from  the  Latin  manuscripts 
was  published  by  Conradin  von  Mohr :  Ulr.  Campell's  Zicei  B'ucher 
ratischer  Geschichte,  Chur  (Hitz),  1849  and  1851,  2  vols.,  pp.  236  and  566. 

R.  Ambkosius  Eichhorn  (Presbyter  Congregationis  S.  Blasii,  in  the  Black 
Forest)  :  Episcopatus  Cui-iensis  in  Hhcetia  sub  metiopoli  Moguntina  chrono- 
logice  et  diplomatice  illustratus.  Typis  San-Blasianis,  1797  (pp.  368,  4°). 
To  which  is  added  Codex  Probationum  ad  Episcopatum  Cnriensem  ex  prce- 
cipuis  documentis  omnibus  ferme  ineditis  collectus,  204  pp.     The  Reformation 

1  Johannes  von  Miiller,  called  the  German  Tacitus  (1752-1809)  ;  Melchior 
Kirchhofer  (1775-1853),  who  wrote  valuable  biographies  of  the  minor  Re- 
formers (Hofmeister,  Haller,  Myconius,  and  Farel),  and  the  fifth  volume  of 
Wirz's  Helvetische  Kirchengeschichte ;  and  Friedrich  von  Hurter  (1787-1865), 
the  author  of  the  best  history  of  Pope  Innocent  III.  (1834-42,  4  vols.).  Hurter 
was  formerly  Antistes  of  the  Reformed  Church  of  Schaffhausen,  but  became 
(partly  by  the  study  of  the  palmy  period  of  the  mediaeval  hierarchy)  a  Roman 
Catholic  in  1844,  and  was  appointed  imperial  counsellor  and  historiographer  of 
Austria,  1845. 


§  36.    THE   GRISONS.  131 

period  is  described  pp.  139  sqq.  Eichhorn  was  a  Roman  Catholic  priest, 
and  gives  the  documents  relating  to  the  episcopal  see  of  Coire  from 
A.i>.  700-1787.  On  "Zwinglianisms  in  Rietia,"  sec  pp.  1-12,  140,  248.  (I 
examined  a  copy  in  the  Episcopal  Library  at  Coire.) 

II.  General  works  on  the  history  of  the  Grisons  by  Joh.  Guler  (d.  1637), 
FoRTUNATus  Sprecher  A  Berxegg  (d.  1647),  FoRTUNATus  Jdvalta 
(d.  1654).  Th.  von  Mohr  and  Conradin  von  Mohr  (or  Moor):  Arckiv 
fur  die  Geschichte  der  Republik  Graubilnden.  Chur,  1848-'86.  9  vols. 
A  collection  of  historical  works  on  Graubiinden,  including  the  Codex 
diplomaiicus,  Sammlung  der  Urkunden  zur  Geschichte  Chur-Khdtiens  und  der 
Kepublilc  Gi-aiibunden.  The  Codex  was  continued  by  Jecklin,  1883-'80.  — 
CoxRADix    vox    Moor  :     Bibulnerische    Geschichtschreiber    und    Chronisten. 

.  Chur,  1862-77.  10  parts.  By  the  same :  Geschichte  von  Curratien  und 
der  Republ.  Graubiinden.  Chur,  1869.  —  JoH.  Andr.  vox  Sprecher:  Ge- 
schichte der  Kepublik  der  drei  B'dnde  itn  J<5'«"  Jahrh.  Chur,  187o-'75. 
2  vols.  —  A  good  popular  summary:  Graubiindnerische  Geschichten  erzdhlt 
fur  die  reformirten  Volksschulen  (by  P.  Kaiser).  Chur,  1852  (pp.  281). — 
Also  J.  K.  von  Tscharxer  :  Der  Kanton  Graubiinden,  historisch,  statistisch, 
geographisch  dargestellt.     Chur,  1842. 

The  Reformation  literature  see  in  §  37. 

III.  On  the  history  of  Valtellina,  Chiavenna,  and  Bormio,  which  until  1797 
were  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Grisons,  the  chief  writers  are  :  — 

Fr.  Sav.  Quadrio  :  Dissertazioni  critico-storiche  intorno  alia  Hezia  di  qua  dalle 
Alpi,  oggi  delta  Valtellina.  Milano,  1755.  2  vols.,  especially  the  second 
vol.,  which  treats  la  storia  ecclesiastica.  —  Ulysses  a'Ox  Salis  :  Staats- 
Gesch.  des  Thais  Veltlin  und  der  Graflschaften  Clefen  und  Worms.  1792. 
4  vols.  —  Lavizari  :  Storia  della  Valtellina.  Capolago,  1838.  2  vols. — 
ROMEGIALLI :  Storia  della  Valtellina  e  delle  gia  contee  di  Bormio  e  Chia- 
venna. Sondrio,  18-34-'.39.  4  vols.  —  Wiezel  :  Veltliner  Krieg,  edited  hy 
Hartraann.     Strassburg,  1887. 

The  canton  of  the  Grisons  or  Graubiinden^  was  at  the 
time  of  the  Reformation  an  independent  democratic  republic 
in  friendly  alliance  with  the  Swiss  Confederacy,  and  contin- 
ued independent  till  1803,  when  it  was  incorporated  as  a 
canton.  Its  history  had  little  influence  upon  other  countries, 
but  reflects  the  larger  conflicts  of  Switzerland  with  some 
original  features.  Among  these  are  the  Romanic  and  Italian 
conquests  of  Protestantism,  and  the  early  recognition  of  the 
principle  of  religious  liberty.  Each  congregation  was  allowed 
to  choose  between  the  two  contending  churches  according  to 

1  Respublica  Grisonum ;  I  Grigioni ;  Les  Grisons. 


132  THE   SWISS    REFORMATION. 

the  will  of  the  majority,  and  thus  civil  and  religious  war  was 
prevented,  at  least  during  the  sixteenth  century.^ 

Graubiinden  is,  in  nature  as  well  as  in  history,  a  Switzer- 
land in  miniature.  It  is  situated  in  the  extreme  south-east  of 
the  republic,  between  Austria  and  Italy,  and  covers  the  prin- 
cipal part  of  the  old  Roman  province  of  Riitia.^  It  forms  a 
wall  between  the  north  and  the  south,  and  yet  combines  both 
with  a  network  of  mountains  and  valleys  from  the  regions 
of  the  eternal  snow  to  the  sunny  plains  of  the  vine,  the  fig, 
and  the  lemon.  In  territorial  extent  it  is  the  largest  canton, 
and  equal  to  any  in  variety  and  beauty  of  scenery  and  healthy 
climate.  It  is  the  fatherland  of  the  Rhine  and  the  Inn. 
The  Engadin  is  the  highest  inhabited  valley  of  Switzerland, 
and  unsurpassed  for  a  combination  of  attractions  for  admirers 
of  nature  and  seekers  of  health.  It  boasts  of  the  healthiest 
climate  with  nine  months  of  dry,  bracing  cold  and  three 
months  of  delightfully  cool  weather. 

The  inhabitants  are  descended  from  three  nationalities, 
speak  three  languages,  —  German,  Italian,  and  Romansh 
(Romanic),  —  and  preserve  many  peculiarities  of  earlier 
ages.  The  German  language  prevails  in  Coire,  along  the 
Rhine,  and  in  the  Prattigau,  and  is  purer  than  in  the  other 
cantons.  The  Italian  is  spoken  to  the  south  of  the  Alps 
in  the  valleys  of  Poschiavo  and  Bregaglia  (as  also  in  the 
neighboring    canton  Ticino).     The  Romansh  language  is  a 

1  The  Grisons  are  ignored  or  neglected  in  general  Church  histories.  Even 
Hagenbach,  who  was  a  Swiss,  devotes  less  than  two  pages  to  them  (Geschickte 
der  Reformation,  p.  366,  5th  ed.  by  Nippold,  1887).  A  fuller  account  (the  only 
good  one  in  English)  is  given  by  Dr.  McCrie,  a  Scotch  Presbyterian,  in  his 
History  of  the  Reformation  in  Italy,  ch.  VI.  The  increasing  travel  of  English 
and  American  tourists  to  that  country,  especially  to  the  Engadin,  gives  wider 
interest  to  its  history,  and  may  justify  the  space  here  given  to  it. 

2  Rmtia  or  Rhatia,  a  net,  is  derived  from  Rhcetus,  the  mythical  chief  of  the 
oldest  immigrants  from  Etruria,  or  from  the  Celtic  rhin,  Rhine,  river,  and  sur- 
vives in  the  names  Realta,  R/idziins,  and  Reambs,  i.e.  Rcetia  alta,  una,  and  ampla. 
It  was  conquered  under  Augustus  by  Drusus,  14  b.c,  and  ruled  by  a  governor 
at  Coire  or  Curia  Rh(ctorum  till  c.  400.  The  ivy-clad  tower  of  the  episcopal 
palace  of  Coire  is  of  Roman  origin,  and  is  called  Marsocl,  i.e.  Mars  in  oculis. 


§  36.    THE  ORISONS.  133 

remarkable  relic  of  prehistoric  times,  an  independent  sister 
of  the  Italian,  and  is  spoken  in  the  Upper  and  Lower  Enga- 
din,  the  Miinster  valley,  and  the  Oberland.  It  has  a  con- 
siderable literature,  mostly  religious,  which  attracts  the 
attention  of  comparative  philologists. ^ 

The  Grisonians  (Graubiindtner)  are  a  sober,  industrious, 
and  heroic  race,  and  have  maintained  their  independence 
against  the  armies  of  Spain,  Austria,  and  France.  They 
have  a  natural  need  and  inclination  to  emigrate  to  richer 
countries  in  pursuit  of  fortune,  and  to  return  again  to  their 
mountain  homes.  They  are  found  in  all  the  capitals  of 
Europe  and  America  as  merchants,  hotel  keepers,  confec- 
tioners, teachers,  and  soldiers. 

The  institutions  of  the  canton  are  thoroughly  democratic 
and  exemplify  the  good  and  evil  effects  of  popular  sov- 
ereignty.^ "  Next  to  God  and  the  sun,"  says  an  old  Enga- 
din  proverb,  "  the  poorest  inhabitant  is  the  chief  magistrate." 
There  are  indeed  to  this  day  in  the  Grisons  many  noble 
families,  descended  in  part  from  mediseval  robber-chiefs  and 
despots  whose  ruined  castles  still  look  down  from  rocks  and 
cliffs,  and  in  greater  part  from  distinguished  officers  and 
diplomatists  in  foreign  service ;  but  they  have  no  more  influ- 
ence than  their  personal  merits  and  prestige  warrant.  In 
official  relations  and  transactions  the  titles  of  nobility  are 
forbidden.^ 

1  The  Roraansh  language  (to  distinguish  it  from  other  Romanic  languages) 
has  two  dialects,  the  Ladin  of  the  Engadin,  the  Albula,  and  Miinster  valleys, 
and  the  Romansh  of  the  Oberland,  Ilanz,  Disentis,  Oberhalbstein,  etc.  It  is 
spoken  by  about  37,000  inhabitants.  The  whole  population  of  the  canton  in 
1890  was  94,879,-53,168  Protestants  and  41,711  Roman  Catholics.  The 
largest  number  of  Romansh  books  is  in  the  Cantonal  Library  at  Coire,  and 
the  Bohmer  collection  in  the  University  Library  of  Strassburg.  Colonel  von 
Sprecher  at  Maienfeld  also  has  about  four  hundred  volumes. 

2  "In  no  nation,  ancient  or  modern,"  says  Dr.  McCrie  (p.  293),  "have 
the  principles  of  democracy  been  carried  to  such  extent  as  in  the  Grison 
Republic." 

^  The  best  known  and  most  respectable  noble  families  are  the  Salis  (one 
of    them   a   distinguished   lyric   poet),  Planta,  Bavier,   Sprecher,   Albertini, 


134  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

Let  US  briefly  survey  the  secular  histoiy  before  we  proceed 
to  the  Reformation. 

The  Grisons  were  formed  of  three  loosely  connected  con- 
federacies or  leagues,  that  is,  voluntary  associations  of  free- 
men, who,  during  the  fifteenth  century,  after  the  example  of 
their  Swiss  neighbors,  associated  for  mutual  protection  and 
defence  against  domestic  and  foreign  tyrants.^  These  three 
leagfues  united  in  1471  at  Vatzerol  in  an  eternal  covenant, 
which  was  renewed  in  1524,  promising  to  each  other  by  an 
oath  mutual  assistance  in  peace  and  war.  The  three  confed- 
eracies sent  delegates  to  the  Diet  which  met  alternately  at 
Coire,  Ilanz,  and  Davos. 

At  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  two  leagues  of  the 
Grisons  entered  into  a  defensive  alliance  with  the  seven  old 
cantons  of  Switzerland.  The  third  league  followed  the 
example.^ 

In  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  Grisonians 

Tscharner,  Juvalta,  Mohr,  Buol.     See  Sammlung  rhdtischer  Geschlechter.    Chur, 
1847. 

1  The  three  confederacies  or  Biinde  (whence  the  canton  has  its  name 
Graubunden')  are:  — 

1)  The  Gotteshausbund  (Lia  de  Ca  De),  the  League  of  the  House  of  God.  It 
dates  from  1396,  and  had  its  centre  since  1419  at  Coire,  the  capital  of  the  canton. 

2)  Tlie  Obere  Bund  or  Graue  Bund  (^Lia  Grischa),  the  Gray  League  (hence 
the  term  Graue,  Grisons,  Grays).  It  was  founded  under  an  elm  tree  at  Truns 
in  1424,  and  gatliered  around  the  abbey  of  Disentis. 

3)  The  Zehngerichtenbund  (^Lia  deltas  desch  dretturas),  the  League  of  the  Ten 
Jurisdictions.     It  originated  in  1436  at  Davos  and  in  the  valley  of  Prattigau. 

After  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century  these  leagues  appear  in  the  docu- 
ments under  the  name  of  the  Gemeine  drei  Biinde  or  Freistaat  der  drei  Biinde 
in  Hohenrhdtien.  A  modern  historian  says:  " Frei  und  selbstherrlich  sind  viele 
Volker  geworden,  aber  icenige  auf  so  rechtliche  und  ruhige  Weise  als  das  Biindner 
Voik."  See  the  documents  in  Tschudi,  I.  593 ;  II.  153  ;  and  compare  Miiller, 
Schweizergeschichte,  III.  283,  394,  and  Bluntschli,  Geschichte  des  schweizerischen 
Bundesrechts,  I.  196  sqq.  (2d  ed.  Stuttgart,  1875). 

2  The  alliance  was  formed  with  the  two  older  leagues  separately  in  1497 
and  1498.  The  league  of  the  Ten  Jurisdictions  was  not  admitted  by  the 
seven  cantons  because  the  house  of  Austria  had  possessions  there ;  but  in 
1590  it  concluded  an  eternal  agreement  with  Ziirich  and  Glarus,  in  1600 
with  Wallis,  and  in  1602  with  Bern.  See  Bluntschli,  I.e.  I.  198  sq.  and  the 
documents  from  the  Archives  of  Ziirich  in  vol.  II.  99-107. 


§  37.    THE   REFORMATION   IN   THE   ORISONS.  135 

acquired  by  conquest  from  the  duchy  of  Mihm  several 
beautiful  and  fertile  districts  south  of  the  Alps  adjoining 
the  Milanese  and  Venetian  territories,  namely,  the  Valtel- 
lina  and  the  counties  of  Bormio  (Worms)  and  Chiavenna 
(Cleven),  and  annexed  them  as  dependencies  ruled  by  bai- 
liffs. It  would  have  been  wiser  to  have  received  them  as  a 
fourth  league  with  equal  rights  and  privileges.  These  Ital- 
ian possessions  involved  the  Grisons  in  the  conflict  between 
Austria  and  Spain  on  the  one  hand,  which  desired  to  keep 
them  an  open  pass,  and  between  France  and  Venice  on  the 
other,  which  wanted  them  closed  against  their  political  rivals. 
Hence  the  Valtellina  has  been  called  the  Helena  of  a  new 
Trojan  War.  Graublinden  was  invaded  during  the  Thirty 
Years'  War  by  Austro-Spanish  and  French  armies.  After 
varied  fortunes,  the  Italian  provinces  were  lost  to  Graublin- 
den through  Napoleon,  who,  by  a  stroke  of  the  pen,  Oct.  10, 
1797,  annexed  the  Valtellina,  Bormio,  and  Chiavenna  to  the 
new  Cisalpine  Republic.  The  Congress  of  Vienna  trans- 
ferred them  to  Austria  in  1814,  and  since  1859  they  belong 
to  the  united  Kingdom  of  Italy. 

§  37.   The  Reformation  in  the  Grrisons.     Comander.     GaUieius. 

Campell. 

The  work  of  Campell  quoted  in  §  36. 

Baktholomaus  Anhoen  :  Heilige  Wiedergeburt  der  evang.  Kirche  in  den  gemei- 
nen  drei  Biindten  der  freien  hohen  Rhiitien,  oder  Beschreibung  Hirer  Reformation 
und  Religionsverbesserung,  etc.  Brugg,  1680  (pp.  246).  A  new  ed.  St. 
Gallen,  1860  (pp.  144,  8°).  By  the  same:  Piintner  Aufruhr  im  Jahr  1607, 
ed.  from  MSS.  by  Conradin  von  Mohr,  Chur,  1862 ;  and  his  Graw-Piintner 
[Graubundner]-Krieg,  1603-1629,  ed.  by  Conr.  von  Mohr,  Chur,  1873. 

*  Petkus  Dominiccs  Rosius  de  Porta  (Reformed  minister  at  Scamff,  or 
Scanfs,  in  the  Upper  Engadin)  :  Historia  Reformationis  Ecclesiarum  Rati- 
carum,  ex  genuinis  fontibus  et  adhuc  maximam  partem  numquam  impressis  sine 
partium  studio  deducta,  etc.  Curiffi  Rsetorum.  Tom.  I.,  1771  (pp.  658,  4°)  ; 
Tom.  II.,  1777  (pp.  668)  ;  Tom.  III.,  Como,  1786.  Comes  down  to  1642. 
Next  to  Campell,  the  standard  authority  and  chief  source  of  later  works. 

Leonhard  Trcog  (Reformed  pastor  at  Thusis)  :  Reformations- Geschichte  von 
Graubiinden  aus  zuverldssigen  Quellen  sorgfaltig  geschopft.     Denhmal  der  drit- 


136  THE    SWISS   REFORMATION. 

ten  Sekular-Juhelfeier  der  Bundnerischen  Reformation.  Chur  (Otto),  1819 
(pp.  132).  —  Beformationshuchlein.  Ein  Denkmal  des  im  Jahr  1819  in  der 
Stadt  Chur  gefeierten  Jubel/estes.  Chur  (Otto),  1819  (pp.  304). 
*  Christian  Ijimanuel  Kind  (Pfarrer  und  Cancellarius  der  evang.  rliatischen 
Synode,  afterward  Staats-Archivarius  of  the  Grisons,  d.  May  23,  1884)  : 
Die  lieformation  in  den  Bisthiimern  Chur  und  Como.  Dargestellt  nach  den 
besten  dlteren  und  neueren  Hiilfsmitteln.  Chur,  1858  (Grubenmann),  pp.  310, 
8°.  A  popular  account  based  on  a  careful  study  of  the  sources.  By  the 
same:  Die  Stadt  Chur  in  ihrer  dltesten  Geschichte,  Chur,  1859;  Philipp  Gal- 
licius,  1868;  Georg  Jenatsch,  in  "Allg.  Deutsche  Biogr.,"  Bd,  XIII. — 
Georg  Leonhardi  (pastor  in  Brusio,  Poschiavo)  :  Philipp  Gallicius,  Refor- 
mator  Graubiindens.     Bern,  1865  (pp.  103).     The  same  also  in  Romansch, 

—  H.  G.  Sulzberger  (in  Sevelen,  St.  Gallen,  d.  1888)  :   Geschichte  der 
Reformation  im  Kanton  Graubiinden.    Chur,  1880.    pp.  90  (revised  by  Kind). 

—  Florian  Peer  :  L'eglise  de  Rhe'tie  au  X  VI'"^  et  XVII"'^  siecles.    Geneve, 
1888.  —  Herold:  J.  Komander,  in  Meili's  Zeitschrift,  Zurich,  1891. 

The  Christianization  of  the  Grisons  is  traced  back  by  tra- 
dition to  St.  Lucius,  a  royal  prince  of  Britain,  and  Emerita, 
his  sister,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  second  century.^  A  chapel 
on  the  mountain  above  Coire  perpetuates  his  memory.  A 
bishop  of  Coire  (Asimo)  appears  fbst  in  the  year  452,  as  sign- 
ing by  proxy  the  creed  of  Chalcedon.^  The  bishops  of  Coire 
acquired  great  possessions  and  became  temporal  princes.^ 
The  whole  country  of  the  Grisons  stood  under  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  bishops  of  Coire  and  Como. 

The  state  of  religion  and  the  need  of  a  reformation  were 
the  same  as  in  the  other  cantons  of  Switzerland. 

The  first  impulse  to  the  Reformation  came  from  Ziirich 

1  He  is  identified,  in  the  tradition  of  Wales,  with  King  Lucius  who  intro- 
duced Christianity  into  Britain  and  built  the  first  church  at  LlandafE  in 
180.  See  Alois  Liitolf,  Die  Glaubensboten  der  Schiceiz  vor  St.  Callus,  Luzern, 
1871,  pp.  95-125.  He  gives  from  MSS.  the  oldest  Vita  S.  Lucii  Con/essoris 
(pp.  115-121). 

2  S.  Asimo  was  not  himself  at  Chalcedon,  450,  but  authorized  Abundan- 
tius,  bishop  of  Como,  to  give  his  assent  to  the  Chalcedon  Christology  at  a 
council  held  at  Milan  in  452,  as  appears  from  the  following  document :  "  Ego 
Abundantius  episcopus  ecclesia;  Comensis  in  omnia  supra  scripta  pro  me  ac  pro 
absente  sancto  fratre  meo,  Asimone,  episcopo  ecclesi.e  cdriensis  pri- 
MiE  Rh^ti^,  subscripsi,  anathema  dicens  his  qui  de  ificarnationis  Dominicce 
Sacramento  impie  senserunt."     Quoted  by  Eichhorn,  I.e.  pp.  1  and  2. 

3  Frederick  Barbarossa  gave  to  the  bishop  the  title  priticeps,  about  1170. 


§  37.     THE   REFORMATION   IN   THE   ORISONS.  137 

with  which  Coire  had  close  connections.  Zwingli  sent  an 
address  to  the  "three  confederacies  in  Rhatia,"  expressing 
a  special  interest  in  them  as  a  former  subject  of  the  bishop 
of  Coire,  exhorting  them  to  reform  the  Church  in  alliance 
with  Ziirich,  and  recommending  to  them  his  friend  Coman- 
der  (Jan.  16,  1525). ^  Several  of  his  pupils  preached  in 
Flasch,  Malans,  Maienfeld,  Coire,  and  other  places  as  carin- 
as 1524.  After  his  death  Bullinger  showed  the  same  inter- 
est in  the  Grisons.  The  Reformation  passed  through  the 
usual  difficulties  first  with  the  Church  of  Rome,  then  with 
Anabaptists,  Unitarians,  and  the  followers  of  the  mystical 
Schwenkfeld,  all  of  whom  found  their  way  into  that  remote 
corner  of  the  world.  One  of  the  leading  Anabaptists  of 
Ziirich,  Georg  Blaurock,  was  an  ex-monk  of  Coire,  and  on 
account  of  his  eloquence  called  "  the  mighty  Jorg,"  or  "  the 
second  Paul."  He  was  expelled  from  Ziirich,  and  burnt  by 
the  Catholics  in  the  Tyrol  (1529). 

The  Reformers  abolished  the  indulgences,  the  sacrifice  of 
the  mass,  the  worship  of  images,  sacerdotal  celibacy  and  con- 
cubinage, and  a  number  of  unscriptural  and  superstitious 
ceremonies,  and  introduced  instead  the  Bible  and  Bible 
preaching  in  church  and  school,  the  holy  communion  in 
both  kinds,  clerical  family  life,  and  a  simple  evangelical 
piety,  animated  by  an  active  faith  in  Christ  as  the  only 
Saviour  and  Mediator.  Where  that  faith  is  wanting  the  ser- 
vice jn  the  barren  churches  is  jejune  and  chilly. 

The  chief  Reformers  of  the  Grisons  are  Comander,  Galli- 
cius,  Campell,  and  Vergerius,  and  next  to  them  Alexander 
Salandronius  (Salzmann),  Blasius,  and  John  Travers.  The 
last  was  a  learned  and  influential  layman  of  the  Engadin. 
Comander  labored  in  the  German,  Gallicius  and  Campell 
in  the  Romansh,  Vergerius  in  the   Italian  sections   of  the 

1  The  MS.  of  this  exhortation  is  in  the  Archives  of  Zurich  and  was  first 
printed  in  Joh.  Jak.  Simler's  Sammlunri  alter  und  neuer  Urkunden  zur  Beleuch- 
tung  der  Kirchengeschichte  (1759),  vol.  I.  108-114. 


138  THE    SAVISS   REFORMATION. 

Grisons.  They  were  Zwinglians  in  theology,^  and  intro- 
duced the  changes  of  Zurich  and  Basel.  Though  occupy- 
ing only  a  second  or  third  rank  among  the  Reformers,  they 
were  the  right  men  in  the  right  places,  faithful,  self-denying 
workers  in  a  poor  country,  among  an  honest,  industrious, 
liberty-loving  but  parsimonious  people.  With  small  means 
they  accomplished  great  and  permanent  results. 

John  Comander  (Dorfmann),  formerly  a  Roman  priest, 
of  unknown  antecedents,  preached  the  Reformed  doctrines  in 
the  church  of  St.  Martin  at  Coire  since  1524.  He  learned 
Hebrew  in  later  years,  to  the  injury  of  his  eyes,  that  he 
might  read  the  Old  Testament  in  the  original.  Zwingli 
sent  him  Bibles  and  commentaries.  The  citizens  protected 
him  against  violence  and  accompanied  him  to  and  from 
church.  The  bishop  of  Coire  arraigned  him  for  heresy 
before  the  Diet  of  the  three  confederacies  in  1525. 

The  Diet,  in  spite  of  the  remonstrance  of  the  bishop, 
ordered  a  public  disputation  at  Ilanz,  the  first  town  on  the 
Rhine.  The  disputation  was  begun  on  Sunday  after  Epiph- 
any, Jan.  7,  1526,  under  the  presidency  of  the  civil  authori- 
ties, and  lasted  several  days.  It  resembled  the  disputations 
of  Ziirich,  and  ended  in  a  substantial  victory  of  the  Refor- 
mation, The  conservative  party  was  represented  by  the 
Episcopal  Vicar,  the  abbot  of  St.  Lucius,  the  deans,  and  a 
few  priests  and  monks ;  the  progressive  party,  by  several 
young  preachers,  Comander,  Gallicius,  Blasius,  Pontisella, 
Fabricius,  and  Hartmann.  Sebastian  Hofmeister  of  Schail- 
hausen  was  present  as  a  listener,  and  wrote  an  account  of 
the  speeches. 2 

Comander  comjDOsed  for  the  occasion  eighteen  theses,  —  an 

^  With  the  exception  of  Vergerius,  who  vacillated  between  Calvinism  and 
Lutheranism.     See  below,  p.  154  (§  38). 

2  His  report  and  Coniander's  conclusions  are  printed  in  Fiisslin's  Beitrage 
zur  Kirchen-  unci  Reformationsgesch.  des  Schweitzer] andes,  1741,  vol.  I.  337-382. 
A  fuller  account  is  given  by  Campell  in  his  Riitische  Geschichte,  II.  287-308 
(Mohr's  German  ed.). 


§  37.     THE    REFORMATION    IN   THE    ORISONS.  139 

abridgment  of  the  sixty-seven  conclusions  of  Zwingli.  The 
first  thesis  was :  "•  The  Christian  Church  is  born  of  the  Word 
of  God  and  should  abide  in  it,  and  not  listen  to  the  voice 
of  a  stranger"  (John  10:4,  5).  He  defended  this  proposi- 
tion with  a  wealth  of  biblical  arguments  which  the  cham- 
pions of  Rome  were  not  able  to  refute.  There  was  also 
some  debate  about  the  rock-passage  in  Matt.  16 :  18,  the 
mass,  purgatory,  and  sacerdotal  celibacy.  The  Catholics 
brought  the  disputation  to  an  abrupt  close. 

In  the  summer  of  the  same  year  (June  26,  1526),  the  Diet 
of  Ilanz  proclaimed  religious  freedom,  or  the  right  of  all  per- 
sons in  the  Grisons,  of  both  sexes,  and  of  whatever  condition 
or  rank,  to  choose  between  the  Catholic  and  the  Reformed 
religion.  Heretics,  who  after  due  admonition  adhered  to 
their  error,  were  excluded  and  subjected  to  banishment  (but 
not  to  death).  This  remarkable  statute  was  in  advance  of 
the  intolerance  of  the  times,  and  forms  the  charter  of  relig- 
ious freedom  in  the  Grisons.^ 

The  Diet  of  Ilanz  ordered  the  ministers  to  preach  nothing 

^  Campell,  II.  309:  "Die  Disputation  [of  Ilanz]  blieh  nicht  ohne  alle  Frucht. 
Sie  hatte  wenigstens  die  Folge,  dass  ein  Gtsetz  erlassen  wurde,  wonach  es  in  den 
drei  Biinden  Jedermann,  wess  Standes  oder  Geschlechts  er  audi  war,  freigestellt 
wurde,  nach  Gutdiinken  zu  einer  der  beiden  Confessionem,  der  katholischen  oder 
evangelischen,  sich  zu  bekennen  und  an  ihr  festzuhalten.  Hiebei  wurde,  unter  An- 
drohung  einer  angemessenen  Strafe,  Jedem  streng  untersagt,  irgend  Jemanden  um 
seines  Glaubens  willen  zu  schmdhen  oder,  sei  es  offentlich  oder  heimlich,  zu  verfolgen, 
loie  diess  von  der  andern  Partei  schon  oft  genug  geschehen  war.  Bei  dieser 
Gelegenheit  wurde  ein  altes  Landesgesetz  den  Geistlichen  aufs  Neue  eingescharft, 
wonach  selbe  durchaus  keine  andere,  als  die  in  derh.  Schrift  enthaltene  Lehre  dem 
Voike  vortragen  sollten."  [Then  follows  a  list  of  the  leading  statesmen,  John 
Travers,  John  Guler,  etc.,  who  contributed  to  this  result.]  "  3Iit  dem  niimlichen 
Gesetz  liber  freie  Ausilbung  des  evangelischen  Glaubens  wurde  die  game  Kezerei 
der  Wiedertaufe  streng  untersagt  und  alle  ihre  Anhdnger  mit  Verbannung  bedroht. 
Die  strenge  Ueberwachung  der  erstern  dieser  zwei  Verordnungen  hatte  in  Beziig 
auf  ojfentliche  Ruhe  und  Frieden  zwischen  beiden  Confessionen  dusserst  wohlthdtige 
Folgen,  indem  beide  Theile  sich  lange  Zeit  hindurch  der  grossten  Mdssigung  befissen, 
bis  erst  in  den  letzten  Jahren  bei  den  katholischen  Geistlichen  sich  abermals  eine 
feindselige  Stimmung  gegen  die  evangelischen  Prediger  in  Schmdhungen  aller  Art 
kund  gab,  woriiber  mannigfache  Klagen  vor  dem  Beitag  laut  wurden."  —  Comp. 
Bullinger,  I.  315;  De  Porta,  I.  146. 


140  THE    SWISS    EEFORMATION. 

but  what  tliey  could  prove  from  the  Scriptures,  and  to  give 
themselves  diligently  to  the  study  of  the  same.  The  politi- 
cal authority  of  the  bishop  of  Coire  was  curtailed,  appeals 
to  him  from  the  civil  jurisdiction  were  forbidden,  and  the 
parishes  were  empowered  to  elect  and  to  dismiss  their  own 
priests  or  pastors. ^ 

Thus  the  episcopal  monarchy  was  abolished  and  congrega- 
tional independency  introduced,  but  without  the  distinction 
made  by  the  English  and  American  Congregationalists  be- 
tween the  church  proper,  or  the  body  of  converted  believers, 
and  the  congregation  of  hearers  or  mere  nominal  Christians. 

This  legislation  was  brought  about  by  the  aid  of  liberal 
Catholic  laymen,  such  as  John  Travers  and  John  Guler,  who 
at  that  time  had  not  yet  joined  the  Reformed  party.  The 
strict  Catholics  were  dissatisfied,  but  had  to  submit.  In  1553 
the  Pope  sent  a  delegate  to  Coire  and  demanded  the  intro- 
duction of  the  Inquisition;  but  Comander,  Bullinger,  and 
the  French  ambassador  defeated  the  attempt. 

Comander,  aided  by  his  younger  colleague,  Blasius,  and 
afterwards  by  Gallicius,  continued  to  maintain  the  Reformed 
faith  against  Papists,  Anabaptists,  and  also  against  foreign 
pensioners  who  had  their  headquarters  at  Coire,  and  who 
punished  him  for  his  opposition  by  a  reduction  of  his  scanty 
salary  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  guilders.  He  was  at 
times  tempted  to  resign,  but  Bullinger  urged  him  to  hold 
on.^  He  stood  at  the  head  of  the  Reformed  synod  till  his 
death  in  1557. 

He  was  succeeded  by  Fabricius,  who  died  of  the  pestilence 
in  1566. 

Philip  Gallicius  (Saluz)  developed  a  more  extensive 
activity.    He  is  the  Reformer  of  the  Engadiu,  but  labored  also 

1  Campell,  II.  310  sqq.,  gives  the  principal  of  the  Twenty  Articles  of  the 
Diet  of  Ilanz. 

2  See  his  letters  to  Bullinger  and  Vadian  in  De  Porta,  I.  67,  179  sqq. ; 
II.  278. 


§  37.     THE    REFORMATION    IN    THE    GRISONS.  141 

as  pastor  and  evangelist  in  Domleschg,  Langwies,  and  Coire. 
He  was  born  on  the  eastern  frontier  of  Graubiinden  in  1504, 
and  began  to  preach  already  in  1520.  He  had  an  irresistible 
eloquence  and  power  of  persuasion.  When  he  spoke  in 
Romansh,  the  people  flocked  from  every  direction  to  hear 
him.  He  was  the  chief  speaker  at  two  disputations  in  Siis, 
a  town  of  the  Lower  Engadin,  against  the  Papists  (1537), 
and  against  the  Anabaptists  (1544).i  He  also  introduced 
the  Reformation  in  Zuz  in  the  Lower  Engadin,  1554,  with 
the  aid  of  John  Travers,  a  distinguished  patriot,  states- 
man, soldier,  and  lay-preacher,  who  was  called  "  the  steel- 
clad  knight  in  the  service  of  the  Lord." 

Gallicius  suffered  much  persecution  and  poverty,  but 
remained  gentle,  patient,  and  faithful  to  the  end.  When 
preaching  in  the  Domleschg  he  had  not  even  bread  to  feed 
his  large  family,  and  lived  for  weeks  on  vegetables  and  salt. 
And  yet  he  educated  a  son  for  the  ministry  at  Basel,  and 
dissuaded  him  from  accepting  a  lucrative  offer  in  another 
calling.  He  also  did  as  much  as  he  could  for  the  Italian 
refugees.  He  died  of  the  pestilence  with  his  wife  and  three 
sons  at  Coire,  1566. 

He  translated  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Apostles'  Creed,  and 
the  Ten  Commandments,  and  several  chapters  of  the  Bible, 
into  the  Romansh  language,  and  thus  laid  the  foundation  of 
the  Romansh  literature.  He  also  wrote  a  catechism  and  a 
Latin  grammar,  which  were  printed  at  Coire.  He  prepared 
the  Confession  of  Reetia,  in  1552,  which  was  afterwards 
superseded  by  the  Confession  of  BuUinger  in  1566. 

Ulrich  Campell  (b.  c.  1510,  d.  1582)  was  pastor  at 
Coire  and  at  Siis,  and,  next  to  Gallicius,  the  chief  reformer 
of  the  Engadin.  He  is  also  the  first  historian  of  Rsetia  and 
one  of  the  founders  of  the  religious  literature  in  Romanic 
Rsetia.  His  history  is  written  in  good  Latin,  and  based  upon 
personal  observation,  the  accounts  of  the  ancient  Romans, 
1  a  full  account  of  the  first  disputation  in  Campell,  II.  342-366. 


142  THE   SWISS    REFORMATION. 

the  researches  of  Tschudi,  and  communications  of  Bullinger 
and  Vadian.     It  begins  a.d.  100  and  ends  about  1582, 

The  Romansh  literature  was  first  cultivated  during  the 
Reformation.^  Gallicius,  Campell,  and  Biveroni  (Bifrun)  are 
the  founders  of  it.  Campell  prepared  a  metrical  translation 
of  the  Psalter,  with  original  hymns  and  a  catechism  (1562). 
Jacob  Biveroni,  a  lawyer  of  Samaden,  published  a  transla- 
tion of  Comander's  Catechism,  which  was  printed  at  Pos- 
chiavo,  1552,  and  (with  the  aid  of  Gallicius  and  Campell) 
the  entire  New  Testament,  which  appeared  first  in  1560  at 
Basel,  and  became  the  chief  agency  in  promoting  the  evan- 
gelical faith  in  those  regions.  The  people,  who  knew  only 
the  Romansh  language,  says  a  contemporary,  "Avere  amazed 
like  the  Israelites  of  old  at  the  sight  of  the  manna." 

The  result  of  the  labors  of  the  Reformers  and  their  succes- 
sors in  Graubiinden  was  the  firm  establishment  of  an  evan- 
gelical church  which  numbered  nearly  two-thirds  of  the 
population  ;  while  one-third  remained  Roman  Catholic.  This 
numerical  relation  has  substantially  remained  to  this  day  with 
some  change  in  favor  of  Rome,  though  not  by  conversion, 
but  by  emigration  and  immigration.  The  two  churches  live 
peacefully  together.  The  question  of  religion  was  decided 
in  each  community  by  a  majority  vote,  like  any  political  or 
local  question.  The  principle  of  economy  often  gave  the 
decision  either  for  the  retention  of  the  Roman  priest,  or  the 
choice  of  a  Reformed  preacher.^  Some  stingy  congregations 
remained  vacant  to  get  rid  of  all  obligations,  or  hired  now  a 
priest,  now  a  preacher  for  a  short  season.  Gallicius  com- 
plained to  Bullinger  about  this  independence  which  favored 

1  "Erst  die  lieformation,"  says  Leoiihardi  (Philipp  Gallicius,  p.  87),  "hat 
eine  rhdto-romanische  Literatur  (jeschaffen.  Die  MCnche  unci  Priester  behaupteten, 
del-  Engadiner  Dialect  sei  so  verdorhen,  dass  er  keines  schriftlichen  Ausdruckes 
fdhig  sei." 

2  The  same  regard  for  economy  inclines  at  this  day  some  Roman  Catholic 
congregations  to  prefer  a  Capuchin  monk  to  a  secular  priest.  So  I  was  in- 
formed by  the  Archivarius  of  the  bishop  of  Coire  in  June,  1890. 


§  37.    THE   REFORMATION   IN   THE   ORISONS.  143 

license  under  the  name  of  liberty.  Not  unfrequently  con- 
gregations are  deceived  by  foreign  adventurers  who  impose 
themselves  upon  them  as  pastors. 

The  democratic  autonomy  explains  the  curious  phenome- 
non of  the  mixture  of  religion  in  the  Grisons.  The  traveller 
may  pass  in  a  few  hours  through  a  succession  of  villages  and 
churches  of  different  creeds.  At  Coire  the  city  itself  is 
Reformed,  and  the  Catholics  with  their  bishop  form  a  sepa- 
rate town  on  a  hill,  called  the  Court  (of  the  bishop). 

There  is  in  Graubiinden  neither  a  State  church  nor  a  free 
church,  but  a  people's  church.^  Every  citizen  is  baptized, 
confirmed,  and  a  church  member.  Every  congregation  is 
sovereign,  and  elects  and  supports  its  own  pastor.  In  1537 
a  synod  was  constituted,  which  meets  annually  in  the  month 
of  June.  It  consists  of  all  the  ministers  and  three  repre- 
sentatives of  the  government,  and  attends  to  the  examina- 
tion and  ordination  of  candidates,  and  the  usual  b.usiness 
of  administration.  The  civil  government  watches  over  the 
preservation  of  the  church  property,  and  prevents  a  collision 
of  ecclesiastical  and  civil  legislation,  but  the  administration 
of  church  property  is  in  the  hands  of  the  local  congregations 
or  parishes.  The  Second  Helvetic  Confession  of  Bullinger 
was  formally  accepted  as  the  creed  of  the  Church  in  1566, 
but  has  latterly  gone  out  of  use.  Ministers  are  only  required 
to  teach  the  doctrines  of  the  Bible  in  general  conformity 
to  the  teachino'  of  the  Reformed  Church.  Pastors  are  at 
liberty  to  use  any  catechism  they  please.  The  cultus  is  very 
simple,  and  the  churches  are  devoid  of  all  ornament.  Many 
pious  customs  prevail  among  the  people.  A  Protestant  col- 
lege was  opened  at  Coire  in  the  year  1542  with  Pon- 
tisella,  a  native  of  Bregaglia,  as  first  rector,  who  had  been 
gratuitously  educated  at  Zurich  by  the  aid  of  Bullinger. 
With  the  college  was  connected  a  theological  seminary  for 

1  A  Volkskirche  or  Gemdndekirche,  which  embraces  the  whole  civil  com- 
munity. 


144  THE   SWISS   EEFORMATION. 

the  training  of  ministers.  This  was  abolished  in  1843,^  and 
its  funds  were  converted  into  scholarships  for  candidates, 
who  now  pursue  their  studies  at  Basel  and  Ziirich  or  in 
German  universities.  In  1850  the  Reformed  college  at  Coire 
and  the  Catholic  college  of  St.  Lucius  have  been  consolidated 
into  one  institution  (Cantonsschule)  located  on  a  hill  above 
Coire,  near  the  episcopal  palace. 

During  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  the  Re- 
formed clergy  were  orthodox  in  the  sense  of  moderate  Calvin- 
ism ;  in  the  eighteenth  century  Pietism  and  the  Moravian 
community  exerted  a  wholesome  influence  on  the  revival  of 
spiritual  life.^  In  the  present  century  about  one-half  of  the 
clergy  have  been  brought  up  under  the  influence  of  German 
Rationalism,  and  preach  Christian  morality  without  super- 
natural dogfmas  and  miracles. 

The  Protestant  movement  in  the  Italian  valleys  of  the 
Grisons  began  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  but 
may  as  well  be  anticipated  here. 

§  38.    The  Reformation  in  the  Italimi  Valleys  of  the  Grrisons. 

Vergerio. 

I.  P.  DoM.  Rosius  DE  Porta:  Dissertatiohistorico-ecdesiastica  qua  ecclesiarum 
colloquio  Vallis  PrcegaUice  et  Comitatiis  Clavennce  olim  comprehensarum  Me- 
formatio  et  status  .  .  .  expom'tur.  Curiae,  1787  (pp.  56,  4°).  His  Historia 
Reformations  Eccles.  Rhaticaricm,  Bk.  II.  ch.  v.  pp.  139-179  (on  Vergerio).  — 
Dan.  Gerdes  (a  learned  Reformed  historian,  1698-1765) :  Specimen  ItalicB 
Reformatcf.  L.  Batav.  1765. — *  Thomas  McCrie  (1772-1835,  autlior  of  the 
Life  of  John  Knox,  etc.):  History  of  the  Progress  and  Suppression  of  the  Refor- 
mation in  Italij.  Edinburgh,  1827.  2d  ed.  1833.  Republished  by  the  Pres- 
byterian Board  of  Publication,  Philadelphia,  1842.  Ch.  VI.,  pp.  291  sqq., 
treats  of  the  foreign  Italian  churches  and  the  Reformation  in  the  Grisons. 
—  F.  Trechsel:    Die  protest.  Antitrinitarier,  Heidelberg,  1844,  vol.  II.  64 

^  The  last  professors  of  theology  were  Antistes  Kind  (my  pastor),  and  Dr. 
Schirks,  both  able  and  pious  men. 

-  On  this  movement  see  Munz,  Die  Briidergemeinde  in  Biinden,  in  "  Der 
Kirchenfreund,"  Basel,  Nos.  19-21,  1886.  Johann  Baptist  von  Albertini 
(d.  1831),  one  of  the  bishops  and  hymnists  of  the  Moravians,  and  a  friend 
of  Schleiermacher,  descended  from  a  Biinden  family. 


§  38.     THE    KEFORMATION    IN    THE    ITALIAN    VALLEYS.       145 

sqq.)  — G.  Leoniiakdi  :  liitter  Johannes  Guler  von  Weineck,  Lcbensbild  eines 
Rhatiers  aus  dem  17""^  Jafirh.  Bern,  1863.  By  the  same  :  Pnschlaver  Morel. 
Veltiner  Mord.  Die  Ausrottung  des  Protesiantisnius  iiii  lilisoxeithal.  In  the 
Zeitschrift  "der  Walire  Protestant,"  Basel,  1852-'54.  —  B.  Heber:  Georg 
Jenatsch,  Graubundens  Pjarrer  und  Held  wdhrend  des  dreissigjdhriqen  Kricgs. 
In  the  "Beifage  zur  vaterliindischen  Geschichte,"  Basel,  1800.  —  E.  Lech- 
NER  :  Das  Thai  Bergell  {Bregaglla)  In  Graubiinden,  Natur,  Sagen,  Geschichte, 
Volk,  Sprache,  etc.  Leipzig,  1805  (pp.  140).  —  Y.  F.  Fetz  (Rom.  Catli.)  : 
Geschichte  der  kirchenpolitischen  Wirren  ini  Freistaat  der  drei  Biinde  vom 
Anfang  des  17^^"' Jahrh.  bis  an/ die  Gegenwart.  Chur,  1875  (pp.  367). — 
*  Karl  Benrath  :  Bernardino  Ochino  von  Siena.  Leipzig,  1875  (Eng- 
lish translation  with  preface  by  William  Arthur,  London,  1876).  Comp. 
his  Ueber  die  Quellen  der  italienischen  Reformationsgeschichte.  Bonn,  1876. 
—  *JOH.  Kaspar  Morikofer  :  Geschichte  der  evangelischen  Fluchtlinge  in 
der  Schweiz.  Ziirich,  1876.  —  John  Stoughton:  Footprints  of  Italian  Re- 
formers. London,  1881  (pp.  235,  267  sqq.).  —  Em.  Comba  (professor  of 
churcli  history  in  the  Waldensian  Theological  College  at  Florence)  :  Sloria 
della  RIforma  in  Italia.  Firenze,  1881  (only  1  vol.  so  far).  Biblioteca  delta 
Riforma  Italiana  Sec.  XVI.  Firenze,  1883-'86.  6  vols.  Visita  ai  Grigioni 
Riformati  Italiani.  Firenze,  1885.  Vera  Narrazione  del  Massacro  di  Valtellina. 
Ziiricli,  1621.    Republislied  in  Florence,  1886.    Comp.  literature  on  p.  131. 

II.  The  Vergerius  literature.  The  works  of  Vergerius,  Latin  and  Italian, 
are  very  rare.  Niceron  gives  a  list  of  fifty-five,  Sixt  (pp.  59.5-601)  of 
eighty-nine.  He  began  a  collection  of  his  Opera  adversus  Papatum,  of 
which  only  the  first  volume  has  appeared,  at  Tiibingen,  1563.  Recently 
Emil  Comba  has  edited  his  Trattacelli  e  sua  storia  di  Francesco  Spiera  in 
the  first  two  volumes  of  his  "  Biblioteca  della  Riforma  Italiana,"  Firenze, 
1883,  and  the  Parafrasi  sopra  I.'  Epistola  ai  Roniani,  1886.  Sixt  has  pub- 
lished, from  the  Archives  of  Kunigsberg,  forty-four  letters  of  Vergerius 
to  Albert,  Duke  of  Prussia  (pp.  533  sqq.),  and  Iv.4.osler  and  Schott 
(librarian  at  Stuttgart),  his  correspondence  with  Christopher,  Duke  of 
Wiirtemberg  (Briefirechsel  zwlsr.hen  Christoph  Ilerzog  von  Wml.  und  P.  P. 
Vergerius,  Tiil)ingen,  1875).  —  Walter  Friedensburg  :  Die  Nanciaturen 
des  Vergerio,  1533-36.    Gotha,  1892  (615  pp.).    From  the  papal  archives. 

*  Chr.  H.  Sixt  :  Petrus  Panlus  Vergerius,  pdpstlicher  Nuntius,  kathoUscher 
Bischof  und  Vorkdnipfer  des  Ecangeliums.  Braunschweig,  1855  (pp.  601). 
With  a  picture  of  Vergerius.  2d  (title)  ed.  1871.  The  labors  in  the 
Grisons  are  described  in  ch.  III.  181  sqq.  —  Scattered  notices  of  Vergerius 
are  found  in  Sleidan,  Seckendorf,  De  Porta,  Sarpi,  Pallavicini,  Raynal- 
dus,  Maimburg,  Bayle,  Niceron,  Schelhorn,  Salig,  and  Meyer  (in  his 
monograph  on  Locarno.  I.  36,  51 ;  II.  236-255).  A  good  article  by 
Schott  in  Herzog^,  XVI.  351-357.     (Less  eulogistic  than  Sixt.) 

The  evangelical  Reformation  spread  in  the  Italian  portions 
of  the  Grisons ;  namely,  the  valleys  of  Pregell  or  Bregaglia.^ 

^  This  is  the  Italian  name;  in  Latin,  Prcegallia  ;  in  German,  Bergell. 


146  THE   SWISS   KEFORMATION. 

and  Poschiavo  (Puschlav),  which  still  belong  to  the  Canton, 
and  in  the  dependencies  of  the  Valtellina  (Veltlin),  Bormio 
(Worms),  and  Chiavenna  (Cleven),  which  were  ruled  by 
governors  (like  the  Territories  of  the  United  States),  but 
were  lost  to  the  Grisons  in  1797.  The  Valtellina  is  famous 
for  its  luxuriant  vegetation,  fiery  wine,  and  culture  of  silk. 
A  Protestant  con^reg-ation  was  also  organized  at  Locarno  in 
the  Canton  Ticino  (Tessin),  which  then  was  a  dependency 
of  the  Swiss  Confederacy.  This  Italian  chapter  of  the  his- 
tory of  Swiss  Protestantism  is  closely  connected  with  the 
rise  and  suppression  of  the  Reformation  in  Italy  and  the  emi- 
gration of  many  Protestant  confessors,  who,  like  the  French 
Huguenots  of  a  later  period,  were  driven  from  their  native 
land,  to  enrich  mth  their  industry  and  virtue  foreign  coun- 
tries where  they  found  a  hospitable  home. 

The  first  impulse  to  the  Reformation  in  the  Italian  Grisons 
came  from  Gallicius  and  Campell,  who  labored  in  the  neigh- 
boring Engadin,  and  knew  Italian  as  well  as  Romansh.  The 
chief  agents  were  Protestant  refugees  who  fled  from  the 
Inquisition  to  Northern  Italy  and  found  protection  under 
the  government  of  the  Grisons.  Many  of  them  settled  there 
permanently ;  others  went  to  Ziirich,  Basel,  and  Geneva. 
In  the  year  1550  the  number  of  Italian  refugees  was  about 
two  hundred.  Before  1559  the  number  had  increased  to 
eight  hundred.  One  fourth  or  fifth  of  them  were  educated 
men.  Some  inclined  to  Unitarian  and  Anabaptist  opinions, 
and  prepared  the  way  for  Socinianism.  Among  the  latter 
may  be  mentioned  Francesco  Calabrese  (in  the  Engadin); 
Tiriano  (at  Coire) ;  Camillo  Renato,  a  forerunner  of  Socinian- 
ism (at  Tirano  in  the  Valtellina) ;  Ochino,  the  famous  Capu- 
chin pulpit  orator  (who  afterwards  went  to  Geneva,  England, 
and  Ziirich) ;  Lelio  Sozini  (who  died  at  Ziirich,  1562) ;  and 
his  more  famous  nephew,  Fausto  Sozini  (1539-1604),  the 
proper  founder  of  Socinianism,  who  ended  his  life  in  Poland. 

The  most  distino-uished  of  the  Italian  evanofelists  in  the 


§  38.     THE    REFORMATION    IN    THE    ITALIAN    VALLEYS.       147 

Grisons,  is  Petrus  Paulus  Vergerius  (1498-1565). ^  He 
labored  there  four  years  (1549-1553),  and  left  some  perma- 
nent traces  of  his  influence.  He  ranks  among  the  secondary 
Reformers,  and  is  an  interesting  but  somewhat  ambiguous 
and  unsatisfactory  character,  with  a  changeful  career.  He 
held  one  of  the  highest  positions  at  the  papal  court,  and 
became  one  of  its  most  decided  opponents. 


Petrus  Faults  Vergkrius. 


Vergerio  was  at  first  a  prominent  lawyer  at  Venice.  After 
the  death  of  his  wife  (Diana  Contarini),  he  entered  the  ser- 
vice of  the  Church,  and  soon  rose  by  his  talents  and  attain- 

^  PiERPAOLO  Vergerio,  also  called  the  younger,  to  distinguish  him  from 
an  older  member  of  his  illustrious  family.  De  Porta  thus  introduces  his 
account,  I.e. :  "  Inter  exsuies,  qui  oh  Evangelii  eonfessionem  Italue  profiu/i  in  Rhcetia 
eonsederunt,  hand  ullus  sive  generis  nobilitatem,  sive  dignitatem,  sive  vitce  actic 
rationem  spectes,  majorem  meretur  attentwnem  quam  P.  P.  Vergerius." 


148  THE    SWISS    REFORMATION. 

ments  to  influential  positions.  He  was  sent  by  Clement  VII., 
together  with  Campeggi  and  Pimpinelli,  to  the  Diet  of  Augs- 
burg, 1530,  where  he  associated  with  Faber,  Eck,  and  Coch- 
Iseus,  and  displayed  great  zeal  and  skill  in  attempting  to 
suppress  the  Protestant  heresy.  He  was  made  papal  secretary 
and  domestic  chaplain,  1532.  He  was  again  sent  by  Paul  HI. 
to  Germany,  in  1535,  to  negotiate  with  the  German  princes 
about  the  proposed  General  Council  at  Mantua.  He  had  a 
personal  interview  with  Luther  in  Wittenberg  (Nov.  7),  and 
took  offence  at  his  bad  Latin,  blunt  speech,  and  plebeian 
manner.  He  could  not  decide,  he  said  in  his  official  report 
to  the  papal  secretary  (Nov.  12),  whether  this  German 
"beast"  was  possessed  by  an  evil  demon  or  not,  but  he  cer- 
tainly was  the  embodiment  of  arrogance,  malice,  and  unwis- 
dom.i  He  afterwards  spoke  of  Luther  as  "  a  man  of  sacred 
memory,"  and  "  a  great  instrument  of  God,"  and  lauded  him 
in  verses  which  he  composed  on  a  visit  to  Eisleben  in  1559. 
On  his  return  to  Ital}^  he  received  as  reward  for  his  mission 
the  archbishopric  of  Capo  d'  Istria,  his  native  place  (not  far 
from  Trieste).  He  aspired  even  to  the  cardinal's  hat.  He 
attended  —  we  do  not  know  precisely  in  what  capacity, 
whether  in  the  name  of  the  Pope,  or  of  Francis  I.  of  France 
—  the  Colloquies  at  ^yorms  and  Regensburg,  in  1540  and 
1541,  where  he  met  Melanchthon  and  Calvin.  Melanchthon 
presented  him  on  that  occasion  with  a  copy  of  the  Augsburg 
Confession  and  the  Apology.^  At  that  time  he  was,  accord- 
ing to  his  confession,  still  as  blind  and  impious  as  Saul.  Li 
the  address  De  Unitate  et  Pace  Ecdei<ice^  which  he  delivered 
at  Worms,  Jan.  1,  1541,  and  which  is  diplomatic  rather  than 
theological,^   he    urged   a    General   Council   as   a  means  to 

^  Sixt  gives  (pp.  35-45),  from  Seckendorf,  Sarpi,  and  Pallavicini,  a  full 
account  of  this  characteristic  interview,  which  belongs  to  the  history  of  the 
Lutheran  and  Roman  Catholic  churches.  The  official  report  is  published  by 
Friedensburg. 

2  With  a  letter  printed  in  his  Opera,  Corp.  Reform.  IV.  22,  and  in  Sixt,  94. 

3  Translated  from  the  Latin  in  Sixt,  75-94.  The  address  was  printed  and 
distributed  immediately  after  the  delivery,  but  has  become  very  rare. 


§  38.     THE   REFORMATION   IN   THE   ITALIAN   VALLEYS.      149 

restore  the  unity  and  peace  of  the  Church  on  the  traditional 
basis. 

His  conversion  was  gradually  brought  about  by  a  combina- 
tion of  several  causes,  —  the  reading  of  Protestant  books 
which  he  undertook  with  the  purpose  to  refute  them,  his  per- 
sonal intercourse  with  Lutheran  divines  and  princes  in  Ger- 
many, the  intolerance  of  his  Roman  opponents,  and  the  fearful 
death  of  Spiera.  He  acquired  an  experimental  knowledge 
of  the  evangelical  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith,  which  at 
that  time  commended  itself  even  to  some  Roman  divines  of 
high  standing,  as  Cardinal  Contarini  and  Reginald  Pole, 
and  which  was  advocated  by  Paleario  of  Siena,  and  by  a 
pupil  of  Valdes  in  an  anonymous  Italian  tract  on  "  The  Ben- 
efit of  Christ's  Death."  ^  He  began  to  preach  evangelical 
doctrines  and  to  reform  abuses.  His  brother,  bishop  of 
Pola,  fully  sympathized  with  him.  He  roused  the  suspicion 
of  the  Curia  and  the  Inquisition.  He  went  to  Trent  in 
February,  1546,  to  justify  himself  before  the  Council,  but 
was  refused  admittance,  and  forbidden  to  return  to  his  dio- 

1  Trattaio  utilissimo  del  benejicio  di  Giesk  Christo  crucijisso,  verso  i  Christiani. 
Venet.  1540.  It  was  circulated  in  more  than  forty  thousand  copies  within  six 
years,  translated  into  several  languages,  and  republished  from  an  English 
version  (made  from  the  French),  4tla  ed.,  London,  1638,  by  the  Religious  Tract 
Society  of  London,  with  an  introduction  by  John  Ayer,  and  again  in  Boston, 
1860  (Gould  &  Lincoln,  pp.  160,  with  facsimile  of  the  title-page).  The 
Italian  original  was  recovered  at  Cambridge,  1855.  Vergerius  wrote  in  1558 
that  there  appeared  no  book  in  his  age,  at  least  in  Italian,  "  so  sweet,  so  pious, 
so  simple,  and  so  well  adapted  to  instruct  the  weak  on  the  article  of  justifica- 
tion" (Sixt,  p.  103).  The  tract  was  formerly  (by  Tiraboschi,  Gerdes,  McCrie, 
Jules  Bonnet,  Mrs.  Young,  and  others)  ascribed  to  Aonio  Paleario,  professor 
of  classical  literature  at  Siena ;  but  it  was  written  by  a  pupil  of  the  Spanish 
nobleman,  Juan  de  Valde's,  at  Naples,  and  revised  by  Flaminio.  Ranke  found 
in  the  Acts  of  the  Inquisition  the  notice,  "  Quel  libro  del  beneficio  di  Christo  fu 
il  sua  autore  un  monaco  di  Sanseverino  in  Napoli  discepolo  del  Valde's,  fu  revisore 
di  detto  libro  il  Flaminio,  fu  stampato  molte  volte,"  etc.  Die  Homischen  Papste, 
vol.  I.  pp.  90-92  (8th  ed.  1883).  Benrath  found  the  name  of  the  author, 
Don  Benedetto  de  Mantova,  "Zeitschrift  fiir  Kirchengesch.,"  I.  575-596 
(1877).  Comp.  his  article  Paleario,  in  Herzog^,  XI.  165,  note,  and  E.  Bohmer 
on  Valde's,  ibid.  XVI.  276  sqq.  Bohmer  says  that  there  are  two  Italian  copies 
of  the  tract  in  the  imperial  library  at  Vienna. 


150  THE   SWISS   KEFORMATION". 

cese.  He  retired  to  Riva  on  the  Lago  di  Garda,  not  far 
from  Trent. 

In  1548  lie  paid  a  visit  to  Padua  to  take  some  of  his 
nephews  to  college.  He  found  the  city  excited  by  the  fear- 
ful tragedy  of  Francesco  Spiera,  a  lawyer  and  convert  from 
Romanism,  who  had  abjured  the  evangelical  faith  from  fear 
of  the  Inquisition,  and  fell  into  a  hell  of  tortures  of  con- 
science under  the  conviction  that  he  had  committed  the 
unpardonable  sin  by  rejecting  the  truth.  He  was  for  several 
weeks  a  daily  witness,  with  many  others,  of  the  agonies  of 
this  most  unfortunate  of  apostates,  and  tried  in  vain  to  com- 
fort him.  He  thought  that  we  must  not  despair  of  any 
sinner,  though  he  had  committed  the  crimes  of  Cain  and 
Judas.  He  prepared  himself  for  his  visits  by  prayer  and  the 
study  of  the  comforting  promises  of  the  Scriptures.  But 
Spiera  had  lost  all  faith,  all  hope,  all  comfort;  he  insisted 
that  he  had  committed  the  sin  against  the  Holy  Spirit  which 
cannot  be  forgiven  in  this  world  nor  in  the  world  to  come  ; 
he  was  tormented  by  the  remembrance  of  the  sins  of  his 
youth,  the  guilt  of  apostasy,  the  prospect  of  eternal  punish- 
ment which  he  felt  already,  and  died  in  utter  despair  with  a 
heart  full  of  hatred  and  blasphemy.  His  death  was  regarded 
as  a  signal  judgment  of  God,  a  warning  example,  and  an 
argument  for  the  truth  of  the  evangelical  doctrines.^ 

Vergerio  was  overwhelmed  by  this  experience,  and  brought 
to  a  final  decision.     He  wrote  an  apology  in  which  he  gives 

1  I  have  given  a  full  account  of  this  tragedy  in  an  appendix  to  my  (German) 
book  on  the  Sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost  (Halle,  1841),  pp.  173-210,  from  a  rare 
publication  of  191  pages  (then  in  possession  of  Dr.  Hengstenberg  in  Berlin)  : 
Francisci  Spiera.,  qui,  quod  susceptam  semel  evangelicce  veritatis  professionem 
abnegasset  damnassetque,  in  horrendam  incidit  desperationem,  Historia,  a  quatuor 
summis  viris  summa  fide  conscripta,  cum  clariss.  virorum  prcefationibus,Colii  S.  C 
et  lo.  Calvini  et  Petri  Pauli  Vergerii  Apologia  :  in  quibus  multa  hoc  tempore  scitu 
digna  gravissime  tractantur.  .  .  .  Basil.  1550.  It  was  reprinted  at  Tiibingen, 
1558.  Vergerio  first  published  an  account  in  his  Apologia,  1548  (not  1549), 
which  is  contained  in  that  book,  and  informed  Calvin  of  it  in  a  letter.  Sixt 
gives  large  extracts,  pp.  125-160.     See  Comba,  Francesco  Spiera,  Firenze,  1883. 


§  38.    THE   REFORMATION   IN   THE   ITALIAN   VALLEYS.      151 

an  account  of  the  sad  story,  and  renounces  his  connection 
with  Rome  at  the  risk  of  persecution,  torture,  and  death. 
He  sent  it  to  the  suffragan  bishop  of  Padua,  Dec.  13,  1548. 

He  was  deposed  and  excommunicated  by  the  pope,  July  3, 
1549,  and  fled  over  Bergamo  to  the  Grisons.  He  remained 
there  till  1553,  with  occasional  journeys  to  the  Valtellina, 
Chiavenna,  Ziirich,  Bern,  and  Basel.  He  was  hospitably 
received,  and  developed  great  activity  in  preaching  and 
writing.  People  of  all  classes  gathered  around  him,  and 
were  impressed  by  his  commanding  presence  and  eloquence. 
He  founded  a  printing-press  in  Poschiavo  in  1549,  and  issued 
from  it  his  thunderbolts  against  popery.  He  preached  at 
Pontresina  and  Samaden  in  the  Upper  Engadin,  and  effected 
the  abolition  of  the  mass  and  the  images.  He  labored  as 
pastor  three  years  (1550-53)  at  Vicosoprano  in  Bregaglia. 
He  travelled  through  the  greater  part  of  Switzerland,  and 
made  the  acquaintance  of  Bullinger,  Calvin,  and  Beza. 

But  the  humble  condition  of  the  Grisons  did  not  satisfy  his 
ambition.  He  felt  isolated,  and  complained  of  the  inhos- 
pitable valleys.  He  disliked  the  democratic  institutions. 
He  quarrelled  with  the  older  Reformers,  Comander  and  Galli- 
cius.  He  tried  to  get  the  whole  Synod  of  the  Grisons  under 
his  control,  and,  failing  in  this,  to  organize  a  separate  synod 
of  the  Italian  congregations.  Then  he  asj^ired  to  a  more 
prominent  position  at  Ziirich  or  Geneva  or  Bern,  but  Bul- 
linger and  Calvin  did  not  trust  him. 

In  November,  1553,  he  gladly  accepted  a  call  to  Wiirtem- 
berg  as  counsellor  of  Duke  Christopher,  one  of  the  best 
princes  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  spent  his  remaining 
twelve  years  in  the  Duke's  service.  Hei  resided  in  Tubingen, 
but  had  no  official  connection  with  the  University.  He  con- 
tinued to  write  with  his  rapid  pen  inflammatory  tracts  against 
popery,  promoted  the  translation  and  distribution  of  the 
Bible  in  the  South  Slavonic  dialect,  maintained  an  extensive 
correspondence,   and  was   used   in   various   diplomatic    and 


152  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

evangelical  missions  to  the  Emperor  Maximilian  at  Vienna, 
to  the  kings  of  Bohemia,  and  Poland.  On  his  first  journey 
to  Poland  he  made  the  personal  acquaintance  of  Albert, 
Duke  of  Prussia,  who  esteemed  him  highly  and  supplied  him 
with  funds.  He  entered  into  correspondence  with  Queen 
Elizabeth,  in  the  vain  ho]De  of  an  invitation  to  England^ 
He  desired  to  be  sent  as  delegate  to  the  religious  conference 
at  Poissy  in  France,  1561,  but  was  again  disappointed.  He 
paid  four  visits  to  the  Grisons  (November,  1561;  March,  1562; 
May,  1563 ;  and  April,  1564),  to  counteract  the  intrigues  of 
the  Spanish  and  papal  party,  and  to  promote  the  harmony  of 
the  Swiss  Church  with  that  of  Wiirtemberg.  On  his  second 
visit  he  went  as  far  as  the  Valtellina.  He  received  an 
informal  invitation  to  attend  the  Council  of  Trent  in  1561 
from  Delfino,  the  papal  nuncio,  in  the  hope  that  he  might  be 
induced  to  recant ;  he  was  willing  to  go  at  the  risk  of  meet- 
ing the  fate  of  Hus  at  Constance,  but  on  condition  of  a  safe 
conduct,  which  was  declined.^  At  last  he  wished  to  unite 
with  the  Bohemian  Brethren,  whom  he  admired  for  their 
strict  discipline  combined  with  pure  doctrine ;  he  translated 
and  published  their  Confession  of  Faith.  He  was  in  constant 
need  of  money,  and  his  many  begging  letters  to  the  Dukes 
of  Wiirtemberg  and  of  Prussia  make  a  painful  impression ; 
but  we  must  take  into  account  the  printing  expenses  of  his 
many  books,  his  frequent  journeys,  and  the  support  of  three 
nephews  and  a  niece.  In  his  fifty-ninth  year  he  conceived 
the  plan  of  contracting  a  marriage,  and  asked  the  Duke  to 
double  his  allowance  of  two  hundred  guilders,  but  the  re- 
quest was  declined  and  the  marriage  given  up.^ 

He  died  Oct.  4,  1565,  at  Tiibingen,  and  was  buried  there. 
Dr.  Andreae,  the  chief  author  of  the  Lutheran  Formula  of 
Concord,  preached  the  funeral  sermon,  which   the   learned 

1  See  his  letters  to  Duke  Albert  of  Prussia,  and  the  report  of  Pallavicini, 
XV.  10;   and  Sixt,  485  sqq.,  490  sqq. 

2  Sixt,  510  sqq. 


§  38.     THE  .  REFORMATION    IN    THE    ITALIAN    VALLEYS.       153 

Crusius  took  down  in  Greek.     Duke  Christopher  erected  a 
monument  to  his  memory  with  a  eulogistic  inscription.^ 

The  very  numerous  Latin  and  ItaUan  books  and  fugitive 
tracts  of  Vergerio  are  chiefly  polemical  against  the  Roman 
hierarchy  of  which  he  had  so  long  been  a  conspicuous  mem- 
ber.2  He  exposed,  with  the  intemperate  zeal  of  a  proselyte, 
the  chronique  scandaleuse  of  the  papacy,  including  the  mythi- 
cal woman-pope,  Johanna  (John  VIII.),  who  was  then  gen- 
erally believed  to  have  really  existed.^  He  agreed  with 
Luther  that  the  papacy  was  an  invention  of  the  Devil ;  that 
the  pope  was  the  very  Antichrist  seated  in  the  temple  of 
God  as  predicted  by  Daniel  (11 :  36)  and  Paul  (2  Thess.  2: 
3  sq.),  and  the  beast  of  the  Apocalypse ;  and  that  he  would 
soon  be  destroyed  by  a  divine  judgment.  He  attacked  all  the 
contemporar}^  popes,  except  Adrian  VI.,  to  whom  he  gives 
credit  for  honesty  and  earnestness.  He  is  especially  severe 
on  '•'  Saul  IV."  (Paul  IV.),  who  as  Cardinal  Caraffa  had 
made  some  wise  and  bold  utterances  on  the  corruption  of  the 
clergy,  but  since  his  elevation  to  the  "apostate  chair,  which 
corrupts  every  one  who  ascends  it,"  had  become  the  leader  of 
the  Counter-Reformation  with  its  measures  of  violence  and 
•  blood.  Such  monsters,  he  says,  are  the  popes.  One  contra- 
dicts the  other,  and  yet  they  are  all  infallible,  and  demand 
absolute  submission.  Rather  die  a  thousand  times  than  have 
any  communion  with  popery  and  fall  away  from  Christ,  the 

1  The  epitaphium,  in  eighteen  hexameters,  plays  ingeniously  on  his  name, 
—  Peter,  who  denied  the  Lord,  and,  after  his  con^rsion,  fed  his  sheep ;  Paul, 
who  first  persecuted  and  then  built  up  the  Clmrch ;  and  Vergerius, "  vergens  ad 
orcum  and  vergens  ad  astra  poli."  The  monument  in  the  Georgenkirche  was 
destroyed  by  the  Jesuits  in  1636  and  restored  1672,  but  has  disappeared  since, 
according  to  Schott  (Herzog'^,  XVI.  357),  whose  statement  (againt  Sixt,  527) 
is  confirmed  by  Dr.  Weizsacker  (in  a  private  letter  of  Jan.  5,  1891). 

2  Many  of  them  appeared  anonymously  or  under  such  false  names  as  Atha- 
nasius,  Fra  Giovanni,  Lambertus  de  Nigromonte,  Valerius  Philarchus,  etc. 

3  This  mediaeval  fiction  was  probably  a  Roman  satire  on  the  monstrous 
regiment  of  bad  women  who  controlled  the  papacy  in  the  tenth  century.  It 
was  first  disproved  by  David  Blondel.     See  vol.  IV.  265  sq. 


154  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

Son  of  God,  who  was  crucified  for  us  and  rose  from  the  dead. 
Popery  and  the  gospel  are  as  incompatible  as  darkness  and 
light,  as  Belial  and  Christ.  No  compromise  is  possible 
between  them.  Vergerio  was  hardly  less  severe  on  the 
cardinals  and  bishops,  although  he  allowed  some  honorable 
exceptions.  He  attacked  and  ridiculed  the  Council  of  Trent, 
then  in  session,  and  tried  to  show  that  it  was  neither  gen- 
eral, nor  free,  nor  Christian.  He  used  the  same  arguments 
against  it  as  the  Old  Catholics  used  against  the  Vatican 
Council  of  1870.  He  repelled  the  charge  of  heresy  and 
turned  it  against  his  former  co-religionists.  The  Protestants 
who  follow  the  Word  of  God  are  orthodox,  the  Romanists 
who  follow  the  traditions  of  men  are  the  heretics. 

His  anti-popery  waitings  were  read  with  great  avidity  by 
his  contemporaries,  but  are  now  forgotten.  BuUinger  was 
unfavorably  impressed,  and  found  in  them  no  solid  substance, 
but  only  frivolous  mockery  and  abuse. 

As  regards  the  differences  among  Protestants,  Vergerio 
was  inconsistent.  He  first  held  the  Calvinistic  theory  of 
the  Lord's  Supper,  and  expressed  it  in  his  own  Catechism,^ 
in  a  letter  to  BuUinger  of  Jan.  16,  1554,  and  even  later,  in 
June,  1556,  at  Wittenberg,  where  he  met  Melanchthon  and 
Eber.  But  in  Wiirtemberg  he  had  to  subscribe  the  Augs- 
burg Confession,  and  in  a  letter  to  the  Duke  of  Wiirtemberg, 
Oct.  23, 1557,  he  confessed  the  ubiquitarian  theory  of  Luther. 
He  also  translated  the  Catechism  of  Brenz  and  the  Wiirtem- 
berg Confession  into  Italian,  and  thereby  offended  the  Swiss 
Zwinglians,  but  told  Ibem  that  he  was  merely  the  translator. 
He  never  attributed  much  importance  to  the  difference,  and 
kept  aloof  from  the  eucharistic  controversy.^  He  was  not 
a  profound  theologian,  but  an  ecclesiastical  politician  and 
diplomatist,  after  as  well  as  before  his  conversion. 

Vergerio  left  the  Roman  Church  rather  too  late,  when  the 

1  Fondamento  della  religione  Christiana  per  uso  della  Valtellina.     1553. 

2  His  views  on  the  Eucharist  are  discussed  by  Sixt,  208,  214,  and  497  sqq. 


§  39.    PROT.   IN   CHIAVENNA   AND   THE  VALTELLINA.      155 

Counter-Reformation  Lad  already  begun  to  crush  Protestant- 
ism in  Italy.  He  was  a  man  of  imposing  personality,  con- 
siderable learning  and  eloquence,  wit  and  irony,  polemic 
dexterity,  and  diplomatic  experience,  but  restless,  vain,  and 
ambitious.  He  had  an  extravagant  idea  of  his  own  impor- 
tance. He  could  not  forget  his  former  episcopal  authority 
and  pretensions,  nor  his  commanding  position  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  pope.  He  aspired  to  the  dignity  and  influ- 
ence of  a  sort  of  Protestant  internuncio  at  all  the  courts 
of  Europe,  and  of  a  mediator  between  the  Lutheran  and 
Reformed  Churches.  Pallavicino,  the  Jesuit  historian  of 
the  Council  of  Trent,  characterizes  him  as  a  lively  and  bold 
man  Avho  could  not  live  without  business,  and  imagined  that 
business  could  not  get  along  without  him.  Calvin  found  in 
him  much  that  is  laudable,  but  feared  that  he  was  a  restless 
busybody.  Gallicius  wrote  to  BuUinger :  "  I  wish  that  Ver- 
gerio  would  be  more  quiet,  and  persuade  himself  that  the 
heavens  will  not  fall  even  if  he,  as  another  Atlas,  should 
withdraw  his  support."  Nevertheless,  Vergerio  filled  an 
important  place  in  the  history  of  his  times.  He  retained 
the  esteem  of  the  Lutheran  princes  and  theologians,  and  he 
is  gratefully  remembered  for  his  missionary  services  in  the 
two  Italian  valleys  of  the  Grisons,  which  have  remained 
faithful  to  the  evangelical  faith  to  this  day. 

§  39.  Protestantism  in  Chiavenna  and  the  Valtellina,  and  its 
Suppression.     The  Valtellina  3Iassacre.      George  Jenatsch. 

See  literature  in  §§  36  and  38,  pp.  131  and  144  sq. 

We  pass  now  to  the  Italian  dependencies  of  the  Grisons, 
where  Protestantism  has  had  only  a  transient  existence. 

At  Chiavenna  the  Reformed  worship  was  introduced  in 
1544  by  Agostino  Mainardi,  a  former  monk  of  Piedmont, 
under  the  protection  of  Hercules  von  Salis,  governor  of  the 
province.     He   was   succeeded    by   Jerome    Zanchi    (1516- 


156  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

1590),  an  Augustinian  monk  who  had  been  converted  by 
reading  the  works  of  the  Reformers  under  the  direction  of 
Vermigli  at  Lucca,  and  became  one  of  the  most  learned  and 
acute  champions  of  the  Calvinistic  system.  He  fled  to  the 
Grisons  in  1551,  and  preached  at  Chiavenna.  Two  years 
later  he  accepted  a  call  to  a  Hebrew  professorship  at  Strass- 
burg.  There  he  got  into  a  controversy  with  Marbach  on 
the  doctrine  of  predestination,  which  he  defended  with  logi- 
cal rigor.^  In  1563  he  returned  to  Chiavenna  as  pastor. 
He  had  much  trouble  with  restless  Italian  refugees  and  with 
the  incipient  heresy  of  Socinianism.  In  1568  he  left  for 
Heidelberg,  as  professor  of  theology  on  the  basis  of  the 
Palatinate  Catechism,  which  in  1563  had  been  introduced 
under  the  pious  Elector  Frederick  III.  He  prepared  the 
way  for  Calvinistic  scholasticism.  A  complete  edition  of 
his  works  appeared  at  Geneva,  1619,  in  three  folio  volumes. 

Chiavenna  had  several  other  able  pastors,  —  Simone  Flo- 
rillo,  Scipione  Lentulo  of  Naples,  Ottaviano  Meio  of  Lucca. 

Small  Protestant  congregations  were  founded  in  the  Val- 
tellina,  at  Caspan  (1546),  Sondrio  (the  seat  of  government), 
Teglio,  Tirano,  and  other  towns.  Dr.  McCrie  says :  "  Upon 
the  whole,  the  number  of  Protestant  churches  to  the  south 
of  the  Alps  appears  to  have  exceeded  twenty,  which  were 
all  served,  and  continued  till  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury to  be  for  the  most  part  served,  by  exiles  from  Italy." 

But  Protestantism  in  Chiavenna,  Bormio,  and  the  Valtpl- 
lina  was  at  last  swept  out  of  existence.  We  must  here 
anticipate  a  bloody  page  of  the  history  of  the  seventeenth 
century. 

Several  causes  combined  for  the  destruction  of  Protestant- 
ism in  Upper  Italy.  The  Catholic  natives  were  never  friendly 
to  the  heretical  refugees  who  settled  among  them,  and  called 
them  banditi,  which  has  the  double  meaning  of  exile  and 
outlaw.      They  reproached  the  Grisons  for  receiving  them 

^  Schweizer,  Centraklogmen  der  Ref.  Kirche,  I.  422  sqq. 


§  39.       THE    VALTELLINA    MA.SSACKE.  157 

after  they  had  been  expelled  from  other  Christian  countries. 
They  were  kept  in  a  state  of  political  vassalage,  instead  of 
being  admitted  to  equal  rights  with  the  three  leagues.  The 
provincial  governors  were  often  oppressive,  sold  the  subordi- 
nate offices  to  partisans,  and  enriched  themselves  at  the 
expense  of  the  inhabitants.  The  Protestants  were  distracted 
by  internal  feuds.  The  Roman  Counter-Reformation  was 
begun  with  great  zeal  and  energy  in  Upper  Italy  and  Swit- 
zerland by  the  saintly  Cardinal  Charles  Borromeo,  archbishop 
of  Milan.  Jesuits  and  Capuchins  stirred  up  the  hatred  of 
the  ignorant  and  superstitious  people  against  the  Protestant 
heretics.  In  the  Grisons  themselves  the  Roman  Catholic 
party  under  the  lead  of  the  family  of  Planta,  and  the  Protes- 
tants, headed  by  the  family  of  Salis,  strove  for  the  mastery. 
The  former  aimed  at  the  suppression  of  the  Reformation  in 
the  leagues  as  well  as  the  dependencies,  and  were  suspected 
of  treasonable  conspiracy  with  Spain  and  Austria.  The  Prot- 
estant party  held  a  court  (Strqff/eriehf,  a  sort  of  tribunal  of 
inquisition)  at  Thusis  in  1618,  which  included  nine  preachers, 
and  condemned  the  conspirators.  The  aged  Zambra,  who 
in  the  torture  confessed  complicity  with  Spain,  was  be- 
headed ;  Nicolaus  Rusca,  an  esteemed  priest,  leader  of  the 
Spanish  Catholic  interests  in  the  Valtellina,  called  the  ham- 
mer of  the  heretics,  was  cruelly  tortured  to  death ;  Bishop 
John  Flugi  was  deposed  and  outlawed ;  the  brothers  Rudolf 
and  Pompeius  Planta,  the  knight  Jacob  Robustelli,  and  other 
influential  Catholics  were  banished,  and  the  property  of  the 
Plantas  was  confiscated. 

These  unrighteous  measures  created  general  indignation. 
The  exiles  bred  revenge,  and  were  assured  of  Spanish  aid. 
Robustelli  returned,  after  his  banishment,  to  the  Valtellina, 
and  organized  a  band  of  about  three  hundred  desperate 
bandits  from  the  Venetian  and  Milanese  territories  for  the 
overthrow  of  the  government  of  the  Grisons  and  the  exter- 
mination of  Protestantism. 


158  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

This  is  the  infamous  "  Valtellina  Massacre  "  ( VeltUner 
Mord')  of  July,  1620.  It  may  be  called  an  imitation  of  the 
Sicilian  Vespers,  and  of  the  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew. 
It  was  the  fiendish  work  of  religious  fanaticism  combined 
with  political  discontent.  The  tragedy  began  in  the  silence 
of  the  night,  from  July  18th  to  19th,  by  the  murder  of  sixty 
defenceless  adult  Protestants  of  Tirano ;  the  Podesta  Ender- 
lin  was  shot  down  in  the  street,  mutilated,  and  thrown  into 
the  Adda ;  Anton  von  Salis  took  refuge  in  the  house  of  a 
Catholic  friend,  but  was  sought  out  and  killed;  the  head 
of  the  Protestant  minister,  Anton  Bassa  of  Poschiavo,  was 
posted  on  the  pulj^it  of  the  church.  The  murderers  pro- 
ceeded to  Teglio,  and  shot  do^vn  about  the  same  number  of 
persons  in  the  church,  together  with  the  minister,  who  was 
wounded  in  the  pulpit,  and  exhorted  the  hearers  to  perse- 
vere ;  a  number  of  women  and  children,  who  had  taken 
refuge  in  the  tower  of  the  church,  were  burnt.  The  priest 
of  Teglio  took  part  in  the  bloody  business,  carrying  the  cross 
in  the  left,  and  the  sword  in  the  right  hand.  At  Sondrio, 
the  massacre  raged  for  three  days.  Seventy-one  Protestants, 
by  their  determined  stand,  were  permitted  to  escape  to  the 
Engadin,  but  one  hundred  and  forty  fell  victims  to  the  ban- 
dits; a  butcher  boasted  of  having  murdered  eighteen  persons. 
Not  even  the  dead  were  spared  ;  their  bodies  were  exhumed, 
burnt,  thrown  into  the  water,  or  exposed  to  wild  beasts. 
Paula  Baretta,  a  noble  Venetian  lady  of  eighty  years,  who 
had  left  a  nunnery  for  her  religious  conviction,  was  shame- 
fully maltreated  and  delivered  to  the  Inquisition  at  Milan, 
where  a  year  afterward  she  suffered  death  at  the  stake. 
Anna  of  Libo  fled  with  a  child  of  two  years  in  her  arms ; 
she  was  overtaken  and  promised  release  on  condition  of 
abjuring  her  faith.  She  refused,  saying,  "You  may  kill 
the  body,  but  not  the  soul " ;  she  pressed  her  child  to  her 
bosom,  and  received  the  death-blow.  When  the  people  saw 
the  stream  of   blood  on  the  market-place  before  the  chief 


§  39.      THE    VALTELLINA   MASSACRE.  159 

church,  they  exclaimed :  "•  This  is  the  revenge  for  our  mur- 
dered arch-priest  Rusca  ! "  He  was  henceforth  revered  as 
a  holy  martyr.  At  Morbegno  the  Catholics  behaved  well, 
and  aided  the  Protestants  in  making  their  escape.  The 
fugitives  were  kindly  received  in  the  Grisons  and  other  parts 
of  Switzerland.  From  the  Valtellina  Robustelli  proceeded 
to  Poschiavo,  burnt  the  town  of  Brusio,  and  continued  there 
the  butchery  of  Protestants  till  he  was  checked.^ 

The  Valtellina  declared  itself  independent  and  elected  the 
knight  Robustelli  military  chief.  The  canons  of  the  Council 
of  Trent  were  proclaimed,  papal  indulgences  introduced,  the 
evangelical  churches  and  cemeteries  reconsecrated  for  Catho- 
lic use,  the  corpses  of  Protestants  dug  up,  burnt,  and  cast  into 
the  river.  Addresses  were  sent  to  the  Pope  and  the  kings 
of  Spain  and  France,  explaining  and  excusing  the  foul  deeds 
by  which  the  rebels  claimed  to  have  saved  the  Roman  relig- 
ion and  achieved  political  freedom  from  intolerable  tyranny. 

Now  began  the  long  and  bloody  conflicts  for  the  recovery 
of  the  lost  province,  in  which  several  foreign  powers  took 
part.  The  question  of  the  Yaltellina  (like  the  Eastern 
question  in  modern  times)  became  a  European  question,  and 
was  involved  in  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  Spain,  in  possession 
of  Milan,  wished  to  join  hands  with  Austria  across  the  Alpine 
passes  of  the  Grisons ;  while  France  and  Venice  had  a  polit- 
ical motive  to  keep  them  closed.  Austrian  and  Spanish 
troops  conquered  and  occupied  the  Valtellina  and  the  three 
leagues,  expelled  the  Protestant  preachers,  and  inflicted  un- 


1  Moderate  Catholic  historians  dare  not  defend  this  massacre,  any  more 
than  that  of  St.  Bartholomew,  but  explain  it  as  a  terrible  Nemesis  and  des- 
perate self-vindication  against  the  oppressions  of  the  commissioners  of  the 
Grisons.  So  Fetz,  who  says  (I.e.  p.  113):  "Die  besonnenen  Katholiken  luiben 
diese  schauerliche  Selbsthillfe,  wodurch  viele  Unschuldige  als  Opfer  der  Hache  ge- 
fallen,  niemals  gebilligt ;  andererseits  konnten  und  konnen  billig  denkende  Protestanten 
das  arge  Treiben  der  Prddicanten  und  reformirten  Machthaber  im  Veltlin  und  Um- 
gebung  ebensowenig  gntheissen,  denn  dieses  arge  Treiben  war  die  erste  und  letzte 
Ursache  der  verzweifelten  Selbsthiilfe."  But  Italian  Catholic  writers  (as  Cantii) 
call  it  sucro  macello,  a  sacred  slaughter! 


160  THE   SWISS   KEFORMATION. 

speakable  misery  upon  the  people.  France,  no  less  Catholic 
under  the  lead  of  Cardinal  Richelieu,  but  jealous  of  the 
house  of  Habsburg,  came  to  the  support  of  the  Protestants 
in  the  Grisons,  as  well  as  the  Swedes  in  the  north,  and 
sent  an  army  under  the  command  of  the  noble  Huguenot 
Duke  Henri  de  Rohan,  who  defeated  the  Austrians  and 
Spaniards,  and  conquered  the  Valtellina  (1635). 

The  Grisons  with  French  aid  recovered  the  Valtellina  by 
the  stipulation  of  Chiavenna,  1636,  which  guaranteed  to  the 
three  leagues  all  the  rights  of  sovereignty,  but  on  condition 
of  tolerating  no  other  religion  in  that  province  but  the  Roman 
Catholic.  Rohan,  who  had  the  best  intentions  for  the  Gri- 
sons, desired  to  save  Protestant  interests,  but  Catholic  France 
would  not  agree.    He  died  in  1638,  and  was  buried  at  Geneva. 

The  Valtellina  continued  to  be  governed  by  bailiffs  till 
1797.  It  is  now  a  part  of  the  kingdom  of  Italy,  and  enjoys 
the  religious  freedom  guaranteed  by  the  constitution  of  1848.^ 

In  this  wild  episode  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  a  Protestant 
preacher,  Colonel  Georg  Jenatsch,  plays  a  prominent  figure 
as  a  romantic  hero.  He  was  born  at  Samaden  in  the  Upper 
Engadin,  1590,  studied  for  the  Protestant  ministry  at  Ziirich, 
successively  served  the  congregations  at  Scharans  and  at 
Berbenno  in  the  Valtellina,  and  narrowly  escaped  the  massa- 
cre at  Sondrio  by  making  his  flight  through  dangerous  moun- 
tain passes.  He  was  an  eloquent  speaker,  an  ardent  patriot,  a 
shrewd  politician,  and  a  brave  soldier,  but  ambitious,  violent, 
unscrupulous,  extravagant,  and  unprincipled.  He  took  part 
in  the  cruel  decision  of  the  court  of  Thusis  (1618),  and 
killed  Pompeius  Planta  with  an  axe  (1621).  He  served  as 
guide  and  counsellor  of  the  Duke  de  Rohan,  and  by  his 
knowledge,  pluck,  and  energy,  materially  aided  him  in  the 

1  The  statuto  fondamentale  of  Sardinia,  wliich  in  1870  was  extended  over 
all  Italy,  declares  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  to  be  the  state  religion,  but 
grants  toleration  to  all  other  forms  of  worship.  The  Waldenses  have  recently 
established  preaching  stations  at  Chiavenna  and  other  places  of  Upper  Italy. 


§  40.  THE  CONGREGATION  OF  LOCARNO.       161 

defeat  of  Austria.  Being  disappointed  in  his  ambition,  he 
turned  traitor  to  France,  joined  the  Austrian  party  and  the 
Roman  Church  (1635),  but  educated  his  children  in  the 
Protestant  religion.  He  was  murdered  at  a  banquet  in  Coire 
(1639)  by  an  unknown  person  in  revenge  for  the  murder  of 
Pompeius  Planta.  He  is  buried  in  the  Catholic  church,  near 
the  bishop's  palace.  A  Capuchin  monk  delivered  the  funeral 
oration.! 

§  40.    The   Congregation  of  Locarno. 

Ferdinand  Meyer  :  Die  evangelische  Gemeinde  von  Locarno,  i/ire  Auswanderung 
nach  Zurich  unci  ihre  weiteren  Schicksale.  Zurich,  1836.  2  vols.  An  ex- 
haustive monograph  carefully  drawn  from  MS.  sources,  and  bearing  more 
particularly  on  the  Italian  congregation  at  Ziirich,  to  which  the  leading 
Protestant  families  of  Locarno  emigrated. 

Locarno,  a  beautiful  town  on  the  northern  end  of  the 
Lago  Maggiore,  was  subject  to  the  Swiss  Confederacy  and 
ruled  by  bailiffs.^  It  had  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth 
century  a  Protestant  congregation  of  nearly  two  hundred 
members.^  Chief  among  them  were  Beccaria,  Taddeo  Duno,, 
Lodovico  Ronco,  and  Martino  Muralto.  A  religious  disputa- 
tion was  held  there  in  1549,  about  the  authority  of  the  pope, 
the  merit  of  good  works,  justification,  auricular  confession, 
and  purgatory.*  It  ended  in  a  tumult.  Wirz,  the  presiding 
bailiff,  who  knew  neither  Latin  nor  Italian,  gave  a  decision 
in  favor  of  the  Roman  party.  Beccaria  refused  to  submit, 
escaped,  and  went  to  Ziirich,  where  he  was  kindly  received 

1  He  is  the  hero  of  a  drama  by  Arnold  von  Sails,  and  of  a  classical  novel 
by  the  Swiss  poet,  Conrad  Ferdinand  Meyer  {Jiirg  Jenatsch.  Leipzig.  3d  ed. 
1882).    A  full  biography  of  Jenatsch  by  Dr.  E.  Haffter  is  announced. 

-  It  originally  belonged  to  the  Duchy  of  Milan,  and  was  ceded  to  Switzer- 
liind  in  1512,  together  with  Lugano  and  Domo  d'Ossola.  In  1803  it  became, 
with  Lugano  and  BelJinzona,  one  of  the  three  capitals  of  the  Italian  canton 
Ticino.     In  1878  Bellinzona  was  declared  the  only  capital. 

3  Meyer  gives  a  complete  list  of  members  from  the  Archives  of  Ziirich, 
and  two  lists  of  those  who  emigrated  to  Ziirich,  vol.  I.  511-515  and  521-525. 

*  An  account  of  it  by  Duno  in  a  letter  to  BuUinger,  and  in  the  book  De 
persecutione.     See  Meyer,  I.  190  sqq. 


162  THE   SWISS   EEFORMATION. 

by  Bullinger.  He  became  afterwards  a  member  of  the  Synod 
of  Graubiinden,  and  was  sent  as  an  evangelist  to  Misocco, 
but  returned  to  Zurich. 

The  faithful  Protestants  of  Locarno,  who  preferred  emigra- 
tion to  submission,  wandered  with  wives  and  children  on 
foot  and  on  horseback  over  snow  and  ice  to  Graubiinden  and 
Ziirich,  in  1556.  Half  of  them  remained  in  the  Grisons, 
and  mingled  with  the  evangelical  congregations.  The  rest 
organized  an  Italian  congregation  in  Ziirich  under  the  foster- 
ing care  of  Bullinger.  It  was  served  for  a  short  time  by 
Vergerio,  who  came  from  Tiibingen  for  the  purpose,  and  then 
by  Bernardino  Ochino,  who  had  fled  from  England  to  Basel 
after  the  accession  of  Queen  Mary.  Ochino  was  a  brilliant 
genius  and  an  eloquent  preacher,  then  already  sixty-eight 
years  old,  but  gave  offence  by  his  Arian  and  other  heretical 
opinions,  and  was  required  to  leave  in  1563.  He  went  to 
Basel,  Strassburg,  Niirnberg,  Krakau ;  was  expelled  from 
Poland,  Aug.  6,  1564 ;  and  died  in  poverty  in  Moravia,  1565, 
a  victim  of  his  subtle  speculations  and  the  intolerance  of  his 
times.  He  wrote  an  Italian  catecliism  for  the  Locarno  con- 
gregation in  the  form  of  a  dialogue  (1561). 

The  most  important  accession  to  the  exiles  was  Pietro 
Martire  Vermigli,  who  had  likewise  fled  from  England,  first 
to  Strassburg  (1553),  then  to  Ziirich  (1555).  He  was  re- 
ceived as  a  member  into  the  council  of  the  Locarno  congre- 
gation, presented  with  the  citizenship  of  Ziirich,  and  elected 
professor  of  Hebrew  in  place  of  Conrad  Pellican  (who  died  in 
1556).  He  labored  there  till  his  death,  in  1562,  in  intimate 
friendship  and  harmony  with  Bullinger,  generally  esteemed 
and  beloved.  He  was  one  of  the  most  distinguished  and  use- 
ful Italian  converts",  and,  like  Zanchi,  an  orthodox  Calvinist. 

The  Italian  congregation  was  enlarged  by  new  fugitives 
from  Locarno  and  continued  to  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury. The  principal  families  of  Duno,  Muralto,  Orelli,  Pes- 
talozzi,  and  others  were    received   into    citizenship,   took   a 


§  41.     ZWINGLIANISM  IN   GERMANY.  163 

prominent  position  in  the  history  of  Ziirich,  and  promoted  its 
industry  and  prosperity,  like  the  exiled  Huguenots  in  Bran- 
denburg, Holland,  England,  and  North  America.^ 

§  41.    Zwinglianism  in  G-ermany. 

The  principles  of  the  Helvetic  Reformation  spread  also  to 
some  extent  in  Germany,  but  in  a  modified  form,  and  pre- 
pared the  way  for  the  mediating  (Melanchthonian)  character 
of  the  German  Reformed  Church.  Although  Luther  over- 
shadowed every  other  personality  in  Germany,  Zwingli  had 
also  his  friends  and  admirers,  especially  the  Landgrave, 
Philip  of  Hesse,  who  labored  very  zealously,  though  unsuc- 
cessfully, for  a  union  of  the  Lutherans  and  the  Reformed. 
Bucer  and  Capito  at  Strassburg,  Cellarius  at  Augsburg, 
Blaurer  at  Constance,  Hermann  at  Reutlingen,  and  Somius 
at  Ulm,  strongly  sympathized  with  the  genius  and  tendency 
of  the  Ziirich  Reformer.^  His  influence  was  especially  felt  in 
those  free  cities  of  Southern  Germany  where  the  democratic 
element  prevailed. 

Four  of  these  cities,  Strassburg,  Constance,  Memmingen, 
and  Lindau,  handed  to  the  Diet  of  Augsburg,  11th  July, 
1530,  a  special  confession  (^Confessio  Tetrapolitana)  drawn 
up  by  Bucer,  with  the  assistance  of  Hedio,  and  answered  by 
the  Roman  divines,  Faber,  Eck,  and  Cochlseus.  It  is  the  first 
symbolical  book  of  the  German  Reformed  Church  (Zwingli's 
writings  having  never  acquired  symbolical  authority),  but 
was  superseded  by  the  Heidelberg  Catechism  (1563)  and 
the  Second  Helvetic  Confession  (1566).  It  strikes  a  middle 
course  between  the  Augsburg  Confession  of  Melanchthon  and 
the  private  Confession  sent  in  by  Zwingli  during  the  same 
Diet,  and  anticipates  Calvin's  view  on  the  Lord's  Supper  by 
teaching  a  real  fruition  of  the  true  body  and  blood  of  Christ, 

1  On  the  industry  of  the  Italians  in  Ziirich,  see  Meyer,  II.  375-391. 

2  See  the  correspondence  of  Zwingli,  in  his  Opera,  vols.  VII.  and  VIII, 


164  THE   SWISS   KEFOKMATION. 

not  through  the  mouth,  but  through  faith,  for  the  nourish- 
ment of  the  soul  into  eternal  life.^ 

The  Zwinglian  Reformation  was  checked  and  almost 
destroyed  in  Germany  by  the  combined  opposition  of  Roman- 
ism and  Lutheranism.  The  four  cities  could  not  maintain 
their  isolated  position,  and  signed  the  Augsburg  Confession 
for  political  reasons,  to  join  the  Smalcaldian  League.  The 
Reformed  Church  took  a  new  start  in  the  Palatinate  under 
the- combined  influence  of  Zwingli,  Melanchthon,  and  Calvin 
(1563),  gained  strength  by  the  accession  of  the  reigning 
dynasty  of  Prussia  (since  1614),  and  was  ultimately  admit- 
ted to  equal  rights  with  the  Roman  Catholic  and  Lutheran 
Churches  in  the  German  Empire  by  the  Treaty  of  Westpha- 
lia (1648). 

1  See  VI.  718-721. 


CHAPTER   V. 

THE   CIVIL   WAR   BETWEEN   THE   ROMAN   CATHOLIC 
AND   REFORMED   CANTONS. 

See  the  works  of  Escher,  Oechsli,  and  Fenner,  quoted  on  p.  19 ;  Moriko- 
FER,  ZwingJi,  II.  346-452 ;  and  Bluntschli,  Geschichte  des  schweizerischen 
Bundesrecbtes  von  den  ewigen  Bunden  bis  auf  die  Gegenwart.  Stuttgart. 
2d  ed.  1875,  2  vols. 

§  42.    The  First  War  of  Cappel.     1529. 

The  year  1530  marks  the  height  of  the  Zwinglian  Refor- 
mation. It  was  firmly  established  in  the  leading  cities  and 
cantons  of  Ziirich,  Bern,  and  Basel.  It  had  gained  a  strong 
majority  of  the  people  in  Northern  and  Eastern  Switzerland, 
and  in  the  Grisons.  It  had  fair  prospects  of  ultimate  success 
in  the  whole  confederacy,  when  its  further  progress  was  sud- 
denly arrested  b}^  the  catastrophe  of  Cappel  and  the  death  of 
Zwingli. 

The  two  parties  had  no  conception  of  toleration  (except  in 
Glarus  and  the  Grisons),  but  aimed  at  supremacy  and  ex- 
cluded each  other  wherever  they  had  the  power.  They 
came  into  open  conflict  in  the  common  territories  or  free 
bailiwicks,  by  the  forcible  attempts  made  there  to  introduce 
the  new  religion,  or  to  prevent  its  introduction.  The  Prot- 
estants, under  the  lead  of  Zwingli,  were  the  aggressors,  espe- 
cially in  the  confiscation  of  the  rich  abbey  of  St.  Gall.  They 
had  in  their  favor  the  right  of  progress  and  the  majority  of 
the  population.  But  the  Roman  Catholics  had  on  their  side 
the  tradition  of  the  past,  the  letter  of  the  law,  and  a  majority 
of  Cantons  and  of  votes  in  the  Diet,  in  which  the  people 
were  not  directly  represented.  They  strictly  prohibited 
Protestant  preaching  within  their  own  jurisdiction,  and  even 

165 


166  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

began  bloody  persecution.  Jacob  Kaiser  (or  Schlosser),  a 
Ziirich  minister,  was  seized  on  a  preaching  expedition,  and 
publicly  burnt  at  the  stake  in  the  town  of  Schwyz  (May, 
1529) .1  His  martyrdom  was  the  signal  of  war.  The  Prot- 
estants feared,  not  without  good  reason,  that  this  case  was 
the  beginning  of  a  general  persecution. 

With  the  religious  question  was  closely  connected  the 
political  and  social  question  of  the  foreign  military  service,^ 
which  Zwingli  consistently  opposed  in  the  interest  of  patriot- 
ism, and  which  the  Roman  Catholics  defended  in  the  interest 
of  wealth  and  fame.  This  was  a  very  serious  matter,  as  may 
be  estimated  from  the  fact  that,  according  to  a  statement  of 
the  French  ambassador,  his  king  had  sent,  from  1512  to  1581, 
no  less  than  1,133,547  gold  crowns  to  Switzerland,  a  sum 
equal  to  four  times  the  amount  at  present  valuation.  The 
pensions  were  the  Judas  price  paid  by  foreign  sovereigns  to 
influential  Swiss  for  treason  to  their  country.  In  his  oppo- 
sition to  this  abuse,  Zwingli  was  undoubtedly  right,  and  his 
view  ultimately  succeeded,  though  long  after  his  death.^ 

Both  parties  organized  for  war,  which  broke  out  in  1529, 
and  ended  in  a  disastrous  defeat  of  the  Protestants  in  1581. 
Sixteen  years  later,  the  Lutheran  princes  suffered  a  similar 
defeat  in  the  Smalcaldian  War  against  the  Emperor  (1547). 
The  five  Forest  Cantons  —  Uri,  Schwyz,  Unterw^alden,  Luzern, 
and  Zug  —  formed  a  defensive  and  offensive  league  (Novem- 
ber, 1528 ;  the  preparations  began  in  1527),  and  even  entered, 
first  secretly,  then  openly,  into  an  alliance  with  Ferdinand 
Duke  of  Austria  and  King  of  Bohemia  and  Hungary  (April, 
1529).  This  alliance  with  the  old  hereditary  enemy  of 
Switzerland,  whom  their  ancestors  had  defeated  in  glorious 


1  For  the  particulars  of  this  case  see  Morikofer,  II.  146  sqq.,  and  Chris- 
toffel,  I.  376  sq. 

-  The  Beislaufen,  or  running  to  war;  reisig,  in  old  German,  means  ready 
for  war  (kriegsrustig) . 

3  Cliristoffel,  I.  382.     Comp.  §  7,  p.  24. 


§  42.     THE   FIEST   AVAR    OF   CAPPEL.  167 

battles,  was  treasonable  and  a  step  towards  the  split  of  the 
confederacy  in  two  hostile  camps  (which  was  repeated  in 
1846).  King  Ferdinand  had  a  political  and  religious  interest 
in  the  division  of  Switzerland  and  fostered  it.  Freibnro-, 
Wallis,  and  Solothurn  sided  with  the  Catholic  Cantons,  and 
promised  aid  in  case  of  war.  The  Protestant  Cantons,  led  by 
Ziirich  (which  made  the  first  step  in  this  direction)  formed 
a  Protestant  league  under  the  name  of  the  Christian  co-burp-h- 
ery  {BurgrecM)  with  the  cities  of  Constance  (Dec.  25, 
1527),  Biel  and  Miihlhausen  (1529),  and  Strassburg  (Jan.  9, 
1530).! 

Zwingli,  provoked  by  the  burning  of  Kaiser,  and  seeing 
the  war  clouds  gathering  all  around,  favored  prompt  action, 
which  usually  secures  a  great  advantage  in  critical  moments. 
He  believed  in  the  necessity  of  war ;  while  Luther  put  his 
sole  trust  in  the  Word  of  God,  although  he  stirred  up  the 
passions  of  war  by  his  writings,  and  had  himself  the  martyr's 
courage  to  go  to  the  stake.  Zwingli  was  a  free  republican ; 
while  Luther  was  a  loyal  monarchist.  He  belonged  to  the 
Cromwellian  type  of  men  who  "  trust  in  God  and  keep  their 
powder  dry."  In  him  the  reformer,  the  statesman,  and  the 
patriot  were  one.  He  appealed  to  the  examples  of  Joshua 
and  Gideon,  forgetting  the  difference  between  the  Old  and 
the  New  dispensation.  "  Let  us  be  firm,"  he  wrote  to  his 
peace-loving  friends  in  Bern  (May  30,  1529),  "and  fear  not 
to  take  up  arms.  This  peace,  which  some  desire  so  much,  is 
not  peace,  but  war ;  while  the  war  that  we  call  for,  is  not 
war,  but  peace.  We  thirst  for  no  man's  blood,  but  we  will 
cut  the  nerves  of  the  oligarchy.  If  we  shun  it,  the  truth  of 
the  gospel  and  the  ministers'  lives  will  never  be  secure 
among  us."  ^ 

'  The  documents  of  these  leagues  are  given  by  Bullinger,  Hettinger,  and 
by  Bluntschli,  I.e.  I.  303-305,  318  sq. ;  II.  238-255. 

'^  "  Quod  hactenus  ad  vos  scrips),  iteriim  atque  iterum  facio,  ut  constantes  sitis, 
neqite  helium  metuatis.  Nam  ista  pax,  qnam  quidam  tantopere  urgent,  helium  est, 
non  pax;    et  helium,  cui  nos  instainus,  pax  est,  non  helium.      Non   enim   sitimus 


168  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

Ziirich  was  first  ready  for  the  conflict  and  sent  four  thou- 
sand well-equipped  soldiers  to  Cappel,  a  village  with  a  Cister- 
cian convent,  in  the  territory  of  Ziirich  on  the  frontier  of  the 
Canton  Zug.^  Smaller  detachments  were  located  at  Brem- 
garten,  and  on  the  frontier  of  Schwyz,  Basel,  St.  Gall. 
Miihlhausen  furnished  auxiliary  troops.  Bern  sent  five 
thousand  men,  but  with  orders  to  act  only  in  self-defence. 

Zwingli  accompanied  the  main  force  to  Cappel.  "When 
my  brethren  expose  their  lives,"  he  said  to  the  burgomaster, 
who  wished  to  keep  him  back,  "  I  will  not  remain  quiet  at 
home.  The  army  requires  a  watchful  eye."  He  put  the 
halberd  which  he  had  worn  as  chaplain  at  Mari'gnano,  over 
his  shoulder,  and  mounted  his  horse,  ready  to  conquer  or  to 
die  for  God  and  the  fatherland.^ 

He  prepared  excellent  instructions  for  the  soldiers,  and  a 
plan  of  a  campaign  that  should  be  short,  sharp,  decisive,  and, 
if  possible,  unbloody. 

Ziirich  declared  war  June  9,  1529.  But  before  the  forces 
crossed  the  frontier  of  the  Forest  Cantons,  Landammann 
Aebli  of  Glarus,  where  the  Catholics  and  Protestants  wor- 

cujusquam  sanguinem,  neque  etiam  per  tumultum  hauriemus,  sed  in  hoc  sumus,  ut 
oligarchic^  nervi  succidantiir.  Id  nisi  fiat,  neque  Evangelii  Veritas,  neque  illius 
ministri  apud  nos  in  tuto  erunt.  Nihil  crudele  cogitamus :  sed  quicquid  agimus, 
amicum  et  paternum  est."     Opera,  VIII.  294. 

1  Cappel  has  become  famous  by  the  battle  of  1531  and  the  death  of  Zwin- 
gli. It  lies  six  miles  from  the  town  of  Zug.  The  battle-field  and  the  monu- 
ment of  Zwingli  are  about  ten  minutes'  walk  from  Cappel.  The  old  church 
is  well  preserved,  and  has  recently  been  repaired.  See  Annales  Ccenobii  Capel- 
loni  per  H.  Bullingerum  et  P.  Simlerum,  in  Simler's  (printed)  Sammlung  alter 
und  neuer  Urkunden  (Ziirich,  1760),  II.  397;  and  Pestalozzi's  BuUinger,  p.  20. 

2  It  is  stated  by  Bullinger,  and  usually  supposed,  that  he  only  went  in  the 
capacity  of  chaplain,  like  Konrad  Schmid  and  Franz  Zingg,  who  likewise 
preached  in  the  army.  The  armor  seems  to  indicate  the  warrior,  as  Hagen- 
bach  thinks  (p.  405),  but  not  necessarily.  There  is  no  evidence  that  Zwingli 
actually  fought  in  any  battle.  A.  Baur  (Zwingli's  Theologie,  II.  759)  says  that 
he  went  to  war  simply  as  patriot  and  chaplain,  not  as  politician  and  captain. 
It  is  difficult,  however,  to  separate  these  characters  in  him.  The  weapons  of 
Zwingli  —  a  harness,  a  helmet,  and  a  sword  —  were  kept  in  the  arsenal  at 
Luzern  till  1848  in  the  Sonderbundskrieg,  when  they  were  carried  to  Ziirich. 


§  42.    THE   FIRST    WAR    OF    CAPPEL.  169 

ship  in  one  church,  appeared  from  a  visit  to  the  hostile  army 
as  peacemaker,  and  prevented  a  bloody  collision.  He  was  a 
friend  of  Zwingli,  an  enemy  of  the  mercenary  service,  and 
generally  esteemed  as  a  true  patriot.  With  tears  in  his  eyes, 
says  BuUinger,  he  entreated  the  Ziirichers  to  put  off  the 
attack  even  for  a  few  hours,  in  the  hope  of  bringing  about 
an  honorable  peace.  "  Dear  lords  of  Ziirich,  for  God's  sake, 
prevent  the  division  and  destruction  of  the  confederacy." 
Zwingli  opposed  him,  and  said :  "  My  dear  friend,^  you  will 
answer  to  God  for  this  counsel.  As  long  as  the  enemies  are 
in  our  power,  they  use  good  words ;  but  as  soon  as  they  are 
well  prepared,  they  will  not  spare  us."  He  foresaw  what 
actually  happened  after  his  death.  Aebli  replied :  "  I  trust 
in  God  that  all  will  go  well.  Let  each  of  us  do  his  best." 
And  he  departed. 

Zwingli  himself  was  not  unwilling  to  make  peace,  but 
Only  on  four  conditions  which  he  sent  a  day  after  Aebli's 
appeal,  in  a  memorandum  to  the  Council  of  Ziirich  (June 
11) :  1)  That  the  Word  of  God  be  preached  freely  in  the 
entire  confederacy,  but  that  no  one  be  forced  to  abolish 
the  mass,  the  images,  and  other  ceremonies  which  will  fall 
of  themselves  under  the  influence  of  scriptural  preaching; 
2)  that  all  foreign  military  pensions  be  abolished;  3)  that  the 
originators  and  the  dispensers  of  foreign  pensions  be  pun- 
ished while  the  armies  are  still  in  the  field ;  4)  that  the 
Forest  Cantons  pay  the  cost  of  war  preparations,  and  that 
Schwyz  pay  one  thousand  guilders  for  the  support  of  the 
orphans  of  Kaiser  (Schlosser)  who  had  recently  been  burnt 
there  as  a  heretic. 

An  admirable  discipline  prevailed  in  the  camp  of  Ziirich, 
that  reminds  one  of  the  Puritan  army  of  Cromwell.  Zwin- 
gli or  one  of   his  colleagues  preached  daily ;  prayers  were 

^  They  addressed  each  other  "  Gevatter,"  ^'gossip,"  which  denotes  a  baptis- 
mal relationship.  When  Zwingli  was  pastor  at  Glarus,  he  stood  sponsor  to 
Aebli's  children  in  baptism. 


170  THE    SWISS   REFORMATION. 

offered  before  each  meal ;  psalms,  hymns,  and  national  songs 
resounded  in  the  tents ;  no  oath  was  heard ;  gambling  and 
swearing  were  prohibited,  and  disreputable  women  excluded ; 
the  only  exercises  were  wrestling,  casting  stones,  and  military 
diill.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  if  the  Ziirichers  had 
made  a  timely  attack  upon  the  Catholics  and  carried  out  the 
plan  of  Zwingli,  they  would  have  gained  a  complete  victory 
and  dictated  the  terms  of  peace.  How  long  the  peace  would 
have  lasted  is  a  different  question ;  for  behind  the  Forest 
Cantons  stood  Austria,  which  might  at  any  time  have  changed 
the  situation. 

But  counsels  of  peace  prevailed.  Bern  was  opposed  to  the 
offensive,  and  declared  that  if  the  Ziirichers  began  the  attack, 
they  should  be  left  to  finish  it  alone.  The  Ziirichers  them- 
selves were  divided,  and  their  military  leaders  (Berger  and 
Escher)  inclined  to  peace. 

The  Catholics,  being  assured  that  they  need  not  fear  ah 
attack  from  Bern,  mustered  courage  and  were  enforced  by 
troops  from  Wallis  and  the  Italian  bailiwicks.  They  now 
numbered  nearly  twelve  thousand  armed  men. 

The  hostile  armies  faced  each  other  from  Cappel  and  Baar, 
but  hesitated  to  advance.  Catholic  guards  would  cross  over 
the  border  to  be  taken  prisoners  by  the  Ziirichers,  who  had 
an  abundance  of  provision,  and  sent  them  back  well  fed  and 
clothed.  Or  they  would  place  a  large  bucket  of  milk  on  the 
border  line  and  asked  the  Ziirichers  for  bread,  who  supplied 
them  richl}^ ;  whereupon  both  parties  peacefully  enjoyed  a 
common  meal,  and  when  one  took  a  morsel  on  the  enemy's 
side,  he  was  reminded  not  to  cross  the  frontier.  The  soldiers 
remembered  that  they  were  Swiss  confederates,  and  that  many 
of  them  had  fought  side  by  side  on  foreign  battle-fields.^  "  We 
shall  not  fight,"  they  said ;  "  and  pray  God  that  the  storm 
may  pass  away  without  doing  us  any  harm."     Jacob  Sturm, 

^  Similar  episodes  of  kindl}'  intercourse  occurred  between  the  Confederate 
and  Union  soldiers  during  the  civil  war  in  the  United  States. 


§  43.  THE  FIRST  PEACE  OF  CAPPEL.        171 

the  burgomaster  of  Strassburg,  who  was  present  as  a  medi- 
ator, was  struck  with  the  manifestation  of  personal  harmony 
and  friendship  in  the  midst  of  organized  hostility.  "  You 
are  a  singular  people,"  he  said ;  "  though  disunited,  you  are 
united."  • 

§  43.    The  First  Peace  of  Cappel.     June,  1529. 

After  several  negotiations,  a  treaty  of  Peace  was  con- 
cluded June  25,  1529,  between  ZUrich,  Bern,  Basel,  St.  Gall, 
and  the  cities  of  Miihlhausen  and  Biel  on  the  one  hand,  and 
the  five  Catholic  Cantons  on  the  other.  The  deputies  of 
Glarus,  Solothurn,  Schaffliausen,  Appenzell,  Graubiinden, 
Sargans,  Strassburg,  and  Constanz  acted  as  mediators. 

The  treaty  was  not  all  that  Zwingli  desired,  especially  as 
regards  the  abolition  of  the  pensions  and  the  punishment  of 
the  dispensers  of  pensions  (wherein  he  was  not  supported  by 
Bern),  but  upon  the  whole  it  was  favorable  to  the  cause  of 
the  Reformation. 

The  first  and  most  important  of  the  Eighteen  Articles  of 
the  treaty  recognizes,  for  the  first  time  in  Europe,  the  prin- 
ciple of  parity  or  legal  equality  of  the  Roman  Catholic  and 
Protestant  Churches,  —  a  principle  which  twenty-six  years 
afterwards  was  recognized  also  in  Germany  (by  the  Augs- 
hurger  Religionsfriede  of  1555),  but  which  was  not  finally 
settled  there  till  after  the  bloody  baptism  of  the  Thirty  Years' 
War,  in  the  Treaty  of  Westphalia  (1648),  against  which  the 
Pope  of  Rome  still  protests  in  vain.  That  article  guarantees 
to  the  Reformed  and  Roman  Catholic  Cantons  religious  free- 
dom in  the  form  of  mutual  toleration,  and  to  the  common 
bailiwicks  the  right  to  decide  by  majority  the  question  whether 
they  would  remain  Catholics  or  become  Protestants.^     The 

^  The  Swiss  German  text  of  the  first  Article  of  the  first  Landsfriede  of 
Cappel  is  as  follows  (Bluntschll,  II.  257)  :  "  Des  ersten  von  ivagen  des  Gottlichen 
icorts,  dieivyl  und  niemun  zum  glouhen  bezwungen  sol  werden,  das  dann  die  ^funff 
art  und  die  iren,  des  selben  ouch  nitt  genutiget.  Aber  die  zugewandten  und  vogthien, 
ivo  man  mitt  einandern  zii  beherschen  hat,  belangend,  wo  die  selben  die  mess  ahge- 


172  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

treaty  also  provided  for  the  payment  of  the  expenses  of  the 
war  by  the  five  cantons,  and  for  an  indemnity  to  tlie  family  of 
the  martyred  Kaiser.  The  abolition  of  the  foreign  pensions 
was  not  demanded,  but  recommended  to  the  Roman  Catholic 
Cantons.  The*alliance  with  Austria  was  broken.  The  doc- 
ument which  contained  the  treasonable  treaty  was  cut  to 
pieces  by  Aebli  in  the  presence  of  Zwingli  and  the  army  of 
Ziirich.^ 

The  Catholics  returned  to  their  homes  discontented.  The 
Ziirichers  had  reason  to  be  thankful ;  still  more  the  Berners, 
who  had  triumphed  with  their  policy  of  moderation. 

Zwingli  wavered  between  hopes  and  fears  for  the  future, 
but  his  trust  was  in  God.  He  wrote  (June  30)  to  Conrad 
Som,  minister  at  Ulm:  "We  have  brought  peace  with  us, 
which  for  us,  I  hope,  is  quite  honorable ;  for  we  did  not  go 

stellt  und  die  h'dder  verhrdnt  oder  abgetlian,  das  die  selben  an  lib  eer  und  gilt,  nitt 
gestraajl  sollind  werden.  Wo  aber  die  mess  und  under  ceremonien  noch  vorhandeu, 
die  sollend  nitt  gezwungen,  ouch  inen  keine  predicanten,  so  es  nitt  durch  den  meer- 
theijl  erkendt  loirt,  geschickt,  nffgestellt  oder  gegdben  werden,  sunder  was  under 
inen  den  kjjJchgenossen  die  uff  oder  abzuthUnd,  dessgltjchen  milt  der  Sj>i/s,  die 
Gott  nitt  verbotten  zii  essen,  gemeret  wird,  dabg  sol  es  biss  uff  der  kylchgenossen 
gefallen  blgben :  und  dhein  teijl  dem  andern  sinen  glouben,  weder  smehen  noch 
strnafen." 

Bluntschli  (a  great  authority  in  Swiss  as  well  as  international  law)  thus 
explains  this  article  (I.  324):  "In  ihm  ist  bei-eits  das  Princip  der  ParitUt, 
d.  h.  der  staatlichen  Gleichberechtigung,  beider  christlichen  Gonfessionen  enthaJten. 
Es  ist  anerkannt,  dass  kein  Ort  \^Canton'\  den  andern,  dass  auch  die  Eidgenossen- 
schaft  nicht  einzelne  Orte  zur  Beibehaltung  oder  zur  Abdnderung  ihres  christlichen 
Glaubens  zwingen  dilrfe.  Die  katholischen  Stdnde  verzichteten  somit  hierin  den 
reformirten  gegenuber  ausdriicklich  auf  die  Festhaltung  des  alten  Rechtes  des  Mittel- 
alters,  wornach  jede  energische  Abweichung  von  dem  katholischen  Glauben  als  ein 
Verbrechen  behandelt  und  der  Krieg  gegen  die  Ketzer  als  PJlicht  angesehen  ward. 
Sie  erkannten  das  Princip  der  Glaubensfreiheit,  welches  von  den  Reformirten  zuerst 
verkilndigt  ivorden  war,  nun  den  Reformirten  Orten  gegenuber  an,  nahmen  es  aber 
gleichzeitig  auch  fur  sich  selber  in  Anspruch.  Und  hinwieder  gestanden  die  Refor- 
mirten Stdnde  die  Folgerichtigkeit  dieses  Schlusses  zu,  und  verzichteten  darauf,  die 
Orte  zur  Annahme  der  Reformation  zu  nothigen."  Comp.  the  treaty  of  Ilanz,  p.  139. 

1  The  treaty  of  peace  is  given  by  Bullinger,  II.  185  sqq.  and  212 ;  by 
Escher  and  Hottinger,  in  the  "Archiv  fiir  schweizerische  Geschichte  und 
Landeskunde,"  Zurich,  1827,  vol.  I.;  and  by  Bluntschli,  I.e.  II.  255-2(59 
(comp.  I.  323-331). 


§  43.     THE    FIRST    PEACE    OF    CAPPEL.  173 

forth  to  shed  bloocl.^  We  have  sent  back  our  foes  with  a 
wet  blanket.  Then-  compact  with  Austria  was  cut  to  pieces 
before  mine  eyes  in  the  camp  by  the  Landammann  of  Glarus, 
June  26,  at  11  a.m.  .  .  .  God  has  shown  again  to  the 
mighty  ones  that  they  cannot  prevail  against  him,  and  that 
we  may  gain  victory  without  a  stroke  if  we  hold  to  him."  ^ 

He  gave  vent  to  his  conflicting  feelings  in  a  poem  which 
he  composed  in  the  camp  (during  the  peace  negotiations), 
together  with  the  music,  and  which  became  almost  as  popu- 
lar in  Switzerland  as  Luther's  contemporaneous,  but  more 
powerful  and  more  famous  "  Ein  feste  Burg,'^  is  to  this  day 
in  Germany.     It  breathes  the  same  spirit  of  trust  in  God.^ 

"Do  thou  direct  thy  chariot,  Lord, 

And  guide  it  at  thy  will ; 
Without  thy  aid  our  strength  is  vain, 

And  useless  all  our  skill. 
Look  down  upon  thy  saints  brought  low. 
And  grant  them  victory  o'er  the  foe. 

"Beloved  Pastor,  who  hast  sijved 

Our  souls  from  death  and  sin, 
Uplift  thy  voice,  awake  thy  sheep 

That  slumbering  lie  within 
Thy  fold,  and  curb  with  thy  right  hand 
The  rage  of  Satan's  furious  band. 

"  Send  down  thy  peace,  and  banish  strife, 

Let  bitterness  depart ; 
Revive  the  spirit  of  the  past 

In  every  Switzer's  heart : 
Then  shall  thy  church  forever  sing 
The  praises  of  her  heavenly  King."* 

1  "  Denn  ivir  uff  hlutverglessen  nit  uszogen." 

2  Opera,  VIII.  310  sq. 

3  Bullinger  reports :  "  Dieses  Lied  wurde  hernach  weit  und  breit,  auch  aii  der 
Fursten  Hofen  und  in  den  Stddten  von  Mnsicis  gesimgen  und  geblasen."  On  the 
other  poems  of  Zwingli,  see  above,  p.  44  sq. 

•*  This  is  a  free  version  of  H.  White  (from  Merle  D'Aubigne'),  with  some 
necessary  changes.  The  original,  in  the  Swiss  German,  was  sung  at  the 
Zwingli  festivals  in  1884,  and,  with  great  effect,  at  the  unveiling  of  the  Zwin- 
gli statue  in  Ziirich,  August,  1885.     It  is  as  follows  :  — 


174  THE   SAVISS    REFORMATION. 

§  44.    Between  the  Wars.     Political  Plains  of  Zivingli. 

The  effect  of  the  first  Peace  of  Cappel  was  favorable  to  the 
cause  of  the  Reformation.  It  had  now  full  legal  recognition, 
and  made  progress  in  the  Cantons  and  in  the  common  terri- 
tories. But  the  peace  did  not  last  long.  The  progress 
emboldened  the  Protestants,  and  embittered  the  Catholics. 

The  last  two  years  of  Zwingli  were  full  of  anxiety,  but 
also  full  of  important  labors.  He  contemplated  a  political 
reconstruction  of  Switzerland,  and  a  vast  European  league 
for  the  protection  and  promotion  of  Protestant  interests. 

He  attended  the  theological  Colloquy  at  Marburg  (Sept. 
29  to  Oct.  3,  1529)  in  the  hope  of  bringing  about  a  union 
with  the  German  Lutherans  against  the  common  foe  at  Rome. 
But  Luther  refused  his  hand  of  fellowship,  and  would  not 
tolerate  a  theory  of  the  Lord's  Supper  which  he  regarded  as 
a  dangerous  heresy.^ 

While  at  Marburg,  Zwingli  made  the  personal  acquaintance 
of  the  Landgraf,  Philip  of  Hesse,  and  the  fugitive  Duke 
Ulrich  of  Wiirtemberg,  who  admired  him,  and  sympathized 
with  his  theology  as  far  as  they  understood  it,  but  cared  still 
more  for  their  personal  and  political  interests.  He  conceived 
with  them  the  bold  idea  of  a  politico-ecclesiastical  alliance  of 
Protestant  states  and  cities  for  the  protection  of  religious 
liberty  against  the  combined  forces  of  the  papac}^  and  the 
empire  which  threatened  that  liberty.  Charles  V.  had  made 
peace  with  Clement  VIL,  June  29,  1529,  and  crossed  the 

"  Herr ,  nun  heb  den  Wagen  aeW .'  Wiedrum  eriveck, 

Schelb  [schiefl  wird  stist  [sonst]  Die  dich 

All  wiser  Fahrt.  Lieb  haben  inniglich  ! 
Das  brdcht  Lust 

Der  Widerpart,  Hilf,  dass  alle  Bitterkeit 

Die  dich  Scfieide  feer  [fern], 

Veracht  so  freventlich.  Und  alte  Treu 

Wiederkeer 

Gott,  erhoch  den  Namen  dyn  Unde  werde  neu  : 

In  der  Straf  Dass  wir 

Der  bosen  Bock  !  Eioig  lobsingen  Dir." 
Dyne  Schaaf 

1  See  vol.  VI.  629-653. 


§  44.    BETWEEN   THE    WARS.  175 

Alps  in  May,  1530,  on  his  way  to  the  Diet  of  Augsburg, 
offering  to  the  Protestants  bread  witli  one  hand,  but  conceal- 
ing a  stone  in  the  other.  Zwingli  carried  on  a  secret  corre- 
spondence with  Philip  of  Hesse  from  April  22,  1529,  till 
Sept.  10,  1531.1  jjg  g^^y  jj^  ^Yie  Roman  empire  the  natural 
ally  of  the  Roman  papacy,  and  would  not  have  lamented  its 
overthrow.2  Being  a  republican  Swiss,  he  did  not  share  in 
the  loyal  reverence  of  the  monarchical  Germans  for  their 
emperor.  But  all  he  could  reasonably  aim  at  was  to  curb 
the  dangerous  power  of  the  emperor  by  strengthening  the 
Protestant  alliance.     Further  he  did  not  go.^ 

He  tried  to  draw  into  this  alliance  the  republic  of  Venice 
and  the  kingdom  of  France,  but  failed.  These  powers  were 
jealous  of  the  grasping  ambition  of  the  house  of  Habsburg, 
but  had  no  sympathy  with  evangelical  reform.  Francis  I. 
was  persecuting  the  Protestants  at  that  very  time  in  his  own 
country. 

It  is  dangerous  to  involve  religion  in  entangling  political 
alliances.  Christ  and  the  Apostles  kept  aloof  from  secular 
complications,  and  confined  themselves  to  preaching  the  ethics 
of  politics.  Zwingli,  with  the  best  intentions,  overstepped 
the  line  of  his  proper  calling,  and  was  doomed  to  bitter  dis- 
appointment. Even  Philip  of  Hesse,  who  pushed  him  into 
this  net,  grew  cool,  and  joined  the  Lutheran  League  of 
Smalcald  (1530),  which  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
Protestants  of  Switzerland. 

1  See  vol.  VI.  633  sq.,  and  Max  Lenz,  Zwinqli  und  Landgraf  Philipp, — 
three  articles  in  Brieger's  "  Zeitschrif  t  f  iir  Kirchengesehichte,"  1879. 

2  "  Quid  Germanics  cum  Roma  ?  "  he  wrote  to  Conrad  Som  of  Ulm  in  1529 
{Opera,  VIII.  388).     He  reminded  him  of  the  German  verse:  — 

"  Papstthum  und  Kaiserthum 
Die  sind  beide  von  Bom." 

3  "  Von  irgend  einem  Anschlag  gegen  den  Kaiser,"  says  Morikofer,  II.  299, 
"  war  auch  gar  nie  und  von  keiner  Seite  die  Rede."  Janssen,  Geschichte  des 
deutschen  Volkes,  III.  218  sq.,  unjustly  charges  Zwingli  and  Zurich  with 
preaching  open  rebellion  against  the  emperor,  and  attempting  to  replace  him 
by  the  ambitious  Landgraf  of  Hesse. 


176  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

§  45.    ZwingKs  Last   Theological  Labors.      His   Confessions 

of  Faith. 

During  these  fruitless  political  negotiations  Zwingli  never 
lost  sight  of  his  spiritual  vocation.  He  preached  and  wrote 
incessantly ;  he  helped  the  reform  movement  in  every  direc- 
tion ;  he  attended  synods  at  Frauenfeld  (May,  1530),  at  St. 
Gall  (December,  1530),  and  Toggenburg  (April,  1531) ;  he 
promoted  the  organization  and  discipline  of  the  Reformed 
churches,  and  developed  great  activity  as  an  author.  Some 
of  his  most  important  theological  works  —  a  commentary  on 
the  prophecies  of  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah,  his  treatise  on  Divine 
Providence,  and  two  Confessions  of  Faith  —  belong  to  the 
last  two  years  of  his  life. 

He  embraced  the  opportunity  offered  by  the  Diet  of  Augs- 
burg to  send  a  printed  Confession  of  Faith  to  Charles  V., 
July  8,  1530.1  But  it  was  treated  with  contempt,  and  not 
even  laid  before  the  Diet.  Dr.  Eck  wrote  a  hasty  reply,  and 
denounced  Zwingli  as  a  man  who  did  his  best  to  destroy 
religion  in  Switzerland,  and  to  incite  the  people  to  rebellion.^ 
The  Lutherans  were  anxious  to  conciliate  the  emperor,  and 
repudiated  all  contact  with  ZAvinglians  and  Anabaptists.^ 

A  few  months  before  his  death  (July,  1531)  he  wrote,  at 
the  request  of  his  friend  Maigret,  the  French  ambassador  at 
Zurich,  a  similar  Confession  addressed  to  King  Francis  I.,  to 
whom  he  had  previously  dedicated  his  "  Commentary  on  the 
True  and  False  Religion  "  (1524).^     In  this  Confession  he 

1  Batio  Fidei,  etc.,  printed  in  Opera,  vol.  IV.  3-18,  and  in  Nieraeyer's  Col- 
lectio  Confessionum  (1840),  pp.  10-35.  For  an  analysis  see  Schaff,  Ch.  Hist., 
vol.  VI.  721-723,  and  A.  Baur,  Zwingli's  TheoJogie,  II.  (543  sqq. 

2  Zwingli  sent  an  answer  to  the  German  princes  assembled  at  Augsburg, 
dated  Aug.  27,  1530.      Opera,  IV.  19^1. 

3  The  Anabaptists  are  condemned  (damnant)  in  Art.  IX.,  the  Zwinglians 
are  disapproved  (improbant)  in  Art.  X.,  of  the  Augsburg  Confession.  See 
Melanchthon's  Judicium  de  Zwinglii  doctrina,  written  at  Augsburg,  July  25, 
1530,  in  "  Corpus  Reform,"  II.  222  sq. 

*  Christ ia/ice.  Fidei  brevis  et  clara  Expositio,  in  Zwingli's  Opera,  vol.  IV.  42- 
78,  and  in  Niemeyer's  Collectio,  pp.  36-77.  For  a  summary,  see  Schaff,  Creeds 
of  Christendom,  I.  368  sq.,  and  Baur,  I.e.  II.  754-776. 


§  45.    ZWINGLfs   LAST   THEOLOGICAL   LABORS.         177 

discusses  some  of  the  chief  points  of  controversy,  —  God  and 
his  Worship,  the  Person  of  Christ,  Purgatory,  the  Real 
Presence,  the  Virtue  of  the  Sacraments,  the  Civil  Power, 
Remission  of  Sin,  Faith  and  Good  Works,  Eternal  Life,  —  and 
added  an  Appendix  on  the  Eucharist  and  the  Mass.  He 
explains  apologetically  and  polemically  his  doctrinal  position 
in  distinction  from  the  Romanists,  Lutherans,  and  Anabaptists. 
He  begins  with  God  as  the  ultimate  ground  of  faith  and 
only  object  of  worship,  and  closes  with  an  exhortation  to  the 
king,  to  give  the  gospel  free  course  in  his  kingdom.  In  the 
section  on  Eternal  Life  he  expresses  more  strongly  than  ever 
his  confident  hope  of  meeting  in  heaven  not  only  the  saints 
of  the  Old  and  the  New  Dispensation  from  Adam  down  to 
the  Apostles,  but  also  the  good  and  true  and  noble  men  of  all 
nations  and  generations.^ 

This  liberal  extension  of  Christ's  kingdom  and  Christ's 
salvation  beyond  the  limits  of  the  visible  Church,  although 
directly  opposed  to  the  traditional  belief  of  the  necessity  of 
water  baptism  for  salvation,  was  not  altogether  new.  Justin 
Martyr,  Origen,  and  other  Greek  fathers  saw  in  the  scattered 

1  "  Deinde  sperandum  est  fore  lit  videas  sanctorum,  prudentium,  Jidelium,  con- 
stantixim,  fortium  virtuosontm  oninhnn,  quicnnque  a  condito  mundo  fuerunt,  sodali- 
tatem,  ccetum  et  contuhernium.  Hie  duos  Adainos,  redemptum  ac  redemptorem :  kic 
Abelum,  Enochum,  Noachum,  Ahrahamum,  Isaacitm,  Judam,  j\Josen,  lositam,  Gede- 
onem,  Samuelem,  Pineam,  Eliam,  Elisceum,  lesaiam  ac  deiparam  Virginem  de  qua  ille 
prcecinuit,  Davidem,  Ezekiam,  Josiarn,  Baptistam,  Petruni,  Paulum  :  hie  Hercidem, 
Theseum,  Socratem,  Aristidem,  Antiyonum,  Numum,  Camillum,  Catones,  Scipiones  : 
hie  Ludovicum  pium  nntecessoresque  tuos,  Ludovicos,  Philippos,  Pipinos,  et  quot- 
quot  in  fide  hinc  migrarunt  maiores  tuos  videbis.  Denique  non  fuit  vir  bonus,  non 
erit  mens  sancta,  non  est  fidelis  anima,  ab  ipso  mundi  exordia  usque  ad  eius  con- 
summationem,  quern  non  sis  isthic  cum  deo  visurus.  Quo  spectacido  quid  Icetius, 
quid  amoenius,  quid  denique  honorificentius  vel  cogitari  poterit  ?  Aut  quo  iustius 
omnes  animi  vires  intend imus  qua m  ad  huiuscemodi  vitce  lucrum'?"  (Opera,  IV. 
65.)  The  selection  of  examples  might  have  been  more  judicious,  or  better 
be  omitted  altogether.  It  was  this  passage  that  so  shocked  Luther's  churchly 
feelings  that  he  called  Zwingli  a  heathen.  Werke,  XXXII.  399  sq.  "  Bos- 
suet,"  says  Michelet  (X.  311),  "cite  ce  passage  pour  en  rire.  Mais  qui  a  uii.  camr 
le  retiendra  a  jamais."  There  are  few  Protestant  divines  vvlio  would  not  agree 
with  Zwingli  as  regards  the  salvation  of  unbaptized  infants  and  pious  heathen. 


178  THE   SWISS    REFORMATION. 

truths  of  the  heathen  poets  and  philosophers  the  traces  of 
the  pre-Christian  revehition  of  the  Logos,  and  in  the  philoso- 
phy of  the  Greeks  a  schoolmaster  to  lead  them  to  Christ. 
The  humanists  of  the  school  of  Erasmus  recognized  a  second- 
ary inspiration  in  the  classical  writings,  and  felt  tempted  to 
pray  :  "  Saiicte  Socrates^  ora  pro  nobis."'  Zwingli  was  a  hu- 
manist, but  he  had  no  sympathy  with  Pelagianism.  On  the 
contrary,  as  we  have  shown  previously,  he  traced  salvation 
to  God's  sovereign  grace,  which  is  independent  of  ordinary 
means,  and  he  first  made  a  clear  distinction  between  the 
visible  and  the  in\dsible  Church.  He  did  not  intend,  as  he 
has  been  often  misunderstood,  to  assert  the  possibility  of 
salvation  without  Christ.  "  Let  no  one  think,"  he  wrote  to 
Urbanus  Rhegius  (a  preacher  at  Augsburg),  "  that  I  lower 
Christ;  for  whoever  comes  to  God  comes  to  him  through 
Christ.  .  .  .  The  word,  "  He  who  believeth  not  will  be  con- 
demned,' applies  only  to  those  who  can  hear  the  gospel,  but 
not  to  children  and  heathen.  ...  I  openly  confess  that  all 
infants  are  saved  by  Christ,  since  grace  extends  as  far  as 
sin.  Whoever  is  born  is  saved  by  Christ  from  the  curse  of 
original  sin.  If  he  comes  to  the  knowledge  of  the  law  and 
does  the  works  of  the  law  (Rom.  2 : 1-i,  26),  he  gives  evidence 
of  his  election.  As  Christians  we  have  great  advantages  by 
the  knowledge  of  the  gospel."  He  refers  to  the  case  of 
Cornelius,  who  was  pious  before  his  baptism ;  and  to  the 
teacliing  of  Paul,  who  made  the  circumcision  of  the  heart, 
and  not  the  circumcision  of  the  flesh,  the  criterion  of  the 
true  Israelite  (Rom.  2 :  28,  29)  .i 

The  Confession  to  Francis  I.  was  the  last  work  of  Zwingli. 
It  was  written  three  months  before  his  death,  and  published 
five  years  later  (1536)  by  Bullinger,  who  calls  it  liis  "  swan 
song."  The  manuscript  is  preserved  in  the  National  Library 
of  Paris,  but  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  king  of  France  ever 

^  Comp.  the  remarks  on  pp.  95  sqq.,  and  Schweizer's  Ceniraldogmen,  L 
9i  sqq.  and  p.  131  sq. 


§  46.     THE   SECOND   WAR   OF   CAPPEL.  179 

saw  it.  Calvin  dedicated  to  him  his  Institutes,  with  a  most 
eloquent  preface,  but  with  no  better  success.  Charles  V.  and 
Francis  I.  were  as  deaf  to  such  appeals  as  the  emperors  of 
heathen  Rome  were  to  the  Apologies  of  Justin  Martyr  and 
TertuUian.  Had  Francis  listened  to  the  Swiss  Reformers, 
the  history  of  France  might  have  taken  a  different  course. 

§  46.    The  Second  War  of  Cappel.    1531. 

Egli  :  Die  Schlacht  von  Cappel,  1531.    Zurich,  1873.    Comp.  tlie  lit.  quoted  §  42. 

The  political  situation  of  Switzerland  grew  more  and  more 
critical.  The  treaty  of  peace  was  differently  understood. 
The  Forest  Cantons  did  not  mean  to  tolerate  Protestantism 
in  their  own  territory,  and  insulted  the  Reformed  preachers  ; 
nor  would  they  concede  to  the  local  communities  in  the 
bailiwicks  (St.  Gall,  Toggenburg,  Thurgau,  the  Rheinthal) 
the  right  to  introduce  the  Reformation  by  a  majority  vote ; 
while  the  Ztirichers  insisted  upon  both,  and  yet  they  pro- 
hibited the  celebration  of  the  mass  in  their  own  city  and 
district.  The  Roman  Catholic  Cantons  made  new  disloyal 
approaches  to  Austria,  and  sent  a  deputation  to  Charles  V. 
at  Augsburg  which  was  very  honorably  received.  The  fugi- 
tive abbot  of  St.  Gall  also  appeared  with  an  appeal  for  aid 
to  his  restoration.  The  Ziirichers  were  no  less  to  blame  for 
seeking  the  foreign  aid  of  Hesse,  Venice,  and  France.  Bitter 
charges  and  counter-charges  were  made  at  the  meetings  of 
the  Swiss  Diet.^ 

1  Bluntschli  (who  was  a  Protestant  of  Zurich)  thinks  that  Zwingli  and 
Ziirich  were  upon  the  whole  more  to  blame.  He  says,  I.e.  I.  .334:  "  Zivar 
hatte  darin  Zwingli  ein  richtiges  politisches  Princip  ausgesprochen,  class  im  wirk- 
lichen  ernsten  Conflictzwischen  der  innern  Berechtigung  und  dem  aussern,formellen 
Recht  am  Ende  dieses  jener  weichen  miisse.  Aber  er  hatte  dieses  Princip  iveder 
richtig  angewendet ;  denn  ein  solcher  Widerspruch  lag  in  dem  eidgenossischen  Bun- 
desrechi  denn  dock  nicht  oder  lange  nicht  in  dem  angegebenen  Masse  vor,  noch  waren 
die  Mittel,  welche  er  vorschlug,  um  ein  vermeintlich  besseres,  well  natiirlicheres  RecM 
herzustellen,  zu  rechtfertigen.  Und  musste  ein  gerechter  Mann  zugeben,  dass  die 
Fiinf  Orte  auch  ihre  Stellung  nicht  rein  erhielten  von  Missbrauch,  so  war  dock  nicht 
zu  Idugnen,  dass  damals  auf  Seite  der  Stiidte  und  insbesondere  Ziirichs  der  Miss- 


180  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

The  crisis  was  aggravated  by  an  international  difficulty. 
Graubiinden  sent  deputies  to  the  Diet  with  an  appeal  for  aid 
against  the  Chatelan  of  Musso  and  the  invasion  of  the 
Valtellina  by  Spanish  troops.  The  Reformed  Cantons  favored 
co-operation,  the  Roman  Catholic  Cantons  refused  it.  The 
expedition  succeeded,  the  castle  of  Musso  was  demolished, 
and  the  Grisons  took  possession  of  the  Valtellina  (1530-32). 

Zwingli  saw  no  solution  of  the  problem  except  in  an  honest, 
open  war,  or  a  division  of  the  bailiwicks  among  the  Cantons 
according  to  population,  claiming  two-thirds  for  Ziirich  and 
Bern.  These  bailiwicks  were,  as  already  remarked,  the 
chief  bone  of  contention.  But  Bern  advocated,  instead  of 
war,  a  blockade  of  the  Forest  Cantons.  This  was  appar- 
ently a  milder  though  actually  a  more  cruel  course.  The 
Waldstiitters  in  their  mountain  homes  were  to  be  cut  off 
from  all  supplies  of  grain,  wine,  salt,  iron,  and  steel,  for 
which  they  depended  on  their  richer  Protestant  neighbors.^ 
Zwingli  protested.  "If  you  have  a  right,"  he  said  in  the 
pulpit,  ''  to  starve  the  Five  Cantons  to  death,  you  have  a  right 
to  attack  them  in  open  war.  Thej^  will  now  attack  you  with 
the  courage  of  desperation."  He  foresaw  the  disastrous 
result.  But  his  protest  was  in  vain.  Ziirich  yielded  to  the 
counsel  of  Bern,  which  was  adopted  by  the  Protestant  depu- 
ties, May  15,  1531. 

The  decision  of  the  blockade  was  communicated  to  the 
Forest  Cantons,  and  vigorously  executed,  Zurich  taking  the 

branch  ihrer  Stelhmg  in  eidgenossischen  Dingen  grosser  war,  dass  somit  die  Stiidte 
sich  durchaus  nicht  eigneten,  als  Vertreter  der  ^  gottlichen  Gerechtigkeit  tmd  Strafe' 
die  Fiinf  Orte  I'on  ikren  hergehrachten  Redden  zu  entsetzen.  Audi  in  der  aus- 
wdrtigen  Politik  verliess  Zwingli  nun  die  G-rundsdtze  des  eidgenossischen  Rechtes, 
die  er  selber  vorher  mit  Nachdruck  vertheidigt  hatte.  Er  ging  in  reformatorischem 
Eifer  Verbindungen  ein  und  nahm  an  politischen  Planen  Theil,  ivelche  den  Frieden 
und  selhst  die  Existenz  der  Eidgenossenschaft  gefiihrden  mussten." 

1  Zurich  was  charged  by  Bern  with  an  excess  of  passion,  Bern  by  Ziirich 
with  an  excess  of  prudence.     In  the  language  of  Zwingli :  — 

"  Ber7i  klagt :  Zurich  ist  zu  hitzig, 
Zurich  klagt :  Bern  ist  zu  witzig." 


§  46.     THE   SECOND   WAR    OF   CAPPEL.  181 

lead.  All  supplies  of  provision  from  Zurich  and  Bern  and 
even  from  the  bailiwicks  of  St.  Gall,  Toggenburg,  Sargans, 
and  the  liheinthal  were  withheld.  The  previous  year  had 
been  a  year  of  famine  and  of  a  wasting  epidemic  (the  sweat- 
ing sickness).  This  year  was  to  become  one  of  actual  starva- 
tion. Old  men,  innocent  women  and  children  were  to  suffer 
with  the  guilty.  The  cattle  was  deprived  of  salt.  The  Wald- 
statters  were  driven  to  desperation.  Their  own  confederates 
refused  them  the  daily  bread,  forgetful  of  the  Christian  pre- 
cept, "If  tliine  enemy  hunger,  feed  him;  if  he  thirst,  give 
him  to  drink ;  for  in  so  doing  thou  shalt  heap  coals  of  fire 
upon  his  head.  Be  not  overcome  with  evil,  but  overcome 
evil  with  good"  (Rom.  12 :  20,  21). 

Zwdngli  spent  the  last  months  before  his  death  in  anxiety 
and  fear.  His  counsel  had  been  rejected,  and  yet  he  was 
blamed  for  all  these  troubles.  He  had  not  a  few  enemies  in 
Ziirich,  who  undermined  his  influence,  and  inclined  more  and 
more  to  the  passive  policy  of  Bern.  Under  these  circum- 
stances, he  resolved  to  withdraw  from  the  public  service.  On 
the  26th  of  July  he  appeared  before  the  Great  Council,  and 
declared,  "  Eleven  years  have  I  preached  to  you  the  gospel, 
and  faithfully  warned  j^ou  against  the  dangers  which  threaten 
the  confederacy  if  the  Five  Cantons  —  that  is,  those  who  hate 
the  gospel  and  live  on  foreign  pensions  —  are  allowed  to 
gain  the  mastery.  But  you  do  not  heed  my  voice,  and  con- 
tinue to  elect  members  who  sympatliize  with  the  enemies  of 
the  gospel.  And  yet  ye  make  me  responsible  for  all  this 
misfortune.  Well,  I  herewith  resign,  and  shall  elsewhere 
seek  my  support." 

He  left  the  hall  with  tears.  His  resignation  was  rejected 
and  withdrawn.  After  three  days  he  appeared  again  before 
the  Great  Council,  and  declared  that  in  view  of  their  prom- 
ise of  improvement  he  would  stand  by  them  till  death,  and 
do  his  best,  with  God's  help.  He  tried  to  persuade  the 
Bernese  delegates  at  a  meeting  in  Bremgarten  in  the  house 


182  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

of  his  friend,  Henry  Bullinger,  to  energetic  action,  but  in 
vain.  "  May  God  protect  you,  dear  Henry ;  remain  faithful 
to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  his  Church." 

These  were  the  last  words  he  spoke  to  his  worthy  suc- 
cessor. As  he  left,  a  mysterious  personage,  clothed  in  a 
snow-white  robe,  suddenly  appeared,  and  after  frightening 
the  guards  at  the  gate  plunged  into  the  water,  and  vanished. 
He  had  a  strong  foreboding  of  an  approaching  calamity,  and 
did  not  expect  to  survive  it.  Halley's  comet,  which  returns 
every  seventy-six  years,  appeared  in  the  skies  from  the  middle 
of  August  to  the  3d  of  September,  burning  like  the  fire  of  a 
furnace,  and  pointing  southward  with  its  immense  tail  of 
pale  yellow  color.  Zwingli  saw  in  it  the  sign  of  war  and  of 
his  own  death.  He  said  to  a  friend  in  the  graveyard  of  the 
minster  (Aug.  10),  as  he  gazed  at  the  ominous  star,  "  It 
will  cost  the  life  of  many  an  honorable  man  and  my  own. 
The  truth  and  the  Church  will  suffer,  but  Christ  will  never 
forsake  us."  ^  Vadian  of  St.  Gall  likewise  regarded  the 
comet  as  a  messenger  of  God's  wrath ;  and  the  famous 
Theophrastus,  who  was  at  tliat  time  in  St.  Gall,  declared 
that  it  foreboded  great  bloodslied  and  the  death  of  illustrious 
men.  It  was  then  the  universal  opinion,  shared  also  by 
Luther  and  Melanchthon,  that  comets,  meteors,  and  eclipses 
were  fireballs  of  an  angry  God.  A  frantic  woman  near 
Ziirich  saw  blood  springing  from  the  earth  all  around  her, 
and  rushed  into  the  street  with  the  cry,  "  Murder,  murder ! " 
The  atmosphere  was  filled  with  apprehensions  of  war  and 
bloodshed.  The  blockade  was  continued,  and  all  attempts 
at  a  compromise  failed. 

The  Forest  Cantons  had  only  one  course  to  pursue.     The 

1  Bullinger,  III.  46  (comp.  137)  :  "  Min  Jorg  [the  Abbot  Georg  Miiller  of 
Wettir.gen],  mich  und  mengen  eeren  man  [manchen  Ehrenmann^  ivirt  es  kosten, 
und  ivirt  die  ivahrheit  und  Kylch  \^Kirche']  nodt  lyden  ;  dock  von  Christiis  werdent 
wir  nit  verlassen."  Another  contemporary  gives  an  account  of  a  conversation 
of  Dr.  Joachim  von  Watt  with  some  friends  about  the  meaning  of  the  comet's 
appearance.     It  was  published  in  the  "  Schweizerische  Museum,"  II.  335. 


§  46.    THE   SECOND   WAR   OF   CAPPEL.  183 

law  of  self-preservation  drove  them  to  open  war.  It  was 
forced  upon  them  as  a  duty.  Fired  by  indignation  against 
the  starvation  policy  of  their  enemies,  and  inspired  by  love 
for  their  own  families,  the  Waldstiitters  promptly  organized 
an  army  of  eight  thousand  men,  and  marched  to  the  frontier 
of  Ziirich  between  Zug  and  Cappel,  Oct.  9,  1531. 

The  news  brought  consternation  and  terror  to  the  Ziirichers, 
The  best  opportunity  had  passed.  Discontent  and  dissension 
paralyzed  vigorous  action.  Frightful  omens  demoralized  the 
people.  Ziirich,  which  two  years  before  might  easily  have 
equipped  an  army  of  five  thousand,  could  now  hardly  collect 
fifteen  hundred  men  against  the  triple  force  of  the  enemy, 
who  had  the  additional  advantage  of  fighting  for  life  and 
home. 

Zwingli  would  not  forsake  his  flock  in  this  extreme  danger. 
He  mounted  his  horse  to  accompany  the  little  army  to  the 
battle-field  with  the  presentiment  that  he  would  never  return. 
The  horse  started  back,  like  the  horse  of  Napoleon  when  he 
was  about  to  cross  the  Niemen.  Many  regarded  this  as  a 
bad  omen;  but  Zwingli  mastered  the  animal,  applied  the 
spur,  and  rode  to  Cappel,  determined  to  live  or  to  die  with 
the  cause  of  the  Reformation. 

The  battle  raged  several  hours  in  the  afternoon  of  the 
eleventh  of  October,  and  was  conducted  by  weapons  and 
stones,  after  the  manner  of  the  Swiss,  and  with  much  bravery 
on  both  sides.  After  a  stubborn  resistance,  the  Ziirichers 
were  routed,  and  lost  the  flower  of  their  citizens,  over  five 
hundred  men,  including  seven  members  of  the  Small  Council, 
nineteen  members  of  the  Great  Council  of  the  Two  Hundred, 
and  several  pastors  who  had  marched  at  the  head  of  their 
flocks.i 

1  Bullinger,  III.  130,  gives  the  names.  The  total  numher  of  the  slain  and 
mortally  wounded  Ziirichers  was  five  hundred  and  fourteen,  while  the  Five 
Cantons  lost  only  about  eighty.  The  leaders  of  the  army,  Georg  GiJldli  and 
Lavater,  escaped,  and  were  charged,  the  first  with  treason,  the  other  with 
incompetency. 


184  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

§  47.    The  Death  of  Zwingli. 

MoKiKOFER,  II.  414-420.  —  Egli,  quoted  on  p.  179.  —  A.  Erichson:  Zwingli's 
Tod  und  dessen  Beurtheilung  durch  Zeitgenosen.     Strassburg,  1883. 

Zwingli  himself  died  on  the  hattle-field,  in  the  prime  of 
manhood,  aged  forty-seven  years,  nine  months,  and  eleven 
days,  and  with  him  his  brother-in-law,  his  step-son,  his  son- 
in-law,  and  his  best  friends.  He  made  no  use  of  his  weapons, 
but  contented  himself  with  cheering  the  soldiers.^  "  Brave 
men,"  he  said  (according  to  BuUinger),  "fear  not!  Though 
we  must  suffer,  our  cause  is  good.  Commend  jom:  souls  to 
God :  he  can  take  care  of  us  and  ours.     His  will  be  done." 

Soon  after  the  battle  had  begun,  he  stooped  down  to  con- 
sole a  dying  soldier,  when  a.  stone  was  hurled  against  his 
head  by  one  of  the  Waldstatters  and  prostrated  him  to  the 
ground.  Rising  again,  lie  received  several  other  blows,  and  a 
thrust  from  a  lance.  Once  more  he  uplifted  his  head,  and, 
looking  at  the  blood  trickling  from  his  wounds,  he  exclaimed : 
"  What  matters  this  misfortune  ?  They  may  kill  the  body, 
but  they  cannot  kill  the  soul."     These  were  his  last  words.^ 

He  lay  for  some  time  on  his  back  under  a  pear-tree  (called 
the  Zwingli-Baimi)  in  a  meadow,  his  hands  folded  as  in 
prayer,  and  his  eyes  steadfastly  turned  to  heaven.^ 

The  stragglers  of  the  victorious  army  pounced  like  hungry 
vultures  upon  the  wounded  and  dying.  Two  of  them  asked 
Zwingli  to  confess  to  a  priest,  or  to  call  upon  the  dear  saints 

1  "  Zwingli  blieb  in  nachster  Nahe  bei  den  Kampfenden  stehen,  machte  aber  nack 
dem  Zeiigniss  i-on  Freund  und  Feind  i-on  seinen  Waffen  keinen  Gebrauch." 
Morikofer,  II.  417. 

2  According  to  Osw.  Myconius  (J^ta  H.  Zwingli,  ch.  12),  who  gives  the  report 
of  an  eye-witness:  "Prostnitum,  ajebat,  premenlium  multitiidine  jam  tertio,  sed  in 
pedes  semper  restitisse  :  quarto  Ji. rum  cuspide  sub  mento  et  in  genua  prolapsutn 
dixisse  :  '  Ecquid  hoc  infortunii  ?  Age,  corpus  quidem  occidere  possunt,  animam  non 
possunt.'     Atque  his  dictis  mox  obdormivisse  in  Domino." 

3  BuUinger,  III.  136:  "und  verharret  mitt  sinem  Gesicht  zu  stunen  am  hijmel." 
According  to  Tschudi,  he  lay  on  his  face.  Salat  also  says  ("  Archiv,"  etc., 
I.  310)  :  "  Zwingli  ward  funden  ligend  xif  sim  angsicht."  But  this  is  not  neces- 
sarily a  contradiction,  as  the  d^-ing  man  may  have  changed  his  position. 


§  47.    THE   DEATH   OF    ZWINGLI.  185 

for  their  intercession.  He  shook  his  head  twice,  and  kept 
his  eyes  still  fixed  on  the  heavens  above.  Then  Captain 
Vokinger  of  Unterwalden,  one  of  the  foreign  mercenaries, 
against  whom  the  Reformer  had  so  often  lifted  his  voice, 
recognized  him  by  the  torch-light,  and  killed  him  with  the 
sword,  exclaiming,  "  Die,  obstinate  heretic."  ^ 

There  he  lay  during  the  night.  On  the  next  morning 
the  people  gathered  around  the  dead,  and  began  to  realize  the 
extent  of  the  victory.  Everybody  wanted  to  see  Zwingli. 
Chaplain  Stocker  of  Zug,  who  knew  him  well,  made  the 
remark  that  his  face  had  tlie  same  fresh  and  vigorous  expres- 
sion as  when  he  kindled  his  hearers  with  the  fire  of  eloquence 
from  the  pulpit.  Hans  Schonbrunner,  an  ex-canon  of  Frau- 
miinster  in  Zurich,  as  he  passed  the  corpse  of  the  Reformer, 
with  Chaplain  Stocker,  burst  into  tears,  and  said,  "  Whatever 
may  have  been  thy  faith,  thou  hast  been  an  honest  patriot. 
May  God  forgive  thy  sins."  ^  He  voiced  the  sentiment  of  the 
better  class  of  Catholics. 

But  the  fanatics  and  foreign  mercenaries  would  not  even 
spare  the  dead.  They  deci-eed  that  his  body  should  be 
quartered  for  treason  and  then  burnt  for  heresy,  according 
to  the  Roman  and  imperial  law.  The  sheriff  of  Luzern 
executed  the  barbarous  sentence.  Zwingli's  ashes  were 
mingled  Avith  the  ashes  of  swine,  and  scattered  to  the  four 
winds  of  heaven.^ 


1  Salat  says  that  the  man  who  did  this  cowardly  act,  was  "  ehi  redlicher  alter 
Christ,"  but  does  not  name  Vokinger  (also  spelt  Fuckinger,  or  Fugginger). 

2  Morikofer,  II.  418. 

^  According  to  an  uncertain  and  improbable  tradition,  the  heart  was,  as  it 
were,  miraculously  saved,  and  brought  to  Zurich,  but  thrown  into  the  river 
to  prevent  idolatry.  Myconius  (  Vita  Zw.,  c.  12)  reports  :  "  Hostibus  digressis, 
pout  diem  tertium  accedunt  amantes  Zwinglii,  si  quid  reliquiarum  eius  qffenderent, 
et  ecce  cor  (rnirahile  dictu)  se  offert  e  mediis  cineribus  integrum  et  illassum  ,  .  . 
Venit  non  multo  postea  vir  mihi  notissi7nus,  sed  et  familiarissimus  [^Thomas  Plater  ?], 
rogans  an  portionem  cordis  cupiam  videre  Zwingliani,  quod  secum  ferat  in  loculo  : 
quia  propter  sermonem  hunc  inopinatum  horror  quidam  latum  corpus  pervaserat, 
negaram,  alioquin  et  huius  rei  posse m  esse  testis  oculatus." 


186  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

The  news  of  the  disaster  at  Cappel  spread  terror  among 
the  citizens  of  Ziirich.  "  Then,"  says  Bullinger,  "  arose  a 
loud  and  horrible  cry  of  lamentation  and  tears,  bewailing  and 
groaning." 

On  no  one  fell  the  sudden  stroke  with  heavier  weight 
than  on  the  innocent  widow  of  Zwingli :  she  had  lost,  on  the 
same  day,  her  husband,  a  son,  a  brother,  a  son-in-law,  a 
brother-in-law,  and  her  most  intimate  friends.  She  remained 
alone  with  her  weeping  little  children,  and  submitted  in 
pious  resignation  to  the  mysterious  will  of  God.  History  is 
silent  about  her  grief ;  but  it  has  been  vividly  and  touchingly 
described  in  the  Ziirich  dialect  by  Martin  Usteri  in  a  poem 
for  the  tercentenary  Reformation  festival  in  Ziirich  (1819).^ 

Bullinger,  Zwingli's  successor,  took  the  afflicted  widow 
into  his  house,  and  treated  her  as  a  member  of  his  family. 
She  survived  her  husband  seven  years,  and  died  in  peace. 

1  Der  armen  From  Zicinglin  King,  published  in  the  "  Alpenrosen,"  Bern, 
1820,  p.  273 ;  in  Zwingli's  Werke,  II.  B.  281 ;  also  in  Christoffel,  I.  413,  and 
Morikofer,  II.  517.  After  giving  vent  to  her  woe,  Anna  Zwingli  resorts  to  the 
Bible,  which  was  her  husband's  comfort,  and  was  to  be  hers.  I  select  the  first 
and  the  last  of  the  fourteen  stanzas  of  this  poem,  which  Morikofer  numbers 
among  "  the  imperishable  monuments  of  the  great  man." 

1.  "  0  Herre  Oott,  wie  he/tiff  shluoff 

Mich  dynes  Zornes  Ruthen  ' 
Du  amies  Hers,  ist's  nit  genuog, 

Kannst  du  noch  nicht  verbluoten  t 
Ich  ring  die  Hand  : 
Kdm'  doch  myn  End  ! 

Wer  mag  myn  Elend  fassen  t 
Wer  misst  die  Not  ? 
Myn  Gott,  Myn  Gott, 

Hast  du  mich  gar  verlassen  ? 


14.  "  Komm  du,  o  BuocJi  !  du  loarst  syn  Hort, 

Syn  Trost  in  allem  Uebel. 
Ward  er  verfolgt  mit  That  und  Wort, 

So  griff  er  nach  der  Bibel, 
Fand  Hilf  bei  ihr. 
Herr,  zeige  mir 

Die  Hilf  in  Jesu  Nam.en  ! 
Gib  Muoth  und  Stark 
Zum  schweren  Werh 

Dem  schioachen  Wybe  !    Amen." 


§  48.    REFLECTIONS   ON   THE   DISASTER   AT   CARPEL.      187 

A  few  steps  from  the  pear-tree  where  Zwingli  breathed 
his  last,  on  a  slight  elevation,  in  view  of  the  old  church  and 
abbey  of  Cappel,  of  the  Rigi,  Pilatus,  and  the  more  distant 
snow-capped  Alps,  there  arises  a  plain  granite  monument, 
erected  in  1838,  mainly  by  the  exertions  of  Pastor  Esslinger, 
with  suitable  Latin  and  German  inscriptions.^ 

A  few  weeks  after  Zwingli,  his  friend  fficolampadius  died 
peacefully  in  his  home  at  Basel  (Nov.  24,  1531).  The 
enemies  spread  the  rumor  that  he  had  committed  suicide. 
They  deemed  it  impossible  that  an  arch-heretic  could  die  a 
natural  death.^ 

§  48.    Reflections  on  the  Disaster  at  Cappel. 

We  need  not  wonder  that  the  religious  and  political  ene- 
mies of  Zwingli  interpreted  the  catastrophe  at  Cappel  as  a 
signal  judgment  of  God  and  a  punishment  for  heresy.  It  is 
the  tendency  of  superstition  in  all  ages  to  connect  misfortune 
with  a  particular  sin.  Such  an  uncharitable  interpretation 
of  Providence  is  condemned  by  the  example  of  Job,  the  fate 
of  prophets,  apostles,  and  martyrs,  and  the  express  rebuke  of 
the  disciples  by  our  Saviour  in  the  case  of  the  man  born  blind 
(John  9 :  31).  But  it  is  found  only  too  often  among  Chris- 
tians. It  is  painful  to  record  that  Lutlier,  the  great  cham- 
pion of  the  liberty  of  conscience,  under  the  influence  of  his 
mediaeval  training,  and  unmindful  of  the  adage,  J)e  mortuis 
nihil  nisi  honum,  surpassed  even  the  most  virulent  Catholics 
in  the  abuse  of  Zwingli  after  his  death.      It  is  a  sad  com- 

1  Mrs.  Meta  Heusser  (d.  1876),  the  most  gifted  Swiss  poetess,  who  lived  a 
few  miles  from  Cappel,  wrote  two  beautiful  poems  for  the  dedication  of  the 
monument,  Oct.  11,  1838,  which  are  printed  in  the  first  series  of  her  Lieder, 
pp.  189  sqq.     I  quote  the  first  stanza  of  the  second  poem  :  — 

"  Die  Stdtte,  ivo  ein  Heldenauge  brack 
1st  theuer  noch  den  spdten  Enkelsohnen  ; 
Es  schiveigt  der  Todtenklage  banges  Ach, 
VerscUlungen  von  des  Sieges  JubeUonen." 

-  See  above,  §  31,  pp.  115  sq.,  and  the  note  on  p.  188. 


188  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

mentary    on    the    narrowness    and    intolerance    of    the    Re- 
former.^ 

The  faithful  friends  of  evangelical  freedom  and  progress 
in  Switzerland  revered  Zwingli  as  a  martyr,  and  regarded  the 
defeat  at  Cappel  as  a  wholesome  discipline  or  a  blessing  in 
disguise.  Bullinger  voiced  their  sentiments.  "  The  victory 
of  truth,"  he  wrote  after  the  death  of  his  teacher  and  friend, 
"  stands  alone  in  God's  power  and  will,  and  is  not  bound  to 
person  or  time.  Christ  was  crucified,  and  his  enemies  imag- 
ined they  had  conquered ;  but  forty  years  afterwards  Christ's 
victory  became  manifest  in  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem. 
The  truth  conquers  through  tribulation  and  trial.  The 
strength  of  the  Christians  is  shown  in  weakness.  Therefore, 
beloved  brethren  in  Germany,  take  no  offence  at  our  defeat, 

1  In  his  letter  to  Albrecht  of  Prussia,  April,  1532  (in  De  Wette,  IV.  348- 
355),  Luther  expresses  a  doubt  about  Z-\vingli's  salvation  (on  account  of  his 
denial  of  the  corporal  presence).  He  scorns  the  idea  that  he  was  a  martyr ;  he 
regrets  that  the  Catholic  Cantons  did  not  complete  their  victory  by  suppressing 
the  Zwinglian  heresy,  and  he  warns  the  Duke  of  Prussia  not  to  tolerate  it  in 
his  dominion.  In  his  furious  polemic  tract,  Short  Confession  of  the  Holy  Sac- 
rament, written  in  1545,  a  year  before  his  death  (Werke,  Erlangen  ed.,  vol. 
XXXII.  399-401,  410),  Luther  says  that  "Zwingel"  (he  always  misspells  his 
name)  and  OScolampadius  "perished  in  their  sins";  that  Zwingli  died  "in 
great  and  many  sins  and  blasphemy  "  {in  grossen  und  vielen  Sunden  iind  Gottes- 
Idsterung),  having  expressed  a  hope  for  the  salvation  of  such  "  gottlose  Hei- 
den "  a,s  Socrates,  Aristides,  and  the  "greiiliche  Numa"  ;  that  he  became  a 
heathen ;  and  that  he  perished  by  the  sword  because  he  took  up  the  sword. 
He  adds  that  he,  Martin  Luther,  "  would  rather  a  hundred  times  be  torn  to 
pieces  and  burned  than  make  common  cause  with  Stenkefeld  [Stinkfeld  for 
Schwenkfeld],  Zwingel,  Carlstadt,  and  fficolampadius  !  "  0  sancta  simplicitas ! 
How  different  is  the  conduct  and  judgment  of  Zwingli,  who,  at  Marburg,  with 
tears  in  his  eyes,  offered  the  hand  of  brotherhood  to  his  great  antagonist,  and 
who  said  of  him  in  the  very  heat  of  the  eucharistic  controversy :  "  Luther  is 
so  excellent  a  warrior  of  God,  and  searches  the  Scriptures  with  such  great 
earnestness  as  no  one  on  earth  for  these  thousand  years  has  done ;  and  no  one 
has  ever  equalled  him  in  manly,  unshaken  spirit  with  which  he  has  attacked 
the  pope  of  Rome.  He  was  the  true  David  whom  the  Lord  himself  appointed 
to  slay  Goliath.  He  hurled  the  stones  taken  from  the  heavenly  brook  so 
skilfully  that  the  giant  fell  prostrate  on  the  ground.  Saul  has  slain  thou- 
sands, but  David  tens  of  thousands.  He  was  the  Hercules  who  rushed  always 
to  the  post  of  danger  in  battle.  .  .  .  Therefore  we  should  justly  thank  God  for 
having  raised  such  an  instrument  for  his  honor  ;  and  this  we  do  with  pleasure." 


§  48.    REFLECTIONS   ON   THE   DISASTER   AT   CAPPEL.      189 

but  persevere  in  the  Word  of  God,  which  has  always  won 
the  victory,  though  in  its  defence  the  holy  prophets,  apostles, 
and  martyrs  suffered  persecution  and  death.  Blessed  are  those 
who  die  in  the  Lord.  Victory  will  follow  in  time.  A  thou- 
sand years  before  the  eyes  of  the  Lord  are  but  as  one  day. 
He,  too,  is  victorious  who  suffers  and  dies  for  the  sake  of  truth. "^ 

It  is  vain  to  speculate  on  mere  possibilities.  But  it  is  more 
than  probable  that  a  victory  of  the  Protestants  at  that  time 
would  have  been  in  the  end  more  injurious  to  their  cause 
than  defeat.  The  Zlirichers  would  have  forced  the  Reforma- 
tion upon  the  Forest  Cantons  and  all  the  bailiwicks,  and 
would  thereby  have  provoked  a  reaction  which,  with  the  aid 
of  Austria  and  Spain  and  the  counter-Reformation  of  the 
papacy,  might  have  ended  in  the  destruction  of  Protestant- 
ism, as  it  actually  did  in  the  Italian  dependencies  of  Switzer- 
land and  the  Grisons,  in  Italy,  Spain,  and  Bohemia. 

It  was  evidently  the  will  of  Providence  that  in  Switzerland, 
as  well  as  in  Germany,  both  Churches,  the  Roman  Catholic 
and  the  Evangelical,  should  co-exist,  and  live  in  mutual  tol- 
eration and  useful  rivalry  for  a  long  time  to  come. 

We  must  judge  past  events  in  the  light  of  subsequent  events 
and  final  results.     "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them." 

The  death  of  Zwingli  is  a  heroic  tragedy.  He  died  for 
God  and  his  country.  He  was  a  martyr  of  religious  liberty 
and  of  the  independence  of  Switzerland.  He  was  right  in 
his  aim  to  secure  the  freedom  of  preaching  in  all  the  Cantons 
and  bailiwicks,  and  to  abolish  the  military  pensions  which 
made  the  Swiss  tributary  to  foreign  masters.  But  he  had  no 
right  to  coerce  the  Catholics,  and  to  appeal  to  the  sword. 
He  was  mistaken  in  the  means,  and  he  anticipated  the 
proper  time.  It  took  nearly  three  centuries  before  these  re- 
forms could  be  executed. 

1  Christoffel,  I.  409.  Comp.  also  the  beautiful  preface  of  Zwingli  to  the 
history  of  the  passion,  in  which  he  shows  his  readiness  to  die  for  Christ, 
quoted  by  Morikofer,  II.  415. 


190  THE    SWISS   REFORMATION. 

In  1847  the  civil  war  in  Switzeiiand  was  renewed  in  a 
different  shape  and  under  different  conditions.  The  same 
Forest  Cantons  which  had  combined  against  the  Reformation 
and  for  the  foreign  pensions,  and  had  appealed  to  the  aid  of 
Austria,  formed  a  confederacy  within  the  confederacy  (^Son- 
derbund')  against  modern  political  liberalism,  and  again  en- 
tered into  an  alliance  with  Austria;  but  at  this  time  they 
were  defeated  by  the  federal  troops  under  the  wise  leader- 
ship of  General  Dufour  of  Geneva,  with  very  little  blood- 
shed.^ In  the  year  1848  while  the  revolution  raged  in  other 
countries,  the  Swiss  Diet  quickly  remodelled  the  constitu- 
tion, and  transformed  the  loose  confederacy  of  independent 
Cantons  into  a  federal  union,  after  the  model  of  the  United 
States,  with  a  representation  of  the  people  (in  the  Natio7ial- 
ratli)  and  a  central  government,  acting  directly  upon  the 
people.  The  federal  constitution  of  1848  guaranteed  "the 
free  exercise  of  public  worship  to  the  recognized  Confes- 
sions "  (i.e.  the  Roman  Catholic  and  Reformed) ;  the  Revised 
Constitution  of  1874  extended  this  freedom,  within  the  limits 
of  morality  and  public  safety,  to  all  other  denominations ; 
only  the  order  of  the  Jesuits  was  excluded,  for  political 
reasons. 

This  liberty  goes  much  further  than  Zwingli's  plan, 
who  would  have  excluded  heretical  sects.  There  are  now, 
on  the  one  hand,  Protestant  churches  at  Luzern,  Baar, 
Brunnen,  in  the  very  heart  of  the  Five  Cantons  (besides 
the  numerous  Anglican  Episcopal,  Scotch  Presbyterian,  and 
other  services  in  all  the  Swiss  summer  resorts) ;  and  on 
the  other  hand,  Roman  Catholic  churches  in  Zurich,  Bern, 

1  The  Swiss  Sonderbunds-Krieg  was  an  anticipation,  on  a  small  scale,  of  the 
Civil  War  in  the  United  States,  though  the  causes  were  different.  In  both 
cases  the  confederates  rebelled  against  the  federal  government,  and  sought 
the  aid  of  their  hereditary  enemy ;  the  Swiss  of  the  Catholic  Forest  Cantons 
that  of  Austria,  the  Americans  of  the  slave-holding  Southern  States  that 
of  England.  For  a  clear  sketch  of  the  Sonderhuids-Kriefj,  see  Vuillemin, 
Geschichte  der  Schweizerischen  Eidgenossenschaft  (1882),  pp.  517-537. 


§  48.     REFLECTIONS    ON    THE    DISASTER    AT    CAPPEL.       191 

Basel,  Geneva,  where  the  mass  was  formerly  rigidly  pro- 
hibited. 

As  regards  the  foreign  military  service  which  had  a  ten- 
dency to  denationalize  the  Swiss,  Zwingli's  theory  has  com- 
pletely triumphed.  The  only  relic  of  that  service  is  the 
hundred  Swiss  guards,  who,  with  their  picturesque  mediae- 
val uniform,  guard  the  pope  and  the  Vatican.  They  are 
mostly  natives  of  the  Five  Forest  Cantons. 

Thus  history  explains   and  rectifies   itself,  and  fulfils   its 

promises. 

NOTES. 

There  is  a  striking  correspondence  between  the  constitution  of  the  old 
Swiss  Diet  and  the  constitution  of  the  old  American  Confederacy,  as  also 
between  the  modern  Swiss  constitution  and  that  of  the  United  States.  The 
Swiss  Diet  seems  to  have  furnished  an  example  to  the  American  Confederacy, 
and  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  was  a  model  to  the  Swiss  Diet  in  1848. 
The  legislative  power  of  Switzerland  is  vested  in  the  Assembly  of  the  Con- 
federacy (^Bundesversammlimg)  or  Congress,  wliich  consists  of  the  National 
Council  (JVationalrath)  or  House  of  Representatives,  elected  by  the  people, — 
one  out  of  twenty  thousand,  —  and  the  Council  of  Cantons  (Stdnderath)  or 
Senate,  composed  of  forty-four  delegates  of  the  twenty-two  Cantons  (two 
from  each)  and  corresponding  to  the  old  Diet.  The  executive  power  is  exer- 
cised by  the  Council  of  the  Confederacy  (^BundesratK) ,  which  consists  of  seven 
members,  and  is  elected  every  three  years  by  the  two  branches  of  the  legisla- 
ture, one  of  them  acting  as  President  (^Bundesprasident)  for  the  term  of  one 
year  (while  the  President  of  the  United  States  is  chosen  by  the  people  for 
four  years,  and  selects  his  own  cabinet.  Hence  the  head  of  the  Swiss  Con- 
federacy has  very  little  power  for  good  or  evil,  and  is  scarcely  known).  To 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  corresponds  the  Bundesgericld,  which 
consists  of  eleven  judges  elected  by  the  legislature  for  three  years,  and 
decides  controversies  between  the  Cantons.  Comp.  Bluntschli's  Geschichte  des 
Schweizerischen  Bundesrechts,  1875 ;  Riittimann,  Das  nordamerihanische  Bundes- 
staatsrecht  verglichen  mit  den  politischen  Einrichtungen  der  Schweiz,  Ziirich,  1867- 
72,  2  vols. ;  and  Sir  Francis  0.  Adams  and  C.  D.  Cunningham,  The  Swiss  Con- 
federation, French  translation  with  notes  and  additions  by  Henry  G.  Loumycr, 
and  preface  by  L.  Ruchonnet,  Geneva,  1890. 

The  provisions  of  the  Federal  Constitution  of  Switzerland,  May  29,  1874, 
in  regard  to  religion,  are  as  follows  :  — 

Abschnitt  I.  Art.  49.    "  Die  Glatibens-  tind  Geivissensfreilieit  ist  unverletzlich. 

Niemand  darf  zur  Theilnahme  an  einer  Religionsgenossenschaft,  oder  an  einem 
religiosen  Unterricht,  oder  zur  Vornuhme  einer  religiosen  Handlung  gezwungen,  oder 
wegen  Glaubensansichten  mit  Strafen  irgend  welcher  Art  belegt  werden.  .  .  . 

Art.  50.  Die  freie  Ausiihunq  gottesdienstlicher  Handlungen  ist  innerhulb  der 
Schranken  der  Sittlichkeit  und  der  offentlichen  Ordnung  gewahrleistet.  .  .  . 


192  THE   SWISS   EEFORIMATION. 

Art.  51.  Der  Orden  der  Jesuiten  und  die  ihm  affiliirten  Gesellschaften  diirfen 
in  keinem  Theile  der  Schiveiz  Aufnahme  Jinden,  und  es  ist  iliren  Gliedern  jede 
Wirksamkeit  in  Kirche  und  Sc/nJe  untersagt." 

The  same  Constitution  forbids  the  civil  and  military  officers  of  the  Con- 
federation to  receive  pensions  or  titles  or  decorations  from  any  foreign 
government. 

I.  Art.  12.  "Die  Mitglieder  der  Bundeshehorden,  die  eidgenossischen  Civil- 
und  Militdrheamten  und  die  eidgenossischen  Heprdsentanten  oder  Kommissarien 
diirfen  von  auswartigen  Hegierungen  weder  Pensionen  oder  Gehalte,  noch  Titel, 
Geschenke  oder  Orden  annehmen." 


§  49.    The  Second  Peace  of  Cappel.     November^  1531. 

Besides  the  works  already  quoted,  see  Werner  Biel's  account  of  the  imme- 
diate consequences  of  the  war  of  Cappel  in  the  "  Archiv  f  iir  Schweizer- 
ische  Ileformationsgeschichte"  (Rom.  Cath.),  vol.  III.  641-680.  He 
was  at  that  time  the  secretary  of  the  city  of  Zurich.  The  articles  of  the 
Peace  in  Hottinger,  Schweizergeschichte,  VII.  497  sqq.,  and  in  Blunt- 
scHLi,  I.e.  II.  269-276  (comp.  I.  332  sqq.). 

Few  great  battles  have  had  so  much  effect  upon  the  course 
of  history  as  the  little  battle  of  Cappel.  It  arrested  forever 
the  progress  of  the  Reformation  in  German  Switzerland,  and 
helped  to  check  the  progress  of  Protestantism  in  Germany. 
It  encouraged  the  Roman  Catholic  reaction,  which  soon 
afterwards  assumed  the  character  of  a  formidable  Counter- 
Reformation.  But,  while  the  march  of  Protestantism  was 
arrested  in  its  original  homes,  it  made  new  progress  in  French 
Switzeiiaiid,  in  France,  Holland,  and  the  British  Isles. 

King  Ferdinand  of  Austria  gave  the  messenger  of  the 
Five  Cantons  who  brought  him  the  news  of  their  victory  at 
Cappel,  fifty  guilders,  and  forthwith  informed  his  brother 
Charles  V.  at  Brussels  of  the  fall  of  "the  great  heretic 
Zwingli,"  wdiich  he  thought  was  the  first  favorable  event  for 
the  faith  of  the  Catholic 'Church.  The  Emperor  lost  no  time 
to  congratulate  the  Forest  Cantons  on  their  victor}^  and  to 
promise  them  his  own  aid  and  the  aid  of  the  pope,  of  his 
brother,  and  the  Catholic  princes,  in  case  the  Protestants 
should  persevere  in  their  opposition.  The  pope  had  already 
sent  men  and  means  for  the  support  of  his  party. 


§  49.    THE   SECOND   PEACE   OF   CAPPEL.  193 

The  disaster  of  Cappel  was  a  prelude  to  the  disaster  of 
Mlihlberg  on  the  Elbe,  where  Charles  V.  defeated  the  Smal- 
caldian  League  of  the  Lutheran  princes,  April  24,  1547. 
Luther  was  spared  the  humiliation.  The  victorious  emperor 
stood  on  his  grave  at  Wittenberg,  but  declined  to  make  war 
upon  the  dead  by  digging  up  and  burning  his  bones,  as  he 
was  advised  to  do  by  his  Spanish  generals. 

The  war  of  Cappel  was  continued  for  a  few  weeks.  Zurich 
rallied  her  forces  as  best  she  could.  Bern,  Basel,  and  Schaff- 
hausen  sent  troops,  but  rather  reluctantly,  and  under  the 
demoralizing  effect  of  defeat.  There  was  a  want  of  har- 
mony and  able  leadership  in  the  Protestant  camp.  The 
Forest  Cantons  achieved  another  victory  on  the  Gubel 
(Oct.  24),  and  plundered  and  wasted  the  territory  of  Ziirich ; 
but  as  the  winter  approached,  and  as  they  did  not  receive 
the  promised  aid  from  Austria,  they  were  inclined  to  peace. 
Bern  acted  as  mediator. 

The  second  religious  Peace  (the  so-called  Ziveite  Lands- 
friede')  was  signed  Nov.  20,  1531,i  between  the  Five  Forest 
Cantons  and  the  Ziirichers,  on  the  meadows  of  Teynikon, 
near  Baar,  in  the  territory  of  Zug,  and  confirmed  Nov.  24  at 
Aarau  by  the  consent  of  Bern,  Glarus,  Freiburg,  and  Appen- 
zell.  It  secured  mutual  toleration,  but  with  a  decided  advan- 
tage to  the  Roman  Catholics. 

The  chief  provisions  of  the  eight  articles  as  regards  relig- 
ion were  these :  — 

1.  The  Five  Cantons  and  their  associates  are  to  be  left 
undisturbed  in  their  "  true,  undoubted.  Christian  faith "  ; 
the  Ziirichers  and  their  associates  may  likewise  retain  their 
"  faith,"  but  with  the  exception  of  Bremgarten,  Mellingen, 
Rapperschwil,  Toggenburg,  Gaster,  and  Wesen.  Legal  tol- 
eration or  parity  Avas  thus  recognized,  but  in  a  manner  which 
implies  a  slight  reproach  of  the  Reformed  creed  as  a  depar- 

1  It  was  concluded  Nov.  16,  but  dated  Nov.  20, 


194  THE    SWISS    KEFOIIMATION. 

ture  from  tlie  truth.     Mutual  recrimination  was  again  pro- 
hibited, as  in  1529.1 

2.    Both  parties  retain  their  rights  and   liberties   in   the 

1  The  following  is  the  Swiss-German  text  of  the  first  article  (Bluntschli, 
II.  271),  which  may  be  compared  with  the  first  article  of  the  Peace  of  1529 
(see  above,  p.  171  sq.)  :  "  Zum  ersten  sollent  unci  wollent  Wir,  die  von  Zurich,  unsre 
getrdwe  Hebe  Eydqenossen  von  den  V  Orten  [i.e.  the  Five  Forest  Cantons  of  the 
old  confederacy],  dessglichen  auch  ihr  lieb  Mitburrjer  mid  Landliit  von  Wallis 
vnd  alle  ihre  Mitliaften,  si  sijegent  geistlich  oder  weltlich,  by  ihrem  waaren  ungez- 
wyffleten,  christenlichen  Glauben  jetzt  und  hernach  in  ihren  eignen  Stddten,  Landen, 
Gebieten  und ^Herrlichkeiten  gdnzlich  ungearguirt  und  ungedisputirt  blgben  lassen, 
all  boss  Fiind,  Uszilg,  Gefahrd  und  Arglist  vermieden  und  hintangesetzt.  —  Hin- 
loiderum  so  wollent  Wir,  von  den  V  Orten,  unser  Eydgnossen  von  Zurich  und  ihre 
eigne  Mitverwandten  by  ihrem  Glauben  auch  blyben  lassen.  Wir  von  den  V  Orten 
behaltend  uns  in  diesem  Frieden  Inter  vor  alle,  die  uns  sampt  und  senders  mit  Burg 
und  Landrecht,  auch  in  under  Wag  verwandt  sind,  auch  all  die,  so  uns  Hilf,  Rath, 
Bystand  tind  Zuzug  bewiesen  und  gethan,  also  dass  die  harin  luter  mit  uns  begriffen 
und  verfaszt  syn  sollent.  —  Hinwiederum  so  behaltent  Wir  von  Ziirich  uns  vor, 
das  die,  so  uns  Hilf,  Rath,  Bystand  und  Zuzug  gethan  vor  und  in  disem  Krieg 
es  sye  in  Abschlagung  der  Projiant  joder  in  ander  Weg,  dass  die  auch  in  diesem. 
Frieden  vergrijfen  syn  sollent.  —  Wyter  so  behaltend  Wir,  von  den  V  Orten  uns  vor 
und  durgent  luter  us,  die  us  den  fryen  Aemptern  im  Ergouw,  Bremgarten,  und 
Mellinqen,  so  sich  denen  von  Bern  anhdngig  gemacht,  ihnen  zuzogen,  und,  uns  zu 
iiberziehen,  Vorschub  gethan,  dessglychen  sie  die  Berner  noch  ufenthaltend,  desshalben 
ihnen  viellichter  der  Frieden  nit  annehmlich  syn,  zudem  unsser  Nothdurft  zu  Usfuh- 
rung  des  Kriegs  gegen  den  Berneren  ivill  erfurderen,  dass  man  dasselbst  Durchzug 
huben  mocht,  desshalb  wir  sie  jetzmalen  zu  diesem  Frieden  nit  begriffen  lassent. 
Dessglychen  behaltend  Wir  auch  luter  vor,  die  von  Rapperschwyl,  Toggenburg,  Gas- 
tern  und  die  von  Wesen,  so  unsser  Eydgnossen  von  Zurich  nutzit  angahnt  noch  ver- 
wandt sind,  dass  die  in  disem  Frieden  auch  usgeschlossen  und  nit  begriffen  syn 
sollent,  dock  dass  nach  Gnaden  und  in  ZiemlichJceit  mit  ihnen  gehandlet  werd,  mit 
Straf  oder  mit  Recht." 

Bluntsclili  (I.  337)  thus  comments  on  this  article :  "Auch  jetzt  wieder  musste 
zundchst  das  Princip,  dass  beide  Confessionen  Geltung  haben,  das  Princip  der 
Paritdt,  den  verschiedenen  eidgenossischen  Stdnden  geqeniiber  anerkannt  werden. 
Aber  die  Form,  tvie  das  geschah,  ivar  verletzend  filr  die  Reformirten.  Es  lag  darin 
offenbar  ein  Hohn  gegen  diese,  dass  sie  zu  einem  Vertrage  ihre  Zustimmung  geben 
mussten,  in  welchem  der  katholische  Glaube  als  der  '  reine,  unbeztveifelte,  christliche 
Glaube,'  die  Confession  der  Reformirten  dagegen  nur  als  ^  ein  Glaube,'  schlechthin 
bezeichnet  ward;  ein  Spott,  der  immerhin  von  ungleicher  Wiirdigung  der  beiden 
Confossionen  ausging  und  insofirn  dem  wahren  Geiste  des  paritdtischen  Staatsprin- 
cips  widersprach.  Diese  Herabsetzung  und  Demiithigung  der  Reformirten  lag  zwar 
nur  in  dem  Ausdruck,  nicht  in  dem  Inhalt  dieser  Bestimmung .  Aber  gerade  darum 
loar  sie  um  so  weniger  zu  rechtfertigen.  Sie  reizte  und  erbitterte  bloss  den  einen 
Theil,  und  kitzelte  nur  den  Hochmuth  des  andern  Theils.  Wollte  man  ernstlich  und 
auf  die  Dauer  Frieden,  so  durfoe  man  nicht  solcher  Gehdssigkeit  den  Lauf  lassen." 


§  50,    THE   ROMAN   CATHOLIC   REACTION.  195 

common  bailiwicks  :  those  who  had.  accepted  the  new  faith 
might  retain  it;  but  those  who  preferred  the  old  faith  should 
be  free  to  return  to  it,  and  to  restore  the  mass,  and  the 
images.  In  mixed  congregations  the  church  property  is  to 
be  divided  according  to  population. 

Ziirich  was  required  to  give  up  her  league  with  foreign 
cities,  as  the  Five  Cantons  had  been  compelled  in  1529  to 
break  their  alliance  with  Austria.  Thus  all  leagues  with 
foreign  powers,  whether  papal  or  Protestant,  were  forbidden 
in  Switzerland  as  unpatriotic.  Ziirich  had  to  refund  the 
damages  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  crowns  for  war  expenses, 
and  one  hundred  crowns  for  the  family  of  Kaiser,  which  had 
been  imposed  upon  the  Forest  Cantons  in  1529.  Bern  agreed 
in  addition  to  pay  three  thousand  crowns  for  injury  to  prop- 
erty in  the  territory  of  Zug. 

The  two  treaties  of  peace  agree  in  the  principle  of  tolera- 
tion (as  far  as  it  was  understood  in  those  days,  and  forced 
upon  the  two  parties  by  circumstances),  but  with  the  oppo- 
site application  to  the  neutral  territory  of  the  bailiwicks, 
where  the  Catholic  minority  was  protected  against  further 
aggression.  The  treaty  of  1529  meant  a  toleration  chiefly 
in  the  interest  and  to  the  advantage  of  Protestantism ;  the 
treaty  of  1531,  a  toleration  in  the  interest  of  Romanism. 

§  50.    The  Roman  Catholic  Reaction. 

The  Romanists  reaped  now  the  full  benefit  of  their  victory. 
They  were  no  longer  disturbed  by  the  aggressive  movements 
of  Protestant  preachers,  and  they  regained  much  of  the  lost 
ground  in  the  bailiwicks. 

Romanism  was  restored  in  Rapperschwil  and  Gaster.  The 
abbot  of  St.  Gall  regained  his  convent  and  heavy  damages 
from  the  city ;  Toggenburg  had  to  acknowledge  his  authority, 
but  a  portion  of  the  people  remained  Reformed.  Thurgau 
and  the  Rheinthal  had  to  restore  the  convents.     Bremgarten 


196  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION.  • 

and  Mellingen  had  to  pledge  themselves  to  re-introduce  the 
mass  and  the  images.  In  Glarus,  the  Roman  Catholic  minor- 
ity acquired  several  churches  and  preponderating  influence 
in  the  public  affairs  of  the  Canton.  In  Solothurn,  the  Refor- 
mation was  suppressed,  in  spite  of  the  majority  of  the  popu- 
lation, and  about  seventy  families  were  compelled  to  emigrate. 
In  the  Diet,  the  Roman  Cantons  retained  a  plurality  of  votes. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  Forest  Cantons,  full  of  gratitude, 
made  a  devout  pilgrimage  to  St.  Mary  of  Einsiedeln,  where 
Zwingli  had  copied  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  from  the  first 
printed  edition  of  the  Greek  Testament  in  1516,  and  where 
he,  Leo  Judse,  and  Myconius  had  labored  in  succession  for 
a  reformation  of  abuses,  with  the  consent  of  Diepold  von 
Geroldseck.  That  convent  has  remained  ever  since  a  strong- 
hold of  Roman  Catholic  piety  and  superstition  in  Switzerland, 
and  attracts  as  many  devout  pilgrims  as  ever  to  the  shrine 
of  the  "  Black  Madonna."  It  has  one  of  the  largest  printing 
establishments,  which  sends  prayer-books,  missals,  breviaries, 
diurnals,  rituals,  pictures,  crosses,  and  crucifixes  all  over  the 
German-speaking  Catholic  world.^ 

Bullinger,  who  succeeded  Zwingli,  closes  his  "  History  of 
the  Reformation "  mournfully,  yet  not  without  resignation 
and  hope.  "  All  manner  of  tyranny  and  overbearance,"  he 
says,  "  is  restored  and  strengthened,  and  an  insolent  regime 
is  working  the  ruin  of  the  confederacy.  Wonderful  are  the 
counsels  of  the  Lord.  But  he  doeth  all  things  well.  To 
him  be  glory  and  praise  !     Amen." 

Note  on  the  Convent  of  Einsiedeln. 

(Comp.  §  8,  pp.  29  sqq.) 

On  a  visit  to  Einsiedeln,  June  12,  1890,  I  saw  in  the  church  a  number  of 
pilgrims  kneeling  before  the  wonder-working  statue  of  the  Black  Madonna. 
The  statue  is  kept  in  a  special  chapel,  is  coal-black,  clothed  in  a  silver  gar- 

1  The  firm  of  "Benziger  Brothers,  Printers  to  the  Holy  Apostolic  See," 
Einsiedeln,  New  York,  Cincinnati,  and  Chicago.  The  various  illustrated  cata- 
logues of  this  establishment  give  an  idea  of  the  immense  e.xtent  of  its  operations. 


§  50.     THE   llOMAN   CATHOLIC   KEACTION. 


197 


ment,  crowned  with  a  golden  crown,  surrounded  by  gilt  ornaments,  and  holding 
the  Christ-Ciiild  in  her  arms.  The  black  color  is  derived  by  some  frou)  the 
smoke  of  fire  which  repeatedly  consumed  the  church,  while  the  statue  is 
believed  to  have  miraculously  escaped;  but  the  librarian  (Mr.  Meier)  told 
me  that  it  was  from  the  smoke  of  candles,  and  that  the  face  of  the  Virgin  is 
now  painted  with  oil. 

Tlie  library  of  the  abbey  numbers  40,000  volumes  (including  900  incunab- 
ula), among  them  several  copies  of  the  first  print  of  Zwingli's  Commenfari/ 
on  the  true  and  false  Beligion,  and  other  books  of  his.  In  the  picture-gallery 
are  life-size  portraits  of  King  Frederick  William  IV.  of  Prussia,  his  brother, 
the  Prince  of  Prussia  (afterwards  Emperor  William  I.  of  Germany),  of  Napo- 
leon III.  and  Eugenie,  of  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  of  Austria  and  his 
wife,  and  their  unfortunate  son  who  committed  suicide  in  1889,  and  of  Pope 
Pius  IX.    These  portraits  were  presented  to  the  convent  on  its  tenth  centenary 


The  Abbey  of  Einsiedeln  in  the  Ioth  and  16th  Centuries. 


in  1861.  The  convent  was  founded  by  St.  Meinhard,  a  hermit,  in  the  ninth 
century,  or  rather  by  St.  Benno,  who  died  there  in  940.  The  abbey  has  now 
nearly  100  Benedictine  monks,  a  gymnasium  with  260  pupils  of  twelve  to 
twenty  years,  a  theological  seminary,  and  two  filial  institutions  in  Indiana  and 
Arkansas.  The  church  is  an  imposing  structure,  after  the  model  of  St.  Peter's 
in  Rome,  surrounded  by  colonnades.  The  costly  chandelier  is  a  present  of 
Napoleon  III.  (1865). 

The  modern  revival  of  Romanism,  and  the  railroad  from  Wiidensweil, 
opened  1877,  have  greatly  increased  the  number  of  pilgrims.  Goethe  says  of 
Einsiedeln:  "£"»-  muss  ertisfe  Betrachtutirje?!  erref/en,  dass  ein  einzelner  Funke  von 
Sittlichkeit  und  Gottesfurcht  hier  ein  immerbrennendes  und  leuchtendes  Fldmmchen 
angezundet,  zu  welchem  glaiibige  Seelen  mit  grosser  Beschwerlichkeit  heranpilg'ern, 
urn  an  dieser  keiligen  Flamme  auch  ihr  Kerzlein  anzuziinden.  Wie  dem  auch  sei, 
so  deutet  es  auf  ein  grenzenloses  Bediirfniss  der  Dfenschheit  nach  gleichem  Lichte, 
gleicher  Warme,  wie  es  jener  Erste  im  tie/sten  Gefuhle  und  sicherster  Ueberzengung 
gehegt  und  genossen." 


198  THE    SWISS   REFOEMATION. 

For  a  history  of  Einsiedeln,  see  Beschreibung  des  Klosters  unci  der  Wallfahrt 
Maria-Einsiedeln.     Einsiedeln.     Benziger  &  Co.     122  pp. 

The  wood-cut  on  p.  197  represents  the  abbey  as  it  was  before  and  at  the 
time  of  Zwingli,  and  is  a  fair  specimen  of  a  rich  medieval  abbey,  with  church, 
dwellings  for  the  brethren,  library,  school,  and  gardens.  Einsiedeln  lies  in  a 
dreary  and  sterile  district,  and  derives  its  sole  interest  from  this  remarkable 
abbey. 

§  51.    The  Relative  Strength  of  the  Confessions  in  Sivitzerland. 

We  may  briefly  sum  up  the  result  of  the  Reformation  in 
S\Yitzerland  as  follows :  — 

Seven  Cantons  —  Luzern,  Uri,  Schwyz,  Unterwalden,  Zug, 
Freiburg,  and  Soluthurn  (Soleur)  —  remained  firm  to  the 
faith  of  their  ancestors.  Four  Cantons,  including  the  two 
strongest  —  Ziirich,  Bern,  Basel,  and  Schaffhausen  —  adopted 
the  Reformed  faith.  Five  Cantons  —  Glarus,  St.  Gall,  Ap- 
jjenzell,  Thurgau,  and  Aargau  —  are  nearly  equally  divided 
between  the  two  Confessions.  Of  the  twenty-three  subject 
towns  and  districts,  only  Morat  and  Granson  became  wholly 
Protestant,  sixteen  retained  their  former  religion,  and  five 
were  divided.  In  the  Grisons  nearly  two-thirds  of  the  popu- 
lation adopted  the  Zwinglian  Reformation ;  but  the  Protestant 
gains  in  the  Valtellina  and  Chiavenna  were  lost  in  the  seven- 
teenth century.  Ticino  and  Wallis  are  Roman  Catholic. 
In  the  French  Cantons  —  Geneva,  Canton  de  Vaud,  and 
Neuchatel  —  the  Reformation  achieved  a  complete  victory, 
chiefly  through  the  labors  of  Calvin. 

Since  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  numerical 
relation  of  the  two  Churches  has  undergone  no  material 
change.  Protestantism  has  still  a  majority  of  about  half  a 
million  in  a  population  of  less  than  three  millions.  The 
Roman  Catholic  Church  has  considerably  increased  by  immi- 
gration from  Savoy  and  France,  but  has  suffered  some  loss 
by  the  Old  Catholic  secession  in  1870  under  the  lead  of 
Bishop  Herzog.  The  Methodists  and  Baptists  are  making 
progress  chiefly  in  those  parts  where  infidelity  and  indiffer- 
entism  reign. 


§  52.     ZWINGLI   REDIVIVUS.  199 

Each  Canton  still  retains  its  connection  with  one  or  the 
other  of  the  two  Churches,  and  has  its  own  church  establish- 
ment; but  the  bond  of  union  has  been  gradually  relaxed, 
and  religious  liberty  extended  to  dissenting  communions,  as 
Methodists,  Baptists,  Irvingites,  and  Old  Catholics.  The 
former  exclusiveness  is  abolished,  and  the  principle  of  parity 
or  equality  before  the  law  is  acknowledged  in  all  the  Cantons. 

An  impartial  comparison  between  the  Roman  Catholic  and 
the  Reformed  Cantons  reveals  the  same  difference  as  exists 
between  Southern  and  Northern  Ireland,  Eastern  and  West- 
ern Canada,  and  other  parts  of  the  world  where  the  two 
Churches  meet  in  close  proximity.  The  Roman  Catholic 
Cantons  have  preserved  more  historical  faith  and  supersti- 
tion, churchly  habits  and  customs ;  the  Protestant  Cantons 
surpass  them  in  general  education  and  intelligence,  wealth 
and  temporal  prosperity ;  while  in  point  of  morality  both  are 
nearly  equal. 

§  52.    Ziviyigli  Redivivus. 

The  last  words  of  the  dying  Zwingli,  "  They  may  kill  the 
body,  but  cannot  kill  the  soul,"  have  been  verified  in  his 
case.  His  body  was  buried  with  his  errors  and  defects,  but 
his  spirit  still  lives ;  and  his  liberal  views  on  infant  salvation, 
and  the  extent  of  God's  saving  grace  beyond  the  limits  of 
the  visible  Church,  which  gave  so  much  offence  in  his  age, 
even  to  the  Reformers,  have  become  almost  articles  of  faith 
in  evangelical  Christendom. 

Ulrich  Zwingli  is,  next  to  Martin  Luther  and  John  Knox, 
the  most  popular  among  the  Reformers.^  He  moved  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  common  people;  he  spoke  and  wrote  their 
language ;  he  took  part  in  their  public  affairs ;  he  was  a 
faithful  pastor  of  the  old  and  young,  and  imbedded  himself 
in  their  affections;  while  Erasmus,  Melanchthon,  (Ecolam- 

1  The  German  voJksthumUch  expresses  the  idea  better  than  popular. 


200  THE   SWISS    REFORMATION. 

padius,  Cahin,  Beza,  and  Cranmer  stood  aloof  from  the 
masses.  He  was  a  man  of  the  people  and  for  the  people,  — 
a  t}7ncal  Swiss ;  as  Luther  was  a  typical  German.  Both 
fairly  represented  the  virtues  and  faults  of  their  nation. 
Both  were  the  best  hated  as  well  as  the  best  loved  men  of 
their  age,  according  to  the  faith  which  divided,  and  still 
di\ddes,  their  countrjTiien. 

Martin  Luther  and  Ulrich  Zwingli  have  been  honored  by 
a  fourth  centennial  commemoration  of  their  birth,  —  the  one 
in  1883,  the  other  in  1884.  Such  honor  is  almost  without  a 
precedent,  at  least  in  the  history  of  theology.^ 

The  Zwingli  festival  was  not  merely  an  echo  of  the  Luther 
festival,  but  was  observed  throughout  the  Reformed  churches 
of  Europe  and  America  ^^-ith  genuine  enthasiasm,  and  gave 
rise  to  an  extensive  Zwingli  literature.  It  is  in  keeping  with 
the  generous  Christian  spirit  which  the  Swiss  Reformer 
showed  towards  the  German  Reformer  at  Marburg,  that 
many  Reformed  churches  in  Switzerland,  as  well  as  else- 
where, heartily  united  in  the  preceding  jubilee  of  Luther, 
forgetting  the  bitter  controvei-sies  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
and  remembering  gratefully  his  great  services  to  the  cause 
of  truth  and  liljerty.^ 

In  the  following  year  (Aug.  25, 1885),  a  bronze  statue  was 
erected  to  Zwingli  at  Ziirich  in  front  of  the  Wasserkirche 
and  Cit}'  Library,  beneath  the  minster  where  he  preached. 
It  rejjreseuts  the  Reformer  as  a  manly  figure,  looking  trust- 
fully up  to  heaven,  Avith  the  Bible  in  one  hand  and  the  sword 
in  the  other,  —  a  combination  true  to  history.    Dr.  Alexander 

^  I  say  "almost."  In  1880,  five  hundred  years  after  the  completion  of 
Wiclif's  English  Bible,  his  memory  was  celebrated  throughout  the  English- 
speaking  Protestant  world  in  five  continents.  The  sixth  centenary  of  Dante's 
birth  was  celebrated  in  1^65  in  Florence  and  all  Italy.  The  last  divine  whose 
centennial  birthday  was  observed  is  Neander,  the  Church  historian.  An 
eloquent  commemorative  oration  was  delivered  on  that  occasion  by  Dr.  Har- 
nack,  his  successor,  in  the  Aula  of  the  University  of  Berlin,  .Jan.  17,  1889. 

-  See  the  literature  on  the  Zwingli  centennial  in  §  5,  pp.  17  sq.  and  the 
literature  of  the  Luther  celebration  in  vol.  VI.  104  sq.  and  730. 


§  52.     ZWINGLI    REDIVIVUS.  201 

Schweizer,  one  of  the  al)lest  Swiss  divines  (d.  July  3,  1888), 
whose  last  public  service  was  the  Zwingli  oration  in  the 
University,  Jan.  7,  1884,  protested  against  the  sword,  and 
left  the  committee  on  the  monument.  Dr.  Konrad  Ferdi- 
nand Meyer,  the  poet  of  the  occasion,  changed  the  sword  of 
Zwingli,  witli  poetic  ingenuity,  into  the  sword  of  Vokinger, 
by  which  he  was  slain. ^  Antistes  Finsler,  in  his  oration, 
gave  the  sw^ord  a  douljle  meaning,  as  in  the  case  of  Paul, 
who  is  likewise  represented  with  the  sword,  namely,  the 
sword  by  which  he  was  slain,  and  the  sword  of  the  spirit 
with  which  he  still  is  fighting ;  while  at  the  same  time  it 
distinguishes  Zwingli  from  Luther,  and  shows  him  as  the 
patriot  and  statesman. 

The  whole  celebration  —  the  orderly  enthusiasm  of  the 
people,  the  festive  addresses  of  representative  men  of  Church 
and  State,  the  illumination  of  the  city  and  the  villages 
around  the  beautiful  lake  —  Ijore  eloquent  witness  to  the 
fact  that  Zwingli  has  impressed  his  image  indelibly  upon 
the  memoiy  of  German  Switzerland.  Although  hLs  descend- 
ants are  at  present  about  equally  divided  Vjetween  orthodox 
conservatives  and  rationalistic  "  reformers "  (as  they  call 
themselves),  they  forgot  their  quarrels  on  that  day,  and  cor- 
dially united  in  tributes  to  the  abiding  merits  of  him  who, 
whatever  were  his  faults,  has  emancipated  the  greater  part 
of  Switzerland  from  the  tyranny  of  popery,  and  kd  them  to 
the  fresh  fountain  of  the  teaching  and  example  of  Christ.  ^ 

^  "  Ilier  das  Schwert  in  meiner  Hand 
1st  das  Srhij:(irt,  das  mich  erschluy." 
2  See  an  account  of  that  memorable  celebration  (which  I  witnessed  myself) 
in  J:Jrinrter>i.n'/sfj(atter  zur  Einweihunt/  des  Zu;in<jU- iJenkmals  in  Zurich.  Ileraus- 
gegehen  vom  Dmkrnal- Kumite.  In  2  parts,  Zurich,  1885.  The  chief  address 
was  made  by  Antistes  Finsler,  the  twenty-second  successor  of  Zwingli.  A 
I>art  of  the  celebration  was  a  dramatic  representation  of  Zwingli's  death  (a 
historic  tragedy  by  Charlotte  Birch-Pfeiffer),  and  a  banquet  in  the  Tonhalle- 
Pavilion,  where  addresses  were  delivered  by  delegates  from  different  Cantons. 
Zwingli's  poem,  "  Herr,  nun  heb  den  [Vof/en  selhst,"  was  sung  with  great  spirit 
by  the  Concordia.  The  Swiss  poet,  Dr.  Meyer,  wrote  the  FeHlfaniute.  The 
statue  was  made  by  Natter,  a  Kornan  Catholic  sculptor  of  Vienna,  who  attended 
the  unveiling.     A  significant  fact. 


MHEINRICUS  BULTNGERU5 


PASTOl^        TIG\XRINTX5/ 

4SULCCE550R   -^UlNCLiT.     A'tsJu 
Obijf  cc.    \sy^.   die   \>     5«pt.     Afafi-s.  ?f. 

Vi    -nunaaam   victear     morfuu^    eTie    bonis. 


202 


CHAPTER   YI. 
THE   PERIOD   OF   CONSOLIDATION. 

§  53.    Literature. 

Supplementary  to  the  literature  in  §  4,  pp.  12  sqq. 

I.  Manuscript  sources  preserved  in  the  City  Library  of  Ziirich,  which  was 

founded  1629,  and  contains  c.  132,000  printed  vols,  and  3,500  MSS.  See 
Salomon  Vogelin :  Geschichte  der  Wasserkirche  icnd  der  Stadtbibliothek  in 
Zurich.  Ziirich,  1848  (pp.  110  and  123).  The  Wasserkirche  (capella. 
aquaticii)  is  traced  back  to  Charles  the  Great.  It  contains  also  the  re- 
mains of  the  lake  dwellings.  The  bronze  statue  of  Zwingli  stands  in 
front  of  it.  The  Thesaurus  Hottingerianus,  a  collection  of  correspond- 
ence made  by  the  theologian,  J.  H.  Hottinger,  55  vols.,  embraces  the  whole 
BuUinger  correspondence,  which  has  been  much  used,  but  never  published 
in  full.  — The  Simler  Collection  of  196  vols,  fol.,  with  double  index  of 
62  vols,  fol.,  contains  correspondence,  proclamations,  pamphlets,  official 
mandates,  and  other  documents,  chronologically  arranged,  very  legible, 
on  good  paper.  Johann  Jacob  Simler  (1716-1788),  professor  and  inspector 
of  the  theological  college,  spent  the  leisure  hours  of  his  whole  life  in  the 
collection  of  papers  and  documents  relating  to  the  history  of  Switzerland, 
especially  of  the  Reformation.  This  unique  collection  was  acquired  by 
the  government,  and  presented  to  the  City  Library  in  1792.  It  has  often 
been  used,  and,  though  partly  depreciated  by  more  recent  discoveries,  is 
still  a  treasure-house  of  information.  The  Bullinger  correspondence  is 
found  in  the  volumes  from  a.d.  1531-1575. — Acta  Ecclesiastica  inter- 
mixtis  politicis  et  politico-ecclesiasticis  Manuscripta  ex  ipsis  fontibus  hausta 
in  variis  fol.  Tomis  chronologice  pro  adminislratione  Antistitii  Turicensis 
in  ordinem  redacta.  33  vols.  fol.  Beautifully  written.  Comes  down  to 
the  administration  of  Antistes  Job.  Jak.  Hess  (1795-1798).  Tom  I. 
extends  from  1519-1531;  tom.  II.  contains  a  biography  of  Bullinger, 
with  his  likeness,  and  the  acts  during  his  administration.  —  The  State 
Archives  of  the  City  and  Canton  Zurich. 

II.  Printed  works.    Joh.  Conr.  Fusslin  :  Beytrdge  znr  Erlduterung  der  Kirchen- 

Reformationsgeschichten  des  Schweitserlandes.  Ziirich,  1741-1753.  5  Parts. 
Contains  important  documents  relating  to  the  Reformation  in  Zurich  and 
the  Anabaptists,  the  disputation  at  Ilanz,  etc.  —  Simler's  Sammlung  alter 
und  neuer  Urkiinden.  Zurich,  1760.  2  vols.  —  Joh.  Jak.  Hottinger  (Prof, 
of  Theol.  and  Canon  of  the  Great  Minster)  :  Helvetische  Kirckengesckichten 
vorstellend  der  Helvetiern  ehemaligea  Ileidenthum,  und  dnrch  die  Gnade  Gottes 

203 


20-i  THE    SWISS    REFORMATION. 

gefolgtes  Christenthum,  etc.  Ziirich,  1698-1729.  4  Tlieile  4°.  2d  ed.  1737. 
A  work  of  immense  industry,  in  opposition  to  a  Roman  Catholic  work  of 
Caspar  Lang  (Einsiedeln,  1692).  The  tliird  volume  goes  from  1516  to  1700, 
the  fourth  to  1728.  Superseded  by  Wirz. — Ludwig  Wiez  :  Helvetische 
Kirchengesc/uckte.  A>(!<  Joh.  JuJc.  Ilottingers  dlterem  Werke  und  anderen 
Quellen  neu  bearbeitet.  Ziirich,  1808-1819.  5  vols.  The  fifth  volume  is 
by  Melchior  Kirchhofer,  who  gives  the  later  history  of  Zwingli  from 
1525,  and  the  Reformation  in  the  other  Cantons.  —  Joh.  Jak.  Hottinger  : 
Geschichte  der  Eidgenossen  ivdhrend  der  Zeiten  der  Kirchentrennung.  Ziirich, 
1825  and  1829.  2  vols.  This  work  forms  vols.  VI.  and  VII.  of  Joh.  von 
MuUer's  and  Robert  Glutz  Blotzheim's  Geschichten  Schweizerischer  Eidge- 
nossenschaft .  The  second  volume  (p.  446  sqq.)  treats  of  the  period  of 
Bullinger,  and  is  drawn  in  part  from  the  Simler  Collection  and  the 
Archives  of  Ziirich.  French  translation  by  L.  VullieiMix  :  Histoire  des 
Sdisses  a  I'e'poque  de  la  Re' for  mat  ion.  Paris  et  Zurich,  1833.  2  vols. — 
G.  R.  Zi.MMERMANN  (Pastor  of  the  Fraumiinster  and  Decan)  :  Die  Zurcher 
Kirclte  von  der  Reformation  bis  zum  dritten  Reformationsjubildum  {1519- 
1819)  nach  der  Reihenfolge  der  Ziirrherlschen  Antistes.  Ziirich,  1878 
(pp.  414).  On  Bullinger,  see  pp.  36-73.  Based  upon  the  Acta  Ecclesias- 
iica  quoted  above.  —  Joh.  Strickler's  ActensammUtng ,  previously  noticed 
(p.  13),  extends  only  to  1532. 
On  the  Roman  Catholic  side  comp.  Archiv  fiir  die  Schweiz.  Reformationsgesch., 
noticed  above,  p.  13.  The  first  volume  (1868)  contains  Salat's  Chronik 
down  to  1534;  the  second  (1872),  135  papal  addresses  to  the  Swiss  Diet, 
mostly  of  the  sixteenth  century  (from  Martin  V.  to  Clement  VIII.),  doc- 
uments referring  to  1531,  Roman  and  Venetian  sources  on  the  Swiss 
Reformation,  etc. ;  vol.  III.  (1876),  a  catalogue  of  books  on  Swiss  history 
(7-98),  and  a  number  of  documents  from  the  Archives  of  Luzern  and 
other  cities,  including  three  letters  of  King  Francis  I.  to  the  Catholic 
Cantons,  and  an  account  of  the  immediate  consequences  of  the  War  of 
Cappel  by  Werner  Beyel,  at  that  time  secretary  of  the  city  of  Ziirich 
(pp.  641-680). 

§  54.    ffeinrich  Bullinger.     1504-1575. 

I.  Sources.     Btllixger's  printed  works  (stated  to  be  150  by  Scheuchzer  in 

"  Bibliotheca  Helvetica,"  Ziirich,  1733).  His  manuscript  letters  (mostly 
Latin)  in  the  "Thesaurus  Hottingerianus"  and  the  "  Simler  Collection"  of 
the  City  Library  at  Ziirich.  —  The  second  volume  of  the  Acta  Ecdesias- 
tica,  quoted  in  §  53. —  The  Zurich  Letters  or  the  Correspondence  of  several 
English  Bishops  and  others  with  some  of  the  Helvetian  Reformers,  chiefly  from 
the  Archives  of  Zurich,  translated  and  edited  for  the  "Parker  Society"  by 
Dr.  H.  Robinson,  Cambridge  (University  Press),  2d  ed.  1846  (pp.  576). 

II.  Salomon  Hess:  Leben  Bullinger  s.  Zurich,  1828-'29,  2  vols.  Not  very 
accurate.  —  *Carl  Pestalozzi  :  Heinrich  Bullinger.  Leben  und  ausge- 
wdhlte  Schrijlen.  Xach  handschrifllichen  und  gleichzeitigen  Quellen.  Elber- 
feld,  1858.      Extracts    from   his  writings,  pp.  505-622.      Pestalozzi  has 


§  54.     HEINRICH    BULLINGEK.  205 

faithfully  used  the  written  and  printed  sources  in  the  Stadtbibliothek  and 
Archives  of  Ziirich.  —  K.  Chkistoffei.  :  H.  Bidlinger  nnd  seine  Gattin. 
1875. —  Justus  Heer  :  Bidlinger,  in  Herzog'-,  II.  779-794.  A  good  sum- 
mary. 
Older  biographical  sketches  by  Ludwig  Lavater  (157()),  Josias  Simler 
(1575),  W.  Stucki  (1575),  etc.  Incidental  information  about  BuUinger 
in  Hagenbach  and  other  works  on  the  Swiss  Reformation,  and  in  Meyer's 
Die  Gemeinde  von  Locarno,  183G,  especially  I.  198-216. 

After  the  productive  period  of  tlie  Zwinglian  Reformation, 
which  embraced  fifteen  years,  from  1516  to  1531,  followed 
the  period  of  preservation  and  consolidation  under  difficult 
circumstances.  It  required  a  man  of  firm  faith,  courage, 
moderation,  patience,  and  endurance.  Such  a  man  was  provi- 
dentially equipped  in  the  person  of  Heinrich  Bullinger,  the 
pupil,  friend,  and  successor  of  Zwingli,  and  second  Antistes 
of  Ziirich.  He  proved  that  the  Reformation  was  a  work  of 
God,  and,  therefore,  survived  the  apparent  defeat  at  Cappel. 

He  was  born  July  18,  1504,  at  Bremgarten  in  Aargau,  the 
youngest  of  five  sons  of  Dean  Bullinger,  who  lived,  like 
many  priests  of  those  days,  in  illegitimate,  yet  tolerated, 
wedlock.!  The  father  resisted  the  sale  of  indulgences  by 
Samson  in  1518,  and  confessed,  in  his  advanced  age,  from 
the  pulpit,  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation  (1529).  In 
consequence  of  this  act  he  lost  his  place.  Young  Henrj^  was 
educated  in  the  school  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Common  Life 
at  Emmerich,  and  in  the  University  of  Cologne.  He  studied 
scholastic  and  patristic  theology.  Luther's  writings  and 
Melanchthon's  Loci  led  him  to  the  study  of  the  Bible  and 
prepared  him  for  a  change. 

He  returned  to  Switzerland  as  Master  of  Arts,  taught  a 
school  in  the  Cistercian  Convent  at  Cappel  from  1523  to 
1529,  and  reformed  the  convent  in  agreement  with  the  abbot, 
Wolfgang  Joner.     During  that  time  he  became  acquainted 

1  The  bishop  of  Constance  allowed  priests  to  keep  concubines  for  an  an- 
nual tribute  of  four  Rhenish  guilders,  called  the  Hurensold.  See  Christoffel, 
Zwingli,  II.  337,  and  Pestalozzi,  p.  5. 


206  THE    SWISS    EEFOEMATION. 

with  Zwingli,  attended  the  Conference  with  the  Anabaptists 
at  Ziirich,  1525,  and  the  disputation  at  Bern,  1528.  He 
married  Anna  Adlischweiler,  a  former  nun,  in  1529,  who 
proved  to  be  an  excellent  wife  and  helpmate.  He  accepted 
a  call  to  Bremgarten  as  successor  of  his  father. 

After  the  chsaster  at  Cappel,  he  re'moved  to  Ziirich,  and 
was  unanimously  elected  bj  the  Council  and  the  citizens 
preacher  of  the  Great  Minster,  Dec.  9, 1531.  It  was  rumored 
that  Zwingli  himself,  in  the  presentiment  of  his  death,  had 
designated  him  as  his  successor.  No  better  man  could  have 
been  selected.  It  was  of  vital  importance  for  the  Swiss 
churches  that  the  place  of  the  Reformer  should  be  filled  by 
a  man  of  the  same  spirit,  but  of  greater  moderation  and  self- 
restraint.^ 

Bullinger  now  assumed  the  task  of  saving,  purifying,  and 
consolidating  the  life-work  of  Zwingli ;  and  faitlifuUy  and 
successfully  did  he  carry  out  this  task.  When  he  ascended 
the  pulpit  of  the  Great  Minster  in  Dec.  23,  1531,  many 
hearers  thought  that  Zwingli  had  risen  from  the  grave.^  He 
took  a  firm  stand  for  the  Reformation,  which  was  in  danger 
of  being  abandoned  by  timid  men  in  the  Council.  He  kept 
free  from  interference  with  politics,  which  had  proved  ruin- 
ous to  Zwingli.  He  established  a  more  independent,  though 
friendly  relation  between  Church  and  State.  He  confined 
himself  to  his  proper  vocation  as  preacher  and  teacher. 

In  the  first  years  he  preached  six  or  seven  times  a  week ; 
after  1542  only  twice,  on  Sundays  and  Fridays.  He  followed 
the  plan  of  Zwingli  in  explaining  whole  books  of  the  Scrip- 

^  Pestalozzi,  p.  25 :  "  Zwingli  und  BuUinrjer  —  welche  Verschiedenheit  '.  Zwingli's 
7-asches,  feurifjes  Temperament,  BuUinger's  Ruhe  und  Gelassenheit ;  Zwingli's 
schneidender ,  siechender  Witz,  BuUinger's  einldssliche  Grundlichheit ;  daher  auch 
Zwingli's  Kiirze,  BuUinger's  AusfUhrlichkeit  in  den  meisien  seiner  Arheiten.  Wie 
geeignet  zur  gegenseitigen  Ergdnzung  !  " 

2  "  Talern  concionem  detonavit,"  wrote  Myconius  to  Schenck,  "  ut  midti  puta- 
rent  Zwinglium  non  defunctum,  sed  ad  Bhoenicis  modum  renatum  esse."  Hettinger, 
Melv.  K.  Gesch.  III.  28. 


§  54.     HEINKICH    BULLINGER.  207 

tures  from  the  pulpit.  His  sermons  were  simple,  clear,  and 
practical,  and  served  as  models  for  young  preachers. 

He  was  a  most  devoted  pastor,  dispensing  counsel  and 
comfort  in  every  direction,  and  exposing  even  his  life  during 
the  pestilence  which  several  times  visited  Ziirich.  His  house 
was  open  from  morning  till  night  to  all  Avho  desired  his  help. 
He  freely  dispensed  food,  clothing,  and  money  from  his 
scanty  income  and  contributions  of  friends,  to  Avidows  and 
orphans,  to  strangers  and  exiles,  not  excluding  persons  of 
other  creeds.  He  secured  a  decent  pension  for  the  widow 
of  Zwingli,  and  educated  two  of  his  children  with  his  own. 
He  entertained  persecuted  brethren  for  weeks  and  months  in 
his  own  house,  or  procured  them  places  and  means  of  travel.^ 

He  paid  great  attention  to  education,  as  superintendent  of 
the  schools  in  Ziirich.  He  filled  the  professorships  in  the 
Carolinum  with  able  theologians,  as  Pellican,  Bibliander, 
Peter  Martyr.  He  secured  a  well-educated  ministry.  He 
jDrepared,  in  connection  with  Leo  Juda3,  a  book  of  church 
order,  which  was  adopted  by  the  S^niod,  Oct.  22,  1532,  issued 
by  authority  of  the  burgomaster,  the  Small  and  the  Great 
Council,  and  continued  in  force  for  nearly  three  hundred 
years.  It  provides  the  necessary  rules  for  the  examination, 
election,  and  duties  of  ministers  (^Predicanten')  and  deans 
(^Decani},  for  semi-annual  meetings  of  synods  with  clerical 
and  lay  representatives,  and  the  power  of  discipline.  The 
charges  were  divided  into  eight  districts  or  chapters.^ 

Bullinger's  activity  extended  far  beyond  the  limits  of 
Ziirich.  He  had  a  truly  Catholic  spirit,  and  stood  in  corre- 
spondence with  all  the  Reformed  Churches.  Beza  calls  him 
"the  common  shepherd  of  all  Christian  Churches";  Pellican, 
"a  man  of  God,  endowed  with  the  richest  gifts  of  heaven 


1  See  the  beautiful  description  of  Pestalozzi,  pp.  153  sqq. 

^  There  are  copies  of  several  editions  of  this  book  in  the  City  Library  at 
Ziirich,  of  1532,  1535,  1563,  etc.  It  is  also  printed  in  Simler's  Sammluntj  alter 
und  neuer  Urkunden,  I.  25-73. 


208  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

for  God's  honor  and  the  salvation  of  souls."  He  received 
fugitive  Protestants  from  Italy,  France,  England,  and  Ger- 
many with  open  arms,  and  made  Ziirich  an  asylum  of  relig- 
ious liberty.  He  thus  protected  Celio  Secondo  Curione, 
Bernardino  Occhino,  and  Peter  Martyr,  and  the  immigrants 
from  Locarno,  and  aided  in  the  organization  of  an  Italian 
congregation  in  Ziirich. ^  Following  the  example  of  Zwingli 
and  Calvin,  he  appealed  twice  to  the  king  of  France  for 
toleration  in  behalf  of  the  Huguenots.  He  dedicated  to 
Henry  II.  his  book  on  Christian  Perfection  (1551),  and  to 
Francis  II.  his  Instruction  in  the  Christian  Religion  (1559). 
He  sent  deputations  to  the  French  court  for  the  protection 
of  the  Waldenses,  and  the  Reformed  congregation  in  Paris. 

The  extent  of  Bullinger's  correspondence  is  astonishing. 
It  embraces  letters  to  and  from  all  the  distinguished  Protes- 
tant divines  of  his  age,  as  Calvin,  Melanchthon,  Bucer,  Beza, 
Laski,  Cranmer,  Hooper,  Jewel,  and  crowned  heads  who 
consulted  him,  as  Henry  VIII.,  Edward  VI.,  of  England, 
Queen  Elizabeth,  Henry  II.  of  France,  King  Christian  of 
Denmark,  Philip  of  Hesse,  and  the  Elector  Frederick  of  the 
Palatinate. 

BuUing'er  came  into  contact  with  the  Ensflish  Reformation 
from  the  time  of  Henry  VIII.  to  the  reign  of  Elizabeth, 
especially  during  the  bloody  reign  of  Mary,  when  many 
prominent  exiles  fled  to  Ziirich,  and  found  a  fraternal  re- 
ception under  his  hospitable  roof.  The  correspondence  of 
Hooper,  Jewel,  Sandys,  Grindal,  Parkhurst,  Foxe,  Cox,  and 
other  church  dignitaries  with  BuUinger,  Gwalter,  Gessner, 
Simler,  and  Peter  Martyr,  is  a  noble  monument  of  the  spiritual 
harmony  between  the  Reformed  Churches  of  Switzerland  and 
England  in  the  Edwardian  and  Elizabethan  era.  Archbishop 
Cranmer  invited  Bullinger,  together  with  Melanchthon,  Cal- 
vin, and  Bucer,  to  a  conference  in  London,  for  the  purpose 

^  See  above,  p.  155,  and  the  works  of  Meyer  and  Morikofer  quoted  there. 


) 


§  54.    HEINRICH   BULLINGER.  209 

of  framing  an  evangelical  union  creed ;  and  Calvin  answered 
that  for  such  a  cause  he  would  be  willing  to  cross  ten  seas. 
Lady  Jane  Grey,  who  was  beheaded  in  1554,  read  Btillinger's 
works,  translated  his  book  on  marriage  into  Greek,  consulted 
him  about  Hebrew,  and  addressed  him  with  filial  affection 
and  gratitude.  Her  three  letters  to  him  are  still  preserved 
in  Ziirich.  Bishop  Hooper  of  Gloucester,  who  had  enjoyed 
his  hospitality  in  1547,  addressed  him  shortly  before  his 
martyrdom  in  1554,  as  his  "revered  father  and  guide,"  and 
the  best  friend  he  ever  had,  and  recommended  his  wife  and 
two  children  to  his  care.  Bishop  Jewel,  in  a  letter  of  May 
22,  1559,  calls  him  his  "  father  and  much  esteemed  master  in 
Christ,"  thanks  him  for  his  "  courtesy  and  kindness,"  which 
he  and  his  friends  experienced  during  the  whole  period  of 
their  exile,  and  informs  Mm  that  the  restoration  of  the 
Reformed  religion  under  Elizabeth  was  largely  due  to  his 
own  "  letters  and  recommendations  " ;  adding  that  the  queen 
refused  to  be  addressed  as  the  head  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, feeling  that  such  honor  belongs  to  Christ  alone,  and 
not  to  any  human  being.  Bullinger's  death  was  lamented  in 
England  as  a  public  calamity.^ 

Bullinger  faithfully  maintained  the  doctrine  and  discipline 
of  the  Reformed  Church  against  the  Roman  Catholics  and 
Lutherans  with  moderation  and  dignity.  He  never  returned 
the  abuse  of  fanatics,  and  when,  in  1548,  the  Interim  drove 
the  Lutheran  preachers  from  the  Swabian  cities,  he  received 
them  hospitably,  even  those  who  had  denounced  the  Re- 
formed doctrines  from  the  pulpit.  He  represents  the  German- 
Swiss  type  of  the  Reformed  faith  in  substantial  agreement 
with  a  moderate  Calvinism.  He  gave  a  full  exposition  of 
his  theological  views  in  the  Second  Helvetic  Confession. 

His  theory  of  the  sacrament  was  higher  than  that  of 
Zwingli.     He  laid  more  stress  on  the  objective  value  of  the 

1  See  the  letters  of  Barlow  to  Simler  (Bullinger's  son-in-law),  and  Bishop 
Cox  to  Gwalter,  in  Zurich  Letters,  pp.  494  and  49(3. 


210  THE   SWISS    REFORMATION. 

institution.  We  recognize,  he  wrote  to  Faber,  a  mystery  in 
the  Lord's  Supper;  the  bread  is  not  common  bread,  but  ven- 
erable, sacred,  sacramental  bread,  the  pledge  of  the  spiritual 
real  presence  of  Christ  to  those  who  believe.  As  the  sun  is 
in  heaven,  and  yet  virtually  present  on  earth  with  his  light 
and  heat,  so  Christ  sits  in  heaven,  and  yet  efficaciously  works 
in  the  hearts  of  all  believers.  When  Luther,  after  Zwingli's 
death,  warned  Duke  Albert  of  Prussia  and  the  people  of 
Frankfort  not  to  tolerate  the  Zwinglians,  Bullinger  replied 
by  sending  to  the  duke  a  translation  of  Ratramnus'  tract, 
De  corpore  et  sanguine  Domini,  with  a  preface.  He  rejected 
the  Wittenberg  Concordia  of  1536,  because  it  concealed  the 
Lutheran  doctrine.  He  answered  Luther's  atrocious  attack 
on  the  Zwinglians  (1545)  by  a  clear,  strong,  and  temperate 
statement ;  but  Luther  died  soon  afterwards  (1546)  without 
retracting  his  charges.  Wlien  Westphal  renewed  the  un- 
fortunate controversy  (1552),  Bullinger  suj)ported  Calvin  in 
defending  the  Reformed  doctrine,  but  counselled  moderation.^ 
He  and  Calvin  brought  about  a  complete  agreement  on  the 
sacramental  question  in  the  Consensus  Tigurinus,  which  was 
adopted  in  1549  at  Ziirich,  in  the  presence  of  some  members 
of  the  Council,  and  afterwards  received  the  approval  of  the 
other  Swiss  Reformed  churches.^ 

On  the  doctrine  of  Predestination,  Bullinger  did  not  go 
quite  as  far  as  Zwingli  and  Calvin,  and  kept  within  the  infra- 
lapsarian  scheme.  He  avoided  to  speak  of  the  predestination 
of  Adam's  fall,  because  it  seemed  irreconcilable  with  the  jus- 
tice of  the  punishment  of  sin.^  The  Consensus  Crenevensis 
(1552),    which   contains    Calvin's    rigorous   view,   was    not 

^  Apologetica  Defensio,  etc.,  February,  1556. 

2  Schaff,  Creeds  of  Christendom,  I.  471  sqq.,  and  the  literature  there  quoted. 

8  In  the  Second  Helvetic  Confession,  ch.  VIII.,  he  dismisses  the  curious 
questions,  "whether  God  would  have  Adam  fall,  or  whether  he  forced  him  to 
fall,  or  why  he  did  not  hinder  his  fall,  and  such  like,"  and  says  that  it  is  suffi- 
cient to  know  that  God  did  forbid  our  first  parents  to  eat  of  the  fruit,  and 
punished  them  for  disobedience. 


§  54.     HEINRICH    BULLINGEIl.  211 

signed  by  the  pastors  of  Zurich.  Theodor  Bibliander,  the 
father  of  biblical  exegesis  in  Switzerland,  and  a  forerunner 
of  Arminianism,  opposed  it.  He  adhered  to  the  semi-Pelagian 
theory  of  Erasmus,  and  was  involved  in  a  controversy  with 
Peter  Martyr,  who  M^as  a  strict  Calvinist,  and  taught  in 
Ziirich  since  1556.  Bibliander  was  finally  removed  from  his 
theological  professorship  (Feb.  8,  1560),  but  liis  salary  was 
continued  till  his  death  (Nov.  26,  1564). i 

On  the  subject  of  toleration  and  the  j)unishment  of  here- 
tics, Bullinger  agreed  with  the  prevailing  theory,  but  favor- 
ably differed  from  the  prevailing  practice.  He  opposed  the 
Anabaptists  in  his  writings,  as  much  as  Zwingli,  and,  like 
Melanchthon,  he  approved  of  the  unfortunate  execution  of 
Servetus,  but  he  himself  did  not  persecute.  He  tolerated 
Laelio  Sozini,  who  quietly  died  at  Ziirich  (1562),  and  Ber- 
nardino Occhino,  who  preached  for  some  time  to  the  Italian 
congregation  in  that  city,  but  was  deposed,  without  further 
punishment,  for  teaching  Unitarian  opinions  and  defending 
polygamy.  In  a  book  against  the  Roman  Catholic  Faber, 
Bullinger  expresses  the  Christian  and  humane  sentiment 
that  no  violence  should  be  done  to  dissenters,  and  that  faith 
is  a  free  gift  of  God,  which  cannot  be  commanded  or  forbid- 
den. He  agreed  with  Zwingli's  extension  of  salvation  to  all 
infants  dying  in  infancy  and  to  elect  heathen ;  at  all  events, 
he  nowhere  dissents  from  these  advanced  views,  and  published 
with  approbation  Zwingli's  last  work,  where  they  are  most 
strongly  expressed.^ 

Bullinger's  house  was  a  happy  Christian  home.  He  liked 
to  play  with  his  numerous  children  and  grandchildren,  and 
to  write  little  verses  for  them  at  Christmas,  like  Luther.^ 

When  his  son  Henry,  in  1553,  went  to  Strassburg,  Wit- 

1  A  fuller  statement  in  Schaff,  Creeds,  I.  474  sqq.,  and  especially  Schweizer, 
Central-dogmen,  I.  139,  258-292. 

2  See  above,  p.  177  sq. 

3  Some  of  these  verses  are  still  remembered  in  Switzerland.  Specimens 
in  Pestalozzi,  315  sqq. 


212  THE    SWISS    REFOKMATION. 

tenberg,  and  Vienna  to  prosecute  his  theological  studies,  he 
wrote  down  for  him  wise  rules  of  conduct,  of  which  the 
following  are  the  most  important :  1)  Fear  God  at  all  times, 
and  remember  that  the  fear  of  God  is  the  beginning  of  wis- 
dom. 2)  Humble  yourself  before  God,  and  pray  to  him 
alone  through  Clnist,  our  only  Mediator  and  Advocate. 
3)  Believe  firmly  that  God  has  done  all  for  our  salvation 
through  his  Son.  4)  Pray  above  all  things  for  strong  faith 
active  in  love.  5)  Pray  that  God  may  protect  your  good 
name  and  keep  thee  from  sin,  sickness,  and  bad  company. 
6)  Pray  for  the  fatherland,  for  your  dear  parents,  benefac- 
tors, friends,  and  all  men,  for  the  spread  of  the  Word  of 
God ;  conclude  always  with  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  use  also 
the  beautiful  hymn,  Te  Demn  laudamus  [which  he  ascribes 
to  Ambrose  and  Augustin].  7)  Be  reticent,  be  always 
more  willing  to  hear  than  to  speak,  and  do  not  meddle  with 
things  which  you  do  not  understand.  8)  Study  diligently 
Hebrew  and  Greek  as  well  as  Latin,  history,  philosophy,  and 
the  sciences,  but  especially  the  New  Testament,  and  read 
daily  three  chapters  in  the  Bible,  beginning  with  Genesis. 
9)  Keep  your  body  clean  and  unspotted,  be  neat  in  your 
dress,  and  avoid  above  all  things  intemperance  in  eating  and 
drinking.  10)  Let  your  conversation  be  decent,  cheerful, 
moderate,  and  free  from  all  uncharitableness.^  He  recom- 
mended him  to  Melanchthon,  and  followed  his  studies  with 
letters  full  of  fatherly  care  and  affection.^  He  kept  his  parents 
with  him  till  their  death,  the  widow  of  Zwingli  (d.  1538), 
and  two  of  her  children,  whom  he  educated  with  his  own. 
Notwithstanding  his  scanty  income,  he  declined  all  presents, 
or  sent  them  to  the  hospitals.  The  whole  people  revered  the 
venerable  minister  of  noble  features  and  white  patriarchal 
beard. 

^  Pestalozzi,  588  sqq. 

'^  The  letters,  pp.  595-617,  are  quite  interesting.  Henry  became  pastor  at 
Zollikon,  and  afterwards  of  St.  Peter  at  Ziirich.  He  married  a  daughter  of 
Gwalter,  who  was  a  granddauajhter  of  Zwingli. 


§  54.    HEINRICH   BULLINGER.  213 

His  last  days  were  clouded,  like  those  of  many  faithful 
servants  of  God.  The  excess  of  work  and  care  undermined 
his  health.  In  1562  he  wrote  to  Fabricius  at  Coire :  "I 
almost  sink  under  the  load  of  business  and  care,  and  feel  so 
tired  that  I  would  ask  the  Lord  to  give  me  rest  if  it  were 
not  against  his  will."  The  jjestilence  of  1564  and  1565 
brought  him  to  the  brink  of  the  grave,  and  deprived  him  of 
his  wife,  three  daughters,  and  his  brother-in-law.  He  boxe 
these  heavy  strokes  with  Christian  resignation.  In  the  same 
two  fatal  years  he  lost  his  dearest  friends,  Calvin,  Blaurer, 
Gessner,  Froschauer,  Bibliander,  Fabricius,  Farel.  He  re- 
covered, and  was  allowed  to  spend  several  more  years  in  the 
service  of  Christ.  His  youngest  daughter,  Dorothea,  took 
faithful  and  tender  care  of  liis  health.  He  felt  lonely  and 
homesick,  but  continued  to  preach  and  to  write  with  the  aid 
of  pastor  Lavater,  his  colleague  and  son-in-law.  He  preached 
his  last  sermon  on  Pentecost,  1575.  He  assembled,  Aug.  26, 
all  the  pastors  of  the  city  and  professors  of  theology  around 
his  sick-bed,  assured  them  of  his  perseverance  in  the  true 
apostolic  and  orthodox  doctrine,  recited  the 'Apostles'  Creed, 
and  exhorted  them  to  purity  of  life,  harmony  among  them- 
selves, and  obedience  to  the  magistrates.  He  warned  them 
against  intemperance,  envy,  and  hatred,  thanked  them  for 
their  kindness,  assured  them  of  his  love,  and  closed  with  a 
prayer  of  thanksgiving  and  some  verses  of  the  hymns  of 
Pru dentins.  Then  he  took  each  by  the  hand  and  took  leave 
of  them  with  tears,  as  Paul  did  from  the  elders  at  Ephesus. 
A  few  weeks  afterwards  he  died,  after  reciting  several  Psalms 
(51, 16,  and  42),  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  other  prayers,  peace- 
fully, in  the  presence  of  his  family,  Sept.  IT,  1575.  He  was 
buried  in  the  Great  Minster,  at  the  side  of  his  beloved  wife 
and  his  dear  friend,  Peter  Martyr.  According  to  his  wish, 
Kudolph  Gwalter,  Zwingli's  son-in-law  and  his  adopted  son, 
was  unanimously  elected  his  successor.  Four  of  his  succes- 
sors were  trained  under  his  care  and  labored  in  his  spirit. 


214  THE   SWISS   EEFOEMATIOX. 

The  writings  of  Biillinger  are  very  numerous,  mostly  doc- 
trinal and  practical,  adapted  to  the  times,  but  of  little  perma- 
nent value.  Scheuchzer  numbers  one  hundred  and  fifty 
printed  books  of  his.  The  Ziirieh  City  Library  contains 
about  one  hundred,  exclusive  of  translations  and  new  edi- 
tions. Many  are  extant  only  in  manuscript.  He  wrote  Latin 
commentaries  on  the  New  Testament  (except  the  Apoca- 
lypse), numerous  sermons  on  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Daniel,  the 
Apocalypse.  His  Decades  (five  series  of  ten  sermons  each 
on  the  Decalogue,  the  Apostles'  Creed,  and  the  Sacraments) 
were  much  esteemed  and  used  in  Holland  and  England. 
His  work  on  the  justifying  grace  of  God  was  highly  prized 
by  Melanchthon.  His  History  of  the  Swiss  Reformation, 
written  by  his  own  hand,  in  two  folio  volumes,  has  been 
published  in  1838-"40,  in  tln-ee  volumes.  His  most  important 
doctrinal  work  is  the  Second  Helvetic  Confession,  which 
acquired  symbolical  authority .^ 


§  53.   Antistes  Breitinger  (1575-1645). 

In  the  same  year  in  which  Bullinger  died  (1575),  Johann 
Jakob  Breitinger  was  born,  who  became  his  worthy  successor 
as  Antistes  of  Ziirich  (1613-1645).^  He  called  liim  a  saint, 
and  followed  his  example.  He  was  one  of  the  most  eminent 
Reformed  divines  of  his  age.  Thoroughly  trained  in  the 
universities  of  Herborn,  Marburg,  Franeker,  Heidelberg,  and 
Basel,  he  gained  the  esteem  and  affection  of  his  fellow- 
citizens  as  teacher,  preacher,  and  devoted  pastor.  During 
the  fearful  pestilence  of  1611  he  visited  the  sick  from  morn- 
ing till  night  at  the  risk  of  his  life. 

He  attended  as  one  of  the  Swiss  delegates  the  Synod  of 

^  Extracts  from  BuUinger's  Works  are  given  by  Pestalozzi,  505-622. 

-  The  immediate  successors  of  Bullinger  were  Gwalter,  Zwingli's  son-in- 
law  (1575-1586),  Lavater  (1585-1586),  Stumpf  (1582-1592),  Leeraann  (1592- 
1613). 


§  56.     OSWALD   MYCONIUS.  215 

Dort  (1618  and  1619).  He  was  deeply  impressed  with  the 
learning,  wisdom,  and  piety  of  that  body,  and  fully  agreed 
^-ith  its  unjust  and  intolerant  treatment  of  the  Arrainians.^ 
On  his  return  (May  21,  1619)  he  was  welcomed  by  sixty-four 
Ziirichers,  who  rode  to  the  borders  of  the  Rhine  to  meet  him. 
Yet,  with  all  his  firmness  of  conviction,  he  was  opposed  to 
confessional  polemics  in  an  intensely  polemic  age,  and  admired 
the  good  traits  in  other  churches  and  sects,  even  the  Jesuits. 
He  combined  with  strict  orthodoxy  a  cheerful  temper,  a 
generous  heart,  and  active  piety.  He  had  an  open  ear  for 
appeals  from  the  poor  and  the  numerous  sufferers  in  the 
murder  of  the  Valtellina  (1620)  and  dm-ing  the  Thirty 
Years'  War.  At  his  request,  hospitals  and  orphan  houses 
were  founded  and  collections  raised,  which  in  the  Minster 
alone,  during  eight  years  (1618-1628),  exceeded  fifty  thou- 
sand pounds.  He  was  in  every  way  a  model  pastor,  model 
churchman,  and  model  statesman.  Although  he  towered 
high  above  his  colleagues,  he  disarmed  en\y  and  jealousy  by 
his  kindliness  and  Christian  humility.  Altogether  he  sliines 
next  to  Zwingii  and  BuUinger  as  the  most  influential  and 
useful  Antistes  of  the  Reformed  Church  of  Ziirich.^ 


§  56.    Oswald  Myconms,  Antistes  of  Basel. 

I.  Correspondence  between  Mycoxius  and  Zwixgli  in  Zwingli's  Opera,  vols. 

YII.  and  VIII.  (28  letters  of  the  former  and  20  of  the  latter).  — Corre- 
spondence with  Bullinger  in  the  Simler  Collection.  —  Antiqu.  Gernl.,  I. — 
The  Chronicle  of  Fridolix  Rtff,  ed.  by  W.  Vischer  (son),  in  the  Easier 
Chroniken  (vol.  1,  Leipzig,  1872),  extends  from  1514  to  1541. 

II.  Melchior  Kirchofer  (of  Schaffhausen)  :  Osicald  Myconius,  Antistes  der 
Bas/erischen  Kirche.  Ziirich,  1813  (pp.  387).  Still  very  serviceable. — 
E.  Hagexbach  :  Joh.  Oecolainpad  und  Oswald  Myconius,  die  Reformatoren 
Basels.  Elberfeld,  1859  (pp.  309-462).  Also  his  Geschichte  der  ersten  Easier 
Confession.     Basel,  1828.  —  B.  Riggexbach,  in  Herzog^,  X.  403-405. 

1  Comp.  Schweizer,  Centraldogmen,  II.  26,  116  sq.,  140  sq.,  143. 
-  J.  C.  Morikofer  (author  of  the  Life  of  Zwingii),  Johann  Jakob  Eveitinger 
Leipzig,  1873.     Karl  Meyer,  in  Herzog'^,  II.  597. 


216  THE   SWISS    KEFOEMATION. 

Oswald  Myconius  (1488-1552), ^  a  native  of  Luzern,  an 
intimate  friend  of  Zwingli,  and  successor  of  CEcolampadius, 
was  to  the  Church  of  Basel  what  Bullinofer  was  to  the  Church 
of  Ziirich,  —  a  faithful  preserver  of  the  Reformed  religion, — 
but  in  a  less  difficult  position  and  more  limited  sphere  of 
usefulness.  He  spent  his  earlier  life  as  classical  teacher  in 
Basel,  Ziirich,  Luzern,  Einsiedeln,  and  again  in  Ziirich.  His 
pupil,  Thomas  Plater,  speaks  highly  of  his  teaching  ability 
and  success.  Erasmus  honored  him  with  his  friendship  before 
he  fell  out  with  the  Reformation. ^ 

After  the  death  of  Zwingli  and  CEcolampadius,  he  moved 
to  Basel  as  pastor  of  St.  Alban  (Dec.  22,  1531),  and  was 
elected  Antistes  or  chief  pastor  of  the  Church  of  that  city, 
and  professor  of  New  Testament  exegesis  in  the  university 
(August,  1532).  He  was  not  ordained,  and  had  no  academic 
degree,  and  refused  to  take  one  because  Christ  had  forbidden 
his  disciples  to  be  called  Rabbi  (Matt.  28 : 8).^  He  carried 
out  the  views  of  CEcolampadius  on  discipline,  and  maintained 
the  independence  of  the  Church  in  its  relation  to  the  State 
and  the  university.  He  had  to  suffer  much  opposition  from 
Carlstadt,  who,  by  his  recommendation,  became  professor  of 
theology  in  Basel  (1534),  and  ended  there  his  restless  life 

1  His  proper  name  was  Geisshiissler.  He  is  to  be  distinguished  from  Fried- 
rich  Myconius  (Mecum),  who  was  a  friend  of  Luther  and  superintendent  of 
Gotha  (d.  1546). 

2  In  a  letter  of  Oct.  5,  1532,  Erasmus  called  Myconius  a  "homo  ineptus  et 
quondam  lud'imagister  frigidus."  Epist.  1233.  See  Hagenbach.  Oekol.  und 
Mycon.,  p.  329  sq.  and  339,  where  he  remarks :  "  Und  dock  hatte  Erasmus  diesen 
Einfallspinsel  von  Schulmeister  friiher  seines  Umgangs  geiviirdigt  und  ihn  vor  Vielen 
ausgezeichnet !  Aber  der  grdmliche  Mann  war  jetzt  gegen  alles  erbittert,  icas  mit 
der  von  ihm  verkannten  und  gehassten  Reformation  in  Verbindung  stand  und  glaubte 
sich,  vom  alien  Ruhme  seines  Namens  zehrend,  berechtigt,  seincm  Unwillen  jeden 
beliebiqen  Ausdruck  zu  geben." 

3  Hagenbach  (341)  :  "  Myconius  hatte  keine  kirchliche  Ordination  erhalten,  nock 
viel  weniger  etwas  von  dem  was  man  einen  akademischen  Grad  nennt.  Er  war 
we(ier  Baccalaureus,  noch  Licentiat,  noch  Magister,  nock  Doctor  geivorden."  Luther 
was  proud  to  be  a  doctor  of  divinity;  but  Melanchthon  and  Zwingli  were 
satisfied  with  their  M.A.  Calvin,  like  Myconius,  was  never  ordained,  as  far  as 
we  know,  although  he  was  intended  for  the  priesthood. 


§  56.    OSWALD   MYCONIUS.  217 

(1541).  He  took  special  interest  in  the  higher  and  lower 
schools.  He  showed  hospitality  to  the  numei-ous  Protestants 
from  France  who,  like  Farel  and  Calvin,  sought  a  temporary 
refuge  in  Basel.  The  English  martyrologist,  John  Foxe,  fled 
from  the  Marian  persecution  to  Basel,  finished  and  published 
there  the  first  edition  of  his  Book  of  Martyrs  (1554). 

On  the  doctrine  of  the  Eucharist,  Myconius,  like  Calvin 
after  him,  occupied  a  middle  ground  between  Zwingli  and 
Luther.  He  aided  Bucer  in  his  union  movement  which 
resulted  in  the  adoption  of  the  Wittenberg  Concordia  and 
a  temporary  conciliation  of  Luther  with  the  Swiss  (1536). 
He  was  suspected  by  the  Zilrichers  of  leaning  too  much  to 
the  Lutheran  side,  but  he  never  admitted  the  corporal  pres- 
ence and  oral  manducation ;  he  simply  emphasized  more  than 
Zwingli  the  spiritual  real  presence  and  fruition  of  the  body 
and  blood  of  Christ.  He  thoue^ht  that  Luther  and  Zwinofli 
had  misunderstood  each  other. ^ 

Myconius  matured,  on  the  basis  of  a  draft  of  CEcolampa- 
dius,  the  First  Basel  Confession  of  Faith,  which  was  adopted 
by  the  magistracy,  Jan.  21, 1534,  and  also  by  the  neighboring 
city  of  Miihlhausen.2  It  is  very  simple,  and  consists  of  twelve 
Articles,  on  God  (the  trinity),  man,  providence,  Christ,  the 
Church  and  sacraments,  the  Lord's  Supper,  the  ban,  the  civil 
government,  faith  and  good  works,  the  last  judgment,  feasts, 
fasts,  and  celibacy,  and  the  Anabaptists  (condemning  their 

1  Hagenbach  (359)  :  "  Was  Zwingli  verneint  hatte,  das  verneinte  auch  er  {Mi/- 
conius']  fortwdhrend.  Nie  hdtte  er  zugegehen,  dass  Leib  und  Blut  Christi  ihrer 
leiblichen  Substanz  nach  in  den  Elementen  des  Abendmahls  vorhanden  seien ;  nie 
zugegeben,  dass  sie  auch  von  den  Ungldubigen  genossen  werden.  Was  dagegen 
Zwingli  mehr  zugegehen,  als  in  den  Vordergrund  gestellt  hatte,  den  geistlichen 
Genuss  durch  den  Glauben,  das  hob  er  mit  Nachdruck  hervor.  Mit  gutern  Geivissen 
glaubte  er  in  den  Fusstapfen  seines  Meisters  fortzuwandeln,  der  so  redlich  und  tapfer 
in  Marburg  die  Hand  sum  Frieden  geboten  hatte." 

2  Bekanthnuss  unseres  keyl,  christenlichen  Gloubens,  wie  es  die  Kylch  von  Basel 
haldt;  also  called  Confessio  Miihlhusana.  In  Niemeyer's  Collectio  Confess., 
78-84;  and  in  Hagenbach's  biography  at  the  end,  pp.  465-476.  Comp.  also 
his  History  of  that  Confession,  and  Schaff,  Creeds,  I.  387  sq. 


218  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

views  on  infant  baptism,  the  oath,  and  civil  government). 
It  is  written  in  Swiss-German,  with  marginal  Scripture  refer- 
ences and  notes.  It  claims  no  infallibility  or  binding  author- 
ity, and  concludes  with  the  words :  "  We  submit  this  our 
confession  to  the  judgment  of  the  divine  Scriptures,  and  are 
always  ready,  if  we  can  be  better  informed  from  them,  very 
thankfully  to  obey  God  and  his  holy  Word." 

This  Confession  was  superseded  by  maturer  statements  of 
the  Reformed  faith,  but  retained  a  semi-symbolical  authority 
in  the  Church  of  Basel,  as  a  venerable  historical  document. 

Myconius  wrote  the  first  biography  of  Zwingli  in  twelve 
short  chapters  (1532).^   His  other  writings  are  not  important.^ 

One  of  his  most  influential  successors  was  Lukas  Gernler, 
who  presided  as  Antistes  over  the  Church  of  Basel  from  1656 
to  1675.  He  formulated  the  scholastic  system  of  Calvinism, 
with  many  subtle  definitions  and  distinctions,  in  a  Syllabus 
of  588  Theses.  In  connection  with  John  Henry  Heidegger 
of  Ziirich  and  the  elder  Turretin  of  Geneva,  he  prepared  the 
Helvetic  Consensus  P^ormula,  the  last  and  the  most  rigid  of 
Calvinistic  symbols  (1675).  He  was  the  last  representative 
of  strict  Calvinistic  orthodoxy  in  Basel.  He  combined  with 
an  intolerant  creed  a  benevolent  heart,  and  induced  the 
magistracy  of  Basel  to  found  an  orphan  asylum.  The  famous 
Hebrew  and  Talmudic  scholars,  John  Buxtorf  (1564-1629), 
his  son,  John  (1599-1664),  and  his  grandson,  John  Jacob 
(1645-1704),  who  adorned  the  university  of  Basel  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  fully  agreed  with  the  doctrinal  position 
of  Gernler,  and  defended  even  the  rabbinical  tradition  of  the 
literal  inspkation  of  the  Masoretic  text  against  Louis  Cappel, 
who  attacked  it  with  great  learning  (1650). ^ 

1  It  was  reprinted  at  Berlin,  1841,  in  Vitce  Quatuor  Beformatorum,  with  a 
Preface  of  Neander. 

-  See  extracts  in  Hagenbach's  biography,  pp.  .387-462. 
8  See  Schaff,  Creeds  of  Christendom,  I.  477  sqq. 


§  57.    THE   HELVETIC    CONFESSIONS    OF    FAITH.         219 

§  57.    The  Helvetic  Confessions  of  Faith. 

Niemeyer:  Collectio  Confess.  (Hall.  1840),  pp.  105-122  (Conf,  Helv.  prior, 
German  and  Latin),  and  462-536  (Conf.  Helv.  posterior).  —  Schaff  : 
Creeds  of  Christendom  (New  York,  6th  ed.  1890),  vol.  I.  388-420  (history)  ; 
III.  211-307  (First  and  Second  Helv.  Conf.),  831-909  (Second  Helv. 
Cqnf.  in  English).     Other  literature  quoted  by  Schaff,  I.  385  and  399. 

Bullinger  and  Myconius  authoritatively  formulated  the 
doctrines  of  the  Reformed  Churches  in  Switzerland,  and 
impressed  upon  them  a  strongly  evangelical  character,  with- 
out the  scholastic  subtleties  of  a  later  period. 

The  Sixty-seven  Conclusions  and  the  two  private  Confes- 
sions of  Zwingli  (to  Charles  V.,  and  Francis  I.)  were  not 
intended  to  be  used  as  public  creeds,  and  never  received  the 
sanction  of  the  Church.  The  Ten  Theses  of  Bern  (1528), 
the  First  Confession  of  Basel  (1534),  the  Ziirich  Consensus 
(1549),  and  the  Geneva  Consensus  (1552)  were  official  doc- 
uments, but  had  only  local  authority  in  the  cities  where  they 
originated.  But  the  First  and  Second  Helvetic  Confessions 
were  adopted  by  the  Swiss  and  other  Churches,  and  kept 
their  place  as  symbolical  books  for  nearly  three  hundred 
years.  They  represent  the  Zwinglian  type  of  doctrine  modi- 
fied and  matured.  They  approach  the  Calvinistic  system, 
without  its  logical  rigor. 

I.  The  First  Helvetic  Confession,  1536.  It  is  also 
called  the  Second  Basel  Confession,  to  distinguish  it  from  the 
First  Basel  Confession  of  1534.  It  was  made  in  Basel,  but 
not  for  Basel  alone.  It  owes  its  origin  partly  to  the  renewed 
efforts  of  the  Strassburg  Reformers,  Bucer  and  Capito,  to 
bring  about  a  union  between  the  Lutherans  and  the  Zwingli- 
ans,  and  partly  to  the  papal  promise  of  convening  a  General 
Council.  A  number  of  Swiss  divines  were  delegated  by  the 
magistrates  of  Ziirich,  Bern,  Basel,  Schaffhausen,  St.  Gall, 
MUhlhausen,  and  Biel,  to  a  conference  in  the  Augustinian 
convent  at  Basel,  Jan.  30,  1536.  Bucer  and  Capito  also 
appeared   on    behalf   of   Strassburg.      Bullinger,  Myconius, 


220  THE   SWISS   EEFOEMATION. 

Grynseus,  Leo  Judse,  and  Megander  were  selected  as  a  com- 
mission to  draw  up  a  Confession  of  the  faith  of  the  Helvetic 
Churches,  which  might  be  used  at  the  proposed  General 
Council.  It  was  examined  and  signed  by  all  the  clerical  and 
lay  delegates,  February,  1536,  and  first  published  in  Latin. 
Leo  Judse  prepared  the  German  translation,  which  is  fuller 
than  the  Latin  text,  and  of  equal  authority. 

Luther,  to  whom  a  copy  was  sent  through  Bucer,  unex- 
pectedly expressed,  in  two  remarkable  letters,^  his  satisfaction 
with  the  earnest  Christian  character  of  this  document,  and 
promised  to  do  all  he  could  to  promote  union  and  harmony 
with  the  Swiss.  He  was  then  under  the  hopeful  impressions 
of  the  "Wittenberg  Concordia,"  which  Bucer  had  brought 
about  by  his  elastic  diplomacy,  May,  1536,  but  which  proved, 
after  all,  a  hollow  peace,  and  could  not  be  honestly  signed  by 
the  Swiss.  Luther  himself  made  a  new  and  most  intemperate 
attack  on  the  Zwinglians  (1545),  a  3'ear  before  his  death. 

The  First  Helvetic  Confession  is  the  earliest  Reformed 
Creed  that  has  acquired  a  national  authority.  It  consists  of 
27  articles,  is  fuller  than  the  First  Confession  of  Basel,  but 
not  so  full  as  the  Second  Helvetic  Confession,  by  which  it 
was  afterwards  superseded.  The  doctrine  of  the  sacraments 
and  of  the  Lord's  Supper  is  essentially  Zwinglian,  yet  em- 
phasizes the  significance  of  the  sacramental  signs  and  the 
real  spiritual  presence  of  Christ,  who  gives  his  body  and 
blood  —  that  is,  himself  —  to  believers,  so  that  he  more  and 
more  lives  in  them,  and  they  in  him. 

Bullinger  and  Leo  Juda3  wished  to  add  a  caution  against 
the  binding  authority  of  this  or  any  other  confession  that 
might  interfere  with  the  supreme  authority  of  the  Word  of 
God  and  with  Christian  liberty.  They  had  a  correct  feeling 
of  a  difference  between  a  confession  of  doctrine  which  may 

1  One  to  Jacob  Meyer,  burgomaster  of  Basel,  Feb.  17,  1537,  one  to  the 
Swiss  Reformed  Cantons,  Dec.  1,  1537,  in  De  Wette's  ed.,  vol.  V.  54  sqq.  and 
83  sqq. 


J 


§  57.     THE   HELVETIC    CONFESSIONS   OF   FAITH.         221 

be  improved  from  time  to  time  with  the  progress  of  religious 
knowledge,  and  a  rule  of  faith  which  remains  unchanged. 
A  confession  of  the  Church  has  relative  authority  as  norma 
normata^  and  depends  upon  its  agreement  with  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  which  have  absolute  authority  as  norma  normans. 

II.  The  Second  Helvetic  Confession,  1566.  This  is 
far  more  important  than  the  first,  and  obtained  authority 
beyond  the  limits  of  Switzerland.  In  the  intervening  thirty 
years  Calvin  had  developed  his  theological  system,  and  the 
Council  of  Trent  had  formulated  the  modern  Roman  creed. 
BuUinger  prepared  this  Confession  in  1562  for  his  private 
use,  as  a  testimony  of  the  faith  in  which  he  had  lived  and 
wished  to  die.  Two  years  afterwards,  during  the  raging  of 
the  pestilence,  he  elaborated  it  more  fully,  in  the  daily  expec- 
tation of  death,  and  added  it  to  his  last  will  and  testament, 
which  was  to  be  delivered  to  the  magistracy  of  Ziirich  after 
his  decease. 

But  events  in  Germany  gave  to  this  private  creed  a  public 
character.  The  pious  elector  of  the  Palatinate,  Frederick  III., 
being  threatened  by  the  Lutherans  with  exclusion  from  the 
treaty  of  peace  on  account  of  his  secession  to  the  Reformed 
Church  and  the  publication  of  the  Heidelberg  Catechism 
(1563),  requested  BuUinger  in  1565  to  prepare  a  full  and 
clear  exposition  of  the  Reformed  faith,  that  he  might  answer 
the  charges  of  heresy  and  dissension  so  constantly  brought 
against  the  same.  BuUinger  sent  him  a  manuscrij^t  copy  of 
his  confession.  The  Elector  was  so  much  pleased  with  it  that 
he  desired  to  have  it  translated  and  published  in  Latin  and 
German  before  the  Imperial  Diet,  which  was  to  assemble 
at  Augsburg  in  1566  and  to  act  on  his  alleged  apostasy. 

In  the  meantime  the  Swiss  felt  the  need  of  such  a  Confes- 
sion as  a  closer  bond  of  union.  The  First  Helvetic  Con- 
fession was  deemed  too  short,  and  the  Ziirich  Consensus  of 
1549  and  the  Geneva  Consensus  of  1552  treated  only  two 
articles,  namely,  the  Lord's  Supj)er  and  predestination.    Con- 


222  THE   SWISS   REFORMATION. 

ferencea  were  held,  and  Beza  came  in  person  to  Zurich  to 
take  part  in  the  work.  Bullinger  freely  consented  to  a  few 
changes,  and  prepared  also  the  German  version.  Geneva, 
Bern,  Schaffhausen,  Biel,  the  Grisons,  St.  Gall,  and  Miihl- 
hausen  expressed  their  agreement.  Basel  alone,  which  had 
its  own  confession,  declined  for  a  long  time,  but  ultimately 
acceded. 

The  new  Confession  was  published  at  Zurich,  March  12, 
1566,  in  both  languages,  at  public  expense,  and  was  for- 
warded to  the  Elector  of  the  Palatinate  and  to  Philip  of 
Hesse.  A  French  translation  appeared  soon  afterwards  in 
Geneva  under  the  care  of  Beza. 

In  the  same  year  the  Elector  Frederick  made  such  a 
manly  and  noble  defence  of  his  faith  before  the  Diet  at 
Augsburg,  that  even  his  Lutheran  opponents  were  tilled  with 
admiration  for  his  piety,  and  thought  no  longer  of  impeach- 
ing him  for  heresy. 

The  Helvetic  Confession  is  tlie  most  widely  adopted,  and 
hence  the  most  authoritative  of  all  the  Continental  Reformed 
symbols,  with  the  exception  of  the  Heidelberg  Catechism. 
It  was  sanctioned  in  Ziirich  and  the  Palatinate  (1566),  Neu- 
chatel  (1568),  by  the  Reformed  Churches  of  France  (at  the 
Synod  of  La  Rochelle,  1571),  Hungary  (at  the  S^-nod  of 
Debreczin,  1567),  and  Poland  (1571  and  1578).  It  was  well 
received  also  in  Holland,  England,  and  Scotland  as  a  sound 
statement  of  the  Reformed  faith.  It  was  translated  not  only 
into  German,  French,  and  English,  but  also  into  Dutch, 
Magyar,  Polish,  Italian,  Arabic,  and  Turkish.  In  Austria 
and  Bohemia  the  Reformed  or  Calvinists  are  officially  called 
"the  Church  of  the  Helvetic  Confession,"  the  Lutherans, 
"the  Church  of  the  Auarsburof  Confession." 


THIRD   BOOK. 

THE  REFORMATION  IX  FRENCH  SWITZERLAND, 

OR 

THE   CALVINISTIC   MOVEMENT. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

THE   PREPARATORY  WORK.      FROM  1526  to  1536. 

§  58.    Literature  on  Calvin  and  the  Reformation  in  French 

Switzerland. 

Important  documents  relating  to  the  Reformation  in  French  Switzerland 
are  contained  in  the  Archives  of  Geneva  and  Bern.  Many  documents  have 
been  recently  published  by  learned  Genevese  archseologists,  as  GalifEe,  father 
and  son,  Gre'nus,  Revilliod,  E.  Mallet,  Chaponniere,  Fick,  and  the  Society  of 
History  and  Archaeology  of  Geneva. 

The  best  Calvin  libraries  are  in  the  Uijiversity  of  Geneva,  where  his  MSB. 
are  preserved  in  excellent  order,  and  in  the  St.  Thomasstift  at  Strassburg. 
The  latter  was  collected  by  Profs.  Baum,  Cunitz,  and  Reuss,  the  editors  of 
Calvin's  Works,  during  half  a  century,  and  embraces  274  publications  of  the 
Reformer  (among  them  36  Latin  and  18  French  editions  of  the  Iiistitutio), 
many  rare  contemporary  works,  and  700  modern  books  bearing  upon  Calvin 
and  his  Reformation.  The  Society  of  the  History  of  French  Protestantism 
in  Paris  (5-1  rue  des  saints  peres)  has  a  large  collection  of  printed  works. 

I.     CORRESPONDEXCE    OF    THE    SwiSS    REFORMERS    AND    THEIR    FrIENDS. 

Letters  took  to  a  large  extent  the  place  of  modern  newspapers  and  pam- 
phlets ;  hence  their  large  number  and  importance. 

*  A.  S.  Herminjarp  :  Correspondance  des  reformateurs  dans  les  pays  de  lamjue 
francaise,  etc.  Geneve  et  Paris  (Fischbacher,  33  rue  de  Seine),  1866-'86, 
7  vols.  To  be  continued.  The  most  complete  collection  of  letters  of  the 
Reformers  of  French  Switzerland  and  their  friends,  with  historical  and 
biographical  notes.  The  editor  shows  an  extraordinary  familiarity  with 
the  history  of  the  French  and  Swiss  Reformation.  The  first  three  volumes 
embrace  the  period  from  1512  to  1536;  vols.  IV.-VII.  extend  from  1536 
to  1512,  or  from  the  publication  of  Calvin's  Institutes  to  the  acceptance 


224         THE   REFORMATION   IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

of  the  ecclesiastical  ordinances  at  Geneva.  For  the  following  years  to 
the  death  of  Calvin  (1564)  we  have  the  correspondence  in  the  Strassburg- 
Brunswick  edition  of  Calvin's  works,  vols.  X.-XX.     See  below. 

II.  The  History  of  Geneva  before,  during,  and  after  the  Refor- 
mation : 

Jac.  Spon  :  Histoire  de  la  ville  et  de  iVtat  de  Geneve.  Lyon,  1680,  2  vols. : 
revised  and  enlarged  by  J.  A.  Gautier,  Geneve,  1730,  2  vols. 

J.  P.  B^RENGER :  Histoire  de  Geneve  jusqii'en  1761.     Geneve.     1772,  6  vols. 

(Grenus)  Fraqments  biographiques  et  historiques  e.ctraits  des  registres  de  Geneve. 
Geneve,  1815. 

M^MOiRES  et  documents  pnblie's  par  la  Socie'le'  d'histoire  et  d'arche'ologie  de 
Geneve.     1840  sqq.,  vol.  I.-XIV. 

Francois  Bonivard  :  Les  chroniques  de  Geneve.  Publie's  par  G.  Revilliod. 
Geneve,  1867,  2  vols. 

*  Amedee  Roget  (Professor  at  the  University  of  Geneva,  d.  Sept.  29, 1883) : 
Histoire  du  peuple  de  Geneve  de/iuis  la  reforme  jusqu'a  ['escalade.  Geneve, 
1870-83.  7  vols.  From  1536  to  1567.  The  work  was  to  extend  to 
1602,  but  was  interrupted  by  the  death  of  the  author.  Impartial.  The 
best  history  of  Geneva  during  the  Reformation  period.  The  author  was 
neither  a  eulogist  nor  a  detractor  of  Calvin.  —  By  the  same :  L'e'glise  et 
l'€tat  a  Geneve  du  vivant  de  Calvin.     Geneve,  1867  (pp.  91). 

Jacq.  Aug.  Galiffe  :  Materiaux  pour  V histoire  de  Geneve.  Geneve,  1829  and  '30, 
2  vols.  8°;  Notices  ge'ne'alogiques  sur  les  families  genevoises,  Geneve,  1829, 
4  vols. — J.  B.  G.  Galiffe  (son  of  the  former,  and  Professor  of  the 
Academy  of  Geneva)  :  Besangon  Hugues,  libe'rateur  de  Geneve.  Historique 
de  la  fondation  de  I'lndependance  Genevoise,  Geneve,  1859  (pp.330);  Geneve 
historique  et  arche'ol.,  Geneve,  1869;  Quelques  pages  d'histoire  exacte,  soit  les 
proces  criminels  intente's  a  Geneve  en  1547,  pour  haute  trahison  contre  noble 
Ami  Perrin,  ancien  syndic,  conseiller  et  capitaine-ge'ne'ral  de  la  republique,  et 
contre  son  accusateur  noble  Laurent  Meigret  dit  le  Magnijique,  Geneve,  1862 
(135  pp.  4°)  ;  Nouvelles  pages  d'histoire  exacte  soit  le  proces  de  Pierre  Ameaux, 
Geneve,  1863  (116  pp.  4°).  The  Galiffes,  father  and  son,  descended  from 
an  old  Genevese  family,  are  Protestants,  but  very  hostile  to  Calvin  and 
his  institutions,  chiefly  from  the  political  point  of  view'.  They  maintain, 
on  the  ground  of  family  papers  and  the  acts  of  criminal  processes,  that 
Geneva  was  independent  and  free  before  Calvin,  and  that  he  introduced 
a  system  of  despotism.  "La  plupart  des  faits  racontes  par  le  medecin  T^yon- 
nais"  (Bolsec),  says  the  elder  Galiffe  (Notices  ge'n^alogiques,  III.  547), 
"  sont  parfaitement  vrais."  He  judges  Calvin  by  the  modern  theory  of 
toleration  which  Calvin  and  Beza  with  their  whole  age  detested.  "Zes 
veritable  protestants  genevois,"  he  says,  "^taient  ceiix  qui  voulaient  que  chacun 
fut  libre  de  penser  ce  que  sa  raison  lui  inspirait,  et  de  ne  faire  que  ce  qu'elle 
approuvait  ,*  mais  que  personne  ne  se  permit  d'attaquer  la  religion  de  son  pro- 
chain,  de  se  moquer  de  sa  croyance,  ou  de  le  scandaliser  par  des  de'monstrations 
malicieuses  et  par  des  fanfaronnades  de  supifriorite'  qui  ne  prourent  que  la 
fatuit€  ridicule  de  ceux  qui  se  nomment  les  e'lus."     The  Galiffes  sympathize 


§  58.     LITEUATUKE    ON    CALVIN,    ETC^  225 

with  Ami  Perrin,  Franrois  Favre,  Jean  Philippe,  Jean  Lullin,  Pierre 
Vandel,  Michael  Servet,  and  all  others  who  were  opposed  to  Calvin. 
For  a  fair  criticism  of  the  works  of  the  Galiffes,  see  La  France  Protes- 
tanfe,  II.  7G7  sqq.,  2d  ed. 

III.   Thk  Reformers  before  Calvin: 

*  Le  Chroniqueur.  Ilecueil  historique,  et  journal  de  I'Helvetie  romande,  en  I'an  1535 
eten  Van  1586.  Edited  by  L.  VuUiemin,  18;J5.  Lausanne  (Marc  Duclos), 
326  pp.  4'^.  Descriptions  and  reprints  of  documents  relating  to  the  religious 
condition  in  those  two  years,  in  the  form  of  a  contemporary  journal. 

Melchior  Kirchhofer  (of  Schaffhausen,  1773-1853)  :  Das  Leben  Wiihelm 
Farels  aus  den  QueUen  hearbeitet.  Ziirich,  1831  and  '33,  2  vols.  (pp.  251 
and  190,  no  index).  Very  good  for  that  time.  He  also  wrote  biographies 
of  Haller,  Hof  nieister,  Myconius. 

Oh.  CheneviJire  :  Farel,  Froment,  Viret,  reformateurs  relig.     Geneve,  1835. 

H.  Jaquemot  :  Viret,  i-e'formateur  de  Lausanne.     Strassburg,  1856. 

F.  Godet  (Professor  and  Pastor  in  Neuchatel)  :  Uistoire  de  la  reformation  et 
du  refuge  dans  le  pai/s  de  Neuchatel.  Neuchatel,  1859  (209  pp.).  Chiefly 
devoted  to  the  labors  of  Farel,  but  carries  the  history  down  to  the  immi- 
gration of  French  refugees  after  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes. 

C.  Schmidt  (of  Strassburg)  :  Wiihelm  Farel  und  Peter  Viret.  Nach  hand- 
schriftlirhen  und  ghichzeitigen  Quellcn.  Elberfeld,  1860.  (In  vol.  IX.  of 
the  "  Leben  und  ausgewiihlte  Schriften  der  Viiter  der  reform.  Kirche.") 

T.  Cart  :  Pierre  Viret,  le  r€formateur  vaudois.     Lausanne,  1864. 

C.  JuNOD :  Farel,  rtformateur  de  la  Swisse  romande  et  refformateur  de  l'€glise  de 
Neuchatel.    Neuchatel  et  Paris,  1865. 

IV.   Works  and  Correspondence  of  John  Calvin  : 

Job.  Calvini  :  Opera  qum  supersunt  omnia,  ed.  G.  Baum,  E.  Cunitz,  E.  Reuss, 
theologi  Argentoratenses.  Brunsvigae,  1863  sqq.  (in  the  Corp.  Reform,^.  So 
far  (1892)  48  vols.  4°.  The  most  complete  and  most  critical  edition. 
The  three  editors  died  before  the  completion  of  their  work,  but  left  mate- 
rial for  the  remaining  volumes  (vols.  45  sqq.)  whicli  are  edited  by  Alf. 
Erichson. 

Older  Latin  edd.,  Geneva,  1617,  7  vols,  folio,  and  Amctelod.,  1667-'71,  in  9  vols, 
folio.  Separate  Latin  editions  of  the  Institutes,  by  Tholuck  (Berlin,  1834 
and  '46),  and  of  the  Commentaries  on  Genesis  by  Hengstenberg  (Berlin, 
1838),  on  the  Psalms  (Berlin,  1830-'34),  and  the  New  Testament,  except 
the  Apocalypse  (1833-38,  in  7  vols.),  by  Tholuck.  The  same  books  have 
also  been  separately  republished  in  French. 

An  English  edition  of  Calvin's  Works,  by  the  "Calvin  Translation  Society," 
Edinburgh,  184.3-53,  in  52  vols.  The  Listit.at.es  have  been  translated  by 
Allen  (London,  1813,  often  reprinted  by  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Pub- 
lication in  Philadelphia),  and  by  Henry  Beveridge  (Edinburgh,  1840). 
German  translations  of  his  Institnles  by  Fr.  Ad.  Krummacher  (1834)  and 
by  B.  Spiess  (the  first  edition  of  1536,  Wiesbaden,  1887),  and  of  parts  of 
his  Comment.,  by  C.  F.  L.  Matthieu  (1859  sqq.). 


226         THE    KEFOKMATION    IN    FKENCH    SWITZEKLANI). 

The  extensive  correspondence  of  Calvin  was  first  edited  in  part  by  Beza  and 
JoNViLLiEKS  (Calvin's  secretary),  Geneva;,  1575,  and  other  editions ; 
then  hy  Bketsciineider  (the  Gotha  Letters),  Lips.  1835 ;  by  A.  Ckottet, 
Geneve,  1850;  much  more  completely  by  Jules  Bonnet,  Lettres  Francoises, 
Paris,  1854,  2  vols.;  an  English  translation  (from  the  French  and  Latin) 
by  D.  CoNSTAHLE  and  M.  K.  Gi-lchrist,  Edinburgh  and  Philadelphia 
(Presbyterian  Board  of  Publication),  1855  sqq.,  in  4  vols,  (the  fourth 
with  an  index),  giving  the  letters  in  chronological  order  (till  1558).  The 
last  and  best  edition  is  by  the  Strassburg  Professors  in  Caloini  Opera, 
vol.  X.  Part  II.  to  vol.  XX.,  with  ample  Prolegomena  on  the  various  edi- 
tions of  Calvin's  Letters  and  the  manuscript  sources.  His  letters  down 
to  1542  are  also  given  by  Herminjard,  vols.  VI.  and  YIL,  quoted  above. 

V.    BiOGRAruiES  OF  Cala'in  : 

♦Theodor  Beza  (d.  1004)  :  Johaimis  Calvini  Vita.  First  published  with  Cal- 
vin's posthumous  Commentary  on  Joshua,  in  the  year  of  his  death. 
It  is  reprinted  in  all  editions  of  Calvin's  works,  and  in  Tholuck's  edition 
of  Calvin's  Commentary  on  the  Gospels.  In  the  same  year  Beza  pub- 
lished a  French  edition  under  the  title,  L'llistoire  de  la  vie  et  murt  de 
Maistre  Jean  Calvin  avec  le  testament  et  derniere  volonte  dudit  Calvin :  et  le 
catalogue  des  liv7-es  par  lay  composez.  Geneve,  1564 ;  second  French  edition, 
enlarged  and  improved  by  his  friend  and  colleague,  Nic.  Colladon,  15G5 ; 
best  edition,  Geneva,  1657  (very  rare,  204  pp.),  which  has  been  carefully 
republished  from  a  copy  in  the  Mazarin  library,  with  an  introduction  and 
notes  by  Alfred  Franklin,  Paris,  1869  (pp.  Ixi  and  2114).  This  edition 
should  be  consulted.  The  three  biographies  of  Beza  (two  French  and 
one  Latin)  are  reprinted  in  the  Brunswick  edition  of  Calvin's  Opera  with 
a  notice  litteraire,  Tom.  XXI.  pp.  6-172,  to  which  are  added  the  Epitaphia 
in  lo.  Calvinum  scripta  (Hebrew,  Greek,  Latin,  and  French).  There  are 
also  German,  English,  and  Italian  translations  of  this  biography.  An 
English  translation  by  Francis  Sibson  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  re- 
printed in  Philadelphia,  1836;  another  by  Beveridge,  Edinburgh,  1843. 

The  biography  of  Beza  as  enlarged  by  Colladon,  though  somewhat  eulogistic, 
and  especially  Calvin's  letters  and  works,  and  the  letters  of  his  friends 
who  knew  him  best,  furnish  the  chief  material  for  an  authentic  biography. 

HiEROSME  Hermes  Bolsec  :  Histoire  de  la  vie,  jiiceurs,  actes,  doctrine,  Constance 
et  mart  de  Jean  Calvin,  jadis  ministre  de  Geneve,  dedie  au  Heverendissime 
archeuesque,  conte  de  I'Eglise  de  Lyon,  et  Primat  de  France,  Lyon,  1577 
(26  chs.  and  143  pp.)  ;  republished  at  Paris,  1582;  and  with  an  introduc- 
tion and  notes  hy  L.  Fr.  Chastel,  Lyon,  1875  (pp.  xxxi  and  328).  I  have 
used  Chastel's  edition.  A  Latin  translation,  De  J.  Calvini  magni  quondam 
Genevensium  ministri  vita,  moribus,  rebus  gestis,  studiis  ac  denique  morte,  ap- 
peared in  Paris,  1577,  also  at  Cologne,  1580;  a  German  translation  at 
Cologne,  1581.  Bolsec  was  a  Carmelite  monk,  then  physician  at  Geneva, 
expelled  on  account  of  Pelagian  views  and  opposition  to  Calvin,  1551 ; 
returned  to  the  Roman  Church;  d.  at  Annecy  about  1584.  His  book  is  a 
mean  and  unscrupulous  libel,  inspired  by  feelings  of  hatred  and  revenge ; 


§  58.    LlTERATUItE   ON   CALVm,    ETC.  227 

but  some  of  his  facts  are  true,  and  have  been  confirmed  by  the  documents 
published  by  Galiffe.  Bolsec  wrote  a  simihar  biography  of  Beza  :  Histoire 
de  la  vie,  inmtrs,  doctrine  ct  deportments  de  Th.  de  Bize  dit  le  Spectable,  1582. 
A  Erencli  writer  says,  "  Ces  biographies  sont  un  tissu  de  calomnies  qu'  aucun 
historien  se'rieu.v,  pas  rneme  le  P.  Maimhourg,  n'a  os€  admettre  et  dont  plus 
recemment  M.  Mignet  a  fait  bonne  justice."  (A.  Re'ville  in  Lichtcnberger's 
"  Encycl.,"  II.  343.)  Comp.  the  article  "  Bolsec  "  in  La  France  Protestante, 
2d  ed.  (1879),  II.  745-776. 

Antibolseccics.     Cleve,  1622.     Of  this  book  I  find  only  the  title. 

Jacques  Le  Vasseur  (canon  and  dean  of  the  Church  of  Noyon)  :  Annales  de 
I'e'gllse  cathedrale  de  JVoi/on.  Paris,  1633, 2  vols.  4°.  Contains  some  notices 
on  the  birth  and  relations  of  Calvin. 

Jacques  Desmay  (R.  C.)  :  Remarques  sur  la  vie  de  J.  Calvin  he're'siarque  tir€es 
des  Reglstres  de  Noyon.     Rouen,  1621  and  1657. 

Charles  Drelixcourt  (pastor  at  Charenton)  :  La  defense  de  Calvin  contre 
r outrage  fait  a  sa  me'molre.  Geneve,  1667;  in  German,  Hanau,  1671.  A 
refutation  of  the  slanders  of  Bolsec  and  a  posthumous  book  of  Cardinal 
Richelieu  on  the  easiest  and  surest  method  of  conversion  of  those  who 
separated  themselves  from  the  Roman  Church.  Bayle  gives  an  epitome 
in  his  Dictionnaire. 

Melchior  Adaji  :  Vita  Calvlnl,  in  his  Vita'  Theologorum,  etc,  3d  ed.  Francof., 
1705  (Part  II.,  Decades  date,  etc.,  pp.  32-55).     Chiefly  from  Beza. 

Elijah  Waterjia.v  (pastor  of  the  Presbj-terian  Church  in  Bridgeport,  Conn.)  : 
Memoirs  of  the  Life  and  Writings  of  John  Calvin:  together  ivlth  a  selection  of 
Letters  written  by  him  and  other  distinguished  Reformers.     Hartford,  1813. 

Vincent  Audin  (R.  C,  1793-1851)  :  Histoire  de  la  vie,  des  ouvrages  et  des  doc- 
trines de  Calvin.  Paris,  1841,  2  vols.;  5t]i  ed.  1851 ;  6th  ed.  1873.  English 
translation  by  John  McGill ;  German  translation,  1843.  .Written  like  a 
novel,  with  a  deceptive  mixture  of  truth  and  falsehood.  It  is  a  Bolsec 
redivivus.  Audin  says  that  he  first  cast  away  the  book  of  Bolsec  "  as  a 
shameful  libel.  All  testimony  was  against  Bolsec :  Catholics  and  Protes- 
tants equally  accused  him.  But,  after  a  patient  study  of  the  reformer, 
we  are  now  compelled  to  admit,  in  part,  the  recital  of  the  physician  of 
Lyon.  Time  has  declared  for  Bolsec ;  each  day  gives  the  lie  to  the 
apologists  of  Calvin."  He  boasts  of  having  consulted  more  than  a  thou- 
sand volumes  on  Calvin,  but  betrays  his  polemical  bias  by  confessing  that 
he  "desired  to  prove  that  the  refugee  of  Noyon  was  fatal  to  civilization, 
to  the  arts,  and  to  civil  and  religious  liberty."  Audin  wrote  in  the  same 
spirit  the  history  of  Luther  (18-39,  3  vols.),  Henry  VIII.  (1847),  and 
Leo  X.  (1851).  His  work  is  disowned  and  virtually  refuted  by  fair- 
minded  Catholics  like  Ivampschulte,  Corne'lius,  and  Funk. 

*  Paul  Henry,  D.D.  (pastor  of  a  French  Reformed  Church  in  Berlin)  :  Das 
Leben  Johann  Calvlns  des  grossen  Refirinutors,  etc.  (dedicated  to  Neander). 
Hamburg,  1835-44,  3  vols.  Englisli  translation  (but  without  the  notes 
and  appendices,  and  differing  from  the  author  on  the  case  of  Servetus) 
by  Henry  Stebbing,  London  and  New  York,  1851,  in  2  vols.     This  large 


228         THE   KEFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

work  marks  an  epoch  as  an  industrious  collection  of  valuable  material, 
but  is  ill  digested,  and  written  with  unbounded  admiration  for  Calvin. 
Henry  wrote  also,  in  opposition  to  Audin  and  Galiffe,  an  abridged  Leben 
Johann  Calvin's.  Ein  Zeiifjniss  fiir  die  Wahrheit.  Hamburg  and  Gotha, 
1846  (pp.498). 

Thomas  Smyth,  D.D.  :  Calvin  and  his  Enemies.  1843;  new  ed.  Philadelphia 
(Presbyterian  Board  of  Publication),  1856,  and  again  1881.     Apologetic. 

Thomas  H.  Dyicr:  77/6  Life  of  John  Calvin.  London  (John  Murray),  1850, 
pp.  560  (republished,  New  York,  1851).  Graphic  and  impartial,  founded 
upon  Calvin's  correspondence,  Henry,  and  Trechsel  {Antitrinitarier). 

Felix  Bungknek:  Calvin,  sa  vie,  son  amvre,  et  ses  ecrits.  Paris,  2d  ed.  1863 
(pp.  468).     English  translation,  Edinburgh,  18G3. 

*  E.  Stahelin   (Reformed  minister  at    Basel):    Johannes   Calvin;   Leben  und 

ausgewdhlte  Hchriften,  Elbcrfeld,  1863,  2  vols,  (in  "  Vater  und  Begriinder 
der  reform.  Kirche,"  vol.  IV.  in  two  parts).  One  of  the  best  biographies, 
though  not  as  complete  as  Henry's,  and  in  need  of  modification  and 
additions  from  more  recent  researches. 

Paul  Pressel  (Luth.)  :  Johann  Calvin.  Ein  evangelisches  Lebensbild.  Elber- 
feld,  1864  (pp.  263).  For  the  tercentenary  of  Calvin's  death  (May  27, 
1864).  Based  upon  Stiihelin,  Henry,  Mignet,  and  Bonnet's  edition  of 
Calvin's  letters. 

Albert  Rilliet:  Biblioijraphie  de  la  vie  de  Calvin.  "  Correspond,  litteraire." 
Paris,  1864.     La  premier  seQ'our  de  Calvin  a  Geneve.     Gen.  1878. 

*  GuizoT  (the  great  historian  and  statesman,  a  descendant  of  the  Huguenots, 

d.  at  Val  Richer,  Sept.  12,  1874):  St.  Louis  and  Calvin.  London,  1868. 
Comp.  also  his  sketch  in  the  Mus^e  des  protestants  ce'lebres. 

*  F.  W.  Kampschulte  (a  liberal  Roman  Catholic,  Professor  of   History  at 

Bonn,  died  an  Old  Catiiolic,  1872)  :  Joh.  Calvin,  seine  Kirche  und  sein  Staat 
in  Genf.  Leipzig,  1869,  vol.  I.  (vols.  II.  and  III.  have  not  appeared). 
A  most  able,  critical,  and,  for  a  Catholic,  remarkably  fair  and  liberal 
work,  drawn  in  part  from  unpublished  sources.  —  In  the  same  spirit  of 
fairness.  Prof.  Funk  of  Tiibingen  wrote  an  article  on  Calvin  in  the 
2d  ed.  of  Wetzer  and  Welte's  Catholic  Kirchenlexicon,  II.  1727-1744. 

Thomas  M'Crie,  D.D. :  The  Earh/  Years  of  John  Calvin.  A  Fragment,  1509- 
1536.  A  posthumous  work,  edited  by  William  Ferguson.  Edinburgh, 
1880  (pp.  199).     Valuable  as  far  as  it  goes. 

Art.  "Calvin"  in  La  France  Protestante,  Paris,  2d  ed.  vol.  III.  (1881),  508-639. 

Abel  Lefranc  :  La  jeunesse  de  Calvin.  Paris,  1888  (pp.229).  The  author 
brings  to  light  new  facts  on  the  extent  of  the  Protestant  move- 
ment at  Noyon.  —  Comp.  his  Histoire  de  la  Ville  de  Noijon  et  de  ses  institu- 
tions.     Paris,  1888. 

Annales  Calviniani  by  the  editors  of  the  Brunswick  edition  of  Calvin's  Opera, 
Tom.  XXI.  183-818.     From  1509  to  1572.     Invaluable  for  reference. 


§  58.     LITEKATUKE    ON    CALVIN,    ETC.  229 

VI.     BlOGUArilK  AI,    SivKTCHIOS   AND   EsSAYS  ON   SPECIAL  PoiNTS  t'ONNIiOTKU 

WITH  Calvin: 

Fr.  Aug.  Alex.  Mignlt  (eminent  French  historian  and  academician,  1790- 
1884)  :  Mvmoire  stir  I'e'taUissciiienl  de  la  reybrme  et  sur  la  constitiUion  ilu 
Catviniame  a  Geneve.     Paris,  18o4.     The  same  in  German,  Leipzig,  1843. 

G.  Webek  :  Geschichtliche  Darstellitng  dcs  Calvinismus  im  Vcrhalhiiss  zinn  Sinat 
in  Genf  uud  Fraiikreich  his  ziir  Anfliebnmj  des  Edikts  von  Nantes.  Heidel- 
berg, 1830  (pp.  372). 

*  J.  J.  IIekzog:  Joh.  Calvin,  Basel,  1843;  and  in  his  lieal-I'^nrykldp.-  vol.  111. 
77-100. 

♦Jules  Bonnet:  Lettrcs  de  Jean  Calvin,  1854;  Calvin  au  val  d'Aoste,  1801; 
Idelelte  de  Bure,  femme  de  Calvin  (in  "Bulletin  de  la  societc'  de  I'liistoire 
du  Protest,  fran^ais,  1856,  Nos.  11  and  12) ;  lie'cits  du  seiziime  siicle,  Paris, 
1864  ;  Nouveaux  re'cils,  1870  ;   Derniers  re'cils,  1870. 

E.  Renan  :  Jean  Calvin,  in  iStudes  d'histoire  religieuse,  5th  ed.  Paris,  1802 ; 
English  translation  by  0.  B.  Frothingham  (Studies  of  Beligious  History 
and  Criticism,  New  York,  1864,  pp.  285-297). 

J.  H.  Albert  Rilliet  :  Lettre  a  M.  Merle  d'Aubigne  sur  deux  points  ohscurs  de 
la  vie  de  Calvin,  Geneve,  1864.  Le  premier  sejour  de  Calvin  a  Geneve,  in 
liis  and  Dufour's  edition  of  Calvin's  French  Catechism,  Geneve,  1878. 

Monkeberg  :  Joachim  Wcstphal  and  Joh.  Calvin.     Hamburg,  1865. 

J.  Kostlin  :    Calvin's  Institutio  nach   Form   uud  Inhalt,  in   the   "  Studien   und 

Kritiken,"  1868. 
Edmoni)  Stern:   La  the'orie  du  culte  d'ajiri's  Calvin.     Strassburg,  1800. 

James  Anthony  Fuoude  :  Calvinism,  an  Address  delivered  to  the  Students  of 
St.  Andrews,  March  17,  1871  (in  his  Short  Studies  on  Great  Subjects,  Second 
Series,  New  York,  1873,  pp.  9-53). 

Principal  William  Cunningham  (Free  Church  of  Scotland,  d.  1801) :  71ie 
Reformers  and  the  Theoloyij  of  the  Riformers.     Edinburgh,  18()2. 

Principal  John  Tulloch  (of  the  Established  Church  of  Scotland,  d.  1885) : 
Leaders  of  the  Reforination.     Edinburgh,  1859;  3d  ed.  1883. 

Philip  Schaff:  .lohu  Calvin,  in  the  "  Bihliotheca  Sacra,"  Andover,  1857,  pp. 
125-140,  and  in  Creeds  of  Christendom  (New  York,  1877),  I.  421-471. 

A.  A.  Hodge   (d.  at  Princeton,  1885) :   Calvinism,  in  Johnson's  "  Universal 

Cyclopasdia"  (New  York,  1875  sqq.),  vol.  L  pp.  727-734;  new  ed.  1886, 

vol.  I.  676-083. 
Lyman  H.  Atwatek  :    Calvinism  in  Doctrine  and  Life,  in  the  "  Presbyterian 

Quarterly  and  Princeton  Review,"  New  York,  January,  1875,  pp.  73-106. 
Dardier  and  Jundt:   Calvin,  in  Lichtenbcrger's  "  Encyclopc^die  des  sciences 

religieuses,"  Tom.  II.  529-557.     (Paris,  1877.) 
P.  Lobstein:  Die  Ethik  Calvins  in  ihren  Grundziigen,     Strassburg,  1877. 
W.  Lindsay  Alexander:  Calvin,  in  "  Encycl.  Brit.,"  9th  ed.  vol.  IV.  714  sqq 
Pierre  Vauciier  :  Calvin  et  les  Genevois.     Gen.  1880. 


230         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

A.  PiERSON  :  Studien  over  J  oh.  Kalvijn.    Haarlem,  1881-'83. 
J.  M.  UsTERi :   Calvin  s  Sacraments-  unci  Taiijlehre.     1884. 

B.  FoNTANA  :  Documenti  dell'  arcMvio  Vaticano  e  dell'  Estense,  circa  il  soggiorno  di 

Calv.  a  Ferrara.  Rom.  1885.    E.  Comba  in  "  Revisita  christ.,"  1885, 1  V.-VII. 

C.  A.  Cornelius  (liberal  Catholic)  :    Die  Verbannung  Calvins  aus   Genf.  im 

J.  1536.  Miinchen,  1886.  Die  Riickkehr  Calvins  nach  Genf.  I.  Die 
Guillermins  (pp.  62);  //.  Die  Artichauds ;  III.  Die  Berufung  (pp.  102). 
Miinchen,  1888  and  1889.  Separate  print  from  the  "  Abhandlungen  der 
K.  bayer.  Akademie  der  Wissenschaften,"  XIX.  Bd.  II.  Abth.  Cornelius, 
a  friend  of  Dollinger,  agrees  in  his  high  estimate  of  Calvin  with  Kamp- 
schulte,  but  dwells  chiefly  on  the  political  troubles  of  Geneva  during 
Calvin's  absence  (with  large  quotations  from  Ilerminjard's  collection  of 
letters),  and  stops  with  Calvin's  return,  September,  1540. 

Charles  W.  Shields:  Calvin's  Doctrine  on  Infant  Salvation,  in  the  "Presb. 
and  Ref.  Review,"  New  York,  1890,  pp.  634-651.  Tries  to  show  that 
Calvin  taught  universal  infant  salvation  (?). 

Ed.  Stricker  :  Johann  Calvin  als  erster  Pfarrer  der  reformirten  Gemeinde  zu 
Strassburg.  Nach  urkiindlichen  Quellen.  Strassburg,  1890  (vi  and  66  pp.). 
—  In  connection  with  Calvin's  sojourn  at  Strassburg  may  also  be  con- 
sulted, R.  Reuss:  Histoire  de  I'eglise  de  Strassbourg,  1880;  and  A.  Erich- 
son  :  L'€glise  fran^aise  de  Strassbourg  au  XVI"'"  siecle,  1886. 

E.  DouMERGCE    (Professor  of   Church  History  at  Montauban)  :    Essai  sur 

Vhistoire  dii  culte  reform^ principalement  an  XVI''  et  au  XIX^  siecle.     Paris, 

1890.     The  first  part,  pp.  1-116,  treats  of  Calvin's  Liturgies  and  labors 

for  church  poetry  and  music. 

The  literature  on  Servetus  will  be  given  below,  in  the  section  on  Calvin 

and  Servetus. 

VII.  Histories  of  the  Reformation  in  French  Switzerland  : 
*  Abr.  Ruchat  (Professor  of  Theology  in  the  Academy  of  Lausanne,  d.  1750)  : 
Histoire  de  la  reformation  de  la  Suisse.  Geneve,  1727  sq.,  6  vols.;  new  ed. 
with  appendices,  by  Prof.  L.  Vulliemin,  Nyon,  1835-'38,  7  vols.  Comes 
down  to  1566.  Strongly  anti-Romish  and  devoted  to  Bern,  diffuse  and 
inelegant  in  style,  but  full  of  matter,  "un  recueil  de  savantes  dissertations, 
un  extrait  de  documents"  (Dardier,  in  Lichtenberger's  "Encyclop.,"  XL 
345).  —  An  English  abridgment  in  one  volume  by  J.  Collinson  :  History 
of  the  Reformation  in  Switzerland  by  Huchat.  London,  1845.  Goes  to  1537. 
Dan.  Gerdes  (1698-1767)  :  Introductio  in  Historiam  Evangelii  seculo  XVI. 
passim  per  Europam  renovati  doctrinceque  Reformatce  '  accedunt  varia  monu- 
menta  pietatis  atque  rei  literarice.  Groningffi,  1744-'52,  4  vols.  Contains 
pictures  of  the  Reformers  and  interesting  documents.  Parts  of  vols.  I., 
XL,  and  IV.  treat  of  the  Swiss  Reformation. 
C.  B.  Hundeshagen  (Professor  in  Bern,  afterwards  in  Heidelberg  and  Bonn; 
d.  1872)  :  Die  Confiicte  des  Zwinglianismus,  Lutherthums  und  Calvinismus 
in  der  Bernischen  Landeskirche  von  1532-1358.  Nach  meist  ungedi-uckten 
Quellen.     Bern,  1842. 


§  59.    THE   CONDITION   OF   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND.      231 

*  J.  Gaberel  (ancicn  pasteur):  Histoire  de  Ve'glise  de  Geneve  depuis  le  commence- 

ment de  la  refbrme  jusqu'en  1815.     Geneve,  1855-63,  3  vols. 

P.  Charpenne  :   Histoire  de  la  reformation  et  des  reformateurs  de  Geneve.     Paris, 

1861. 
Fleury  :  Histoire  de  Ve'glise  de  Geneve.    Geneve,  1880.     2  vols. 
The  works  of  Amad.  Koget,  quoted  sub  II. 

*  Merle  D'Aubigne  (Professor  of  Church  History  in  the  Free  Church  Theo- 

logical Seminary  at  Geneva)  :  Histoire  de  la  reformation  en  Europe  au 
temps  du  Calvin.  Paris,  1863-78.  English  translation  in  several  editions, 
the  best  by  Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  London,  1863-'78,  8  vols.;  American 
edition  by  Carter,  New  York,  1870-79,  8  vols.  The  second  division  of 
Merle's  work  on  the  Reformation.  The  last  three  volumes  were  edited 
after  his  death  (Oct.  21,  1872)  by  Duchemin  and  Binder,  and  translated 
by  "William  L.  R.  Gates.  The  work  gives  the  history  of  the  Reformation 
in  Geneva  down  to  1542,  and  of  the  other  Reformed  Churches  to  the 
middle  of  the  sixteenth  century.  It  is,  therefore,  incomplete,  but,  as  far 
as  it  goes,  the  most  extensive,  eloquent,  and  dramatic  history  of  the 
Reformation  by  an  enthusiastic  partisan  of  the  Reformers,  especially 
Calvin,  in  full  sympathy  with  their  position  and  faith,  except  on  the 
union  of  Church  and  State  and  the  persecution  of  heretics.  The  first 
division,  which  is  devoted  to  the  Lutheran  Reformation  till  1530,  had  an 
extraordinary  circulation  in  England  and  America.  Ranke,  with  his 
calm,  judicial  temperament,  wondered  that  such  a  book  could  be  written 
in  the  nineteenth  century.     (See  Preface  to  vol.  VII.  p.  vi,  note.) 

Etienne  Chastel  (Professor  of  Church  History  in  the  University  of  Geneva, 
d.  1882)  :  Histoire  du  Christianisme.  Paris,  1882,  5  vols.  Tom.  IV.  66  sqq. 
treats  of  the  Swiss  Reformation. 

G.  P.  Fisher  :   The  Reformatio?!.     New  York,  1873,  ch.  VII.  pp.  192-24L 

Philippe  Godet  (son  of  Frederic,  the  commentator)  :  Histoire  litteraire  de 
la  Suisse  francaise.  Neuchatel  and  Paris,  1890.  Ch.  II.  51-112  treats  of 
the  Reformers  (Farel,  Viret,  Froment,  Calvin,  and  Beza). 

ViRGiLE  RossEL :  Histoire  litte'raire  de  la  Suisse  romande.  Geneve  (H.  Georg), 
1890,  2  vols.     The  first  vol.     Des  origines  jusqu'au  XVIII"^"  siecle. 

The  Histories  of  the  Reformation  in  France  usually  give  also  an  account 
of  the  labors  of  Farel,  Calvin,  and  Beza;  e.g.  the  first  volume  of  Gottlob 
VON  Polenz:   Geschichte  des  franzosischen  Calvinismus  (Gotha,  1857  sqq.). 


§  59.     The   Condition  of  French  Switzerland  before  the 
Reformation. 

The  losses  of  the  Reformation  in  German  Switzerland 
were  more  than  made  up  by  the  gains  in  French  Switzer- 
land; that  is,  in  the  three  Cantons,  Vaud,  Neuch&tel,  and 


232         THE   FwEFORMATIOX   IN   FKEXCH   SWITZERLAND. 

Geneva.^  Protestantism  moved  westward.  Calvin  continued, 
improved,  and  completed  the  work  of  Zwingli,  and  gave  it 
a  wider  significance.  Geneva  took  the  place  of  Ziirich,  and 
surpassed  in  influence  the  city  of  Zwingli  and  the  city  of 
Luther.  It  became  '•  the  Protestant  Rome."'  from  which 
proceeded  the  ideas  and  impulses  for  the  Reformed  Churches 
of  France,  Holland,  England,  and  Scotland.  The  city  of 
Calvin  has  long  since  departed  from  his  rigorous  creed  and 
theocratic  discipline,  and  will  never  return  to  them ;  but  the 
evanorelical  faith  still  lives  there  in  renewed  visror:  and 
among  cities  of  the  same  size  there  is  none  that  occupies  a 
more  important  and  influential  position  in  theological  and 
religious  activity  as  well  as  literary  and  social  culture,  and 
as  a  convenient  centre  for  the  settlement  of  international 
questions,  than  Geneva. 

The  Reformation  of  French  Switzerland  cannot  be  sepa- 
rated from  that  of  France.  The  inhabitants  of  the  two 
countries  are  of  the  same  Celtic  or  Gallic  stock  mixed  ^\-ith 
Germanic  (Frank  and  Burgundian)  blood.  The  fii-st  evan- 
gelists of  Western  Switzerland  were  Frenchmen  who  had  to 
flee  from  their  native  soil.  They  became  in  turn,  through 
their  pupils,  the  founders  of  the  Reformed.  Church  of  France. 
The  Reformed  Churches  of  the  two  countries  are  one  in 
spirit.  After  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Xantes,  many 
Huguenots  found  an  asylum  in  Geneva,  Yaud,  and  Xeu- 
chatel.  The  French  Swiss  combine  the  best  traits  of  the 
French  character  with  Swiss  solidity  and  love  of  freedom. 
They  are  ever  ready  to  lend  a  helping  hand  to  their  brethren 
across  the  frontier,  and  they  form  at  the  same  time  a  connect- 
ing link  between  them  and  the  Protestants  of  the  German 
tongue.  Their  excellent  educational  institutions  atti-act 
students  from  abroad  and  train  teachers  for  other  countries. 

^  La  Suisse  francaise  OT  la  Suisse  romande.  Vaud  has  1244  square  miles; 
Xeuchatel,  312 ;  Geneva,  109.  The  first  numbered,  in  1889,  251,000  inhabi- 
tants; the  second.  109.000:  the  third.  107.000. 


§  59.     THE    CONDITION    OF    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND.       233 

The  tenitory  of  the  French  Cantons,  which  embraces 
1665  square  miles,  was  in  the  sixteenth  century  under  the 
protection  of  the  Swiss  Confederacy. 

Vaucl  was  conquered  Ijy  Bern  from  the  Duke  of  Savoy, 
and  ruled  by  bailiffs  till  1798.1 

The  principality  of  Xeuchatel  and  Valangin  concluded  a 
co-burghery  with  Freiburg,  1290,  with  Bern,  1307,  and  vrith 
Solothurn.  1324.  In  1707  the  principality  passed  to  King 
Frederick  I.  of  Prussia,  who  confirmed  the  rights  and  liber- 
ties of  the  country  and  its  old  alliance  with  Switzerland. 
The  connection  with  Prussia  continued  till  1857.  when  it 
was  dissolved  by  free  consent.- 

Geneva  was  originally  governed  by  a  bishop  and  a  count, 
who  divided  the  spiritual  and  secular  government  between 
them.  Duke  Charles  III.  of  Savoy  tried  to  subdue  the  city 
with  the  aid  of  an  unworth}-  and  servile  bishop,  Pierre  de 
la  Baume,  whom  he  had  appointed  from  his  own  family  with 
the  consent  of  Pope  Leo  X.'^  But  a  patriotic  party,  under 
the  lead  of  Philibert  Berthelier.  Besancon  Hugues,  and  Fran- 
cois Bonivard  (Bp'on"s  ••  Prisoner  of  Cliillon  "*)  opposed  the 
attempt  and  began  a  struggle  for  independence,  which  lasted 
several  yeai-s,  and  resembles  on  a  small  scale  the  heroic 
struggle  of  Switzerland  against  foreign  oppression.  The 
patriots,  on  account  of  their  alliance  with  the  Swiss,  were 
called  Eidgenossen.  —  a  German  word  for  (S^viss)    Confed- 

1  See  Yulliemin,  Le  canton  de  Vaitd,  Lausanne,  od  ed.,  1885.  Verdeil, 
Histoire  du  canton  de  Vaiid,  Lausanne,  185-i-'o7,  4  vols. 

-  See  the  historical  works  on  Xeuchatel  by  Chambrier,  Matile,  BoTve, 
Majer,  Benoit. 

8  Pierre  de  la  Baume  was  bishop  of  Geneva  from  152.3  to  15-36,  became 
bishop  of  Besancon  1-542,  and  died  1-544.  Bonivard  (as  quoted  by  Audin,  who 
praises  the  bishops  of  Geneva)  says  of  him :  "  He  was  a  great  dissipator  of 
goods,  in  all  things  superfluous,  esteeming  it  a  sovereign  virtue  in  a  prelate 
to  have  his  table  loaded  with  large  dishes  of  meat  and  all  «orts  of  wines ;  and 
when  there  he  gave  himself  up  so  completely  as  to  exceed  thirty-one  courses." 
Audin  adds  (p.  116)  :  "This  shaft  would  have  been  much  more  pointed,  had 
not  Bonivard  often  seated  himself  at  this  table  and  drank  far  otherwise  than 
became  the  prior  of  St.  Victor." 


234         THE   EEFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

crates^  which  degenerated  by  mispronunciation  into  EignoU 
and  Huguenots^  and  passed  afterwards  from  Geneva  to  France 
as  a  nickname  for  Protestants.^  The  party  of  the  Duke  of 
Savoy  and  the  bishop  were  nicknamed  Mamelukes  or  slaves. 
The  patriots  gained  the  victory  with  the  aid  of  the  German 
Swdss.  On  Feb.  20.  1526,  Bern  and  Freiburg  concluded  an 
alliance  with  Geneva,  and  pledged  their  armed  aid  for  the 
protection  of  her  independence.  The  citizens  of  Geneva 
ratified  the  Swiss  alliance  by  an  overwhelming  majority,  who 
shouted,  '•  The  Swiss  and  liberty  !  "  The  bishop  appealed  in 
vain  to  the  pope  and  the  emperor,  and  left  Geneva  for  St. 
Claude.  But  he  had  to  accept  the  situation,  and  continued 
to  rule  ten  years  longer  (till  1536).- 

This  political  movement,  of  which  Berthelier  is  the  chief 
hero,  had  no  connection  with  the  Keformation.  but  prepared 
the  way  for  it,  and  was  followed  by  the  evangelical  labors 
of  Farel  and  Yiret,  and  the  organization  of  the  Reformed 
Church  under  Calvin.  During  the  war  of  emancipation 
there  grew  up  an  opposition  to  the  Roman  Church  and  the 
clergy  of  Geneva,  which  sided  with  Savoy  and  was  very  cor- 
rupt, even  according  to  the  testimonies  of  Roman  Catholic 
writers,  such  as  Bishop  Antoine  Champion,  Bonivard,  the 
Soeur  de  Jussie,  and  Francis  of  Sales.  Reports  of  the  Lu- 
theran and  Zwinglian  reformation  nursed  the  opposition. 
Freiburg  (Fribourg)  remained  Roman  Catholic,^  and  broke 

1  Merle  D'Aubigne',  I.  119:  "Until  after  the  Reformation,  this  sobriquet 
had  a  purely  political  meaning,  in  no  respect  religious,  and  designated  simply 
the  friends  of  independence.  Many  years  after,  the  enemies  of  the  Protes- 
tants of  France  called  them  by  this  name,  wishing  to  stigmatize  them  and 
impute  to  them  a  foreign,  republican,  and  heretical  origin.  Such  is  the  true 
et)'mology  of  the  term."  There  are,  however,  two  other  etymologies,  —  one 
from  Hugh  Capet,  from  whom  descended  Henry  IV.,  the  political  and  military 
leader  of  the  Huguenots. 

-  For  the  details  of  these  political  struggles,  which  have  little  interest  for 
Church  history,  see  Merle  D'Aubigne,  I.  1-425 ;  the  Histories  of  Geneva,  and 
Am.  Roget,  Les  Suisses  et  Geneve,  oh  Vemancipation  de  la  communaute'  genevoise 
au  XVP  siecle,  Geneve,  1864,  2  vols.     Also  Kampschulte,  I.e.  I.  3-90. 

3  It  is  famous  for  the  organ  in  the  Church  of  St.  Nicolas,  for  a  suspension 


§  59.     THE   CONDITION    OF   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND.      235 

the  alliance  with  Geneva;  but  Bern  strengthened  the  alliance 
and  secured  for  Geneva  political  freedom  from  Savo}^  and 
religious  freedom  from  Rome. 

NOTES. 

For  the  understanding  of  the  geographj^  and  history  of  the  Swiss  Confed- 
eracy, the  following  facts  should  be  considered  in  connection  with  the  map 
facing  p.  1. 

1.  The  original  Confederacy  of  the  three  Forest  Cantons  (Urcanione, 
Wnldstdtte),  Uri,  Schwyz,  and  Unterwalden,  from  Aug.  1,  1291  (the  date  of 
the  renewal  of  an  older  covenant  of  1244)  to  1332.  Victory  at  Morgarten 
over  Duke  Leopold  of  Austria,  Nov.  15,  1315.  (After  1351  the  number  of 
Forest  Cantons  was  rfre,  including  Luzern  and  Zug.) 

2.  The  Confederacy  of  the  Eight  Cantons  {Orte)  from  1353  to  1481. 
Luzern  joined  the  Forest  Cantons  in  1332  (thenceforward  the  Confederacy 

was  called  the  Bund  der  Vier  Waldstdtte,  to  which  in  1352  was  added  Zug  as 
the  Fifth  Forest  Canton). 

Ziirich  joined  1351.  Glarus  joined  1352. 

Zug  "      1352.  Bern  "       1353. 

Victories  over  the  Austrians  at  Senipach,  July  9,  1386  (Arnold  von  Win- 
kelried),  and  Nafels,  April  9,  1388.  Battle  against  the  Dauphin  of  France 
(Louis  XI.)  Aug.  26,  1444,  at  St.  Jacob  near  Basel  (the  Thermopyl^  of  the 
Swiss),  and  victories  over  Charles  the  Bold  of  Burgundy,  at  Granson,  June  22, 
1476,  and  Nancj',  Jan.  5,  1477. 

3.  The  Confederacy  of  the  Thirteen  Cantons,  1513-1798. 
Freiburg  joined  1481.  Schaffhausen  joined  1501. 
Solothurn     "      1481.                               Appenzell  "      1513. 
Basel            "      1501. 

4.  The  Confederation  under  the  French  Directory,  1798-1802.  Vaud,  with 
the  help  of  France,  made  herself  independent  of  Bern,  1798.  Valtellina, 
Chiavenna,  and  Borraio  were  lost  to  the  Orisons  and  attached  to  the  Cisalpine 
Republic  by  Napoleon,  1797.     Neuchutel  separated  from  Switzerland. 

5.  Modern  Switzerland  of  Twenty-two  Cantons  from  the  Congress  of 
Vienna,  1815,  to  date. 

The  new  Cantons  are :  Ticino,  Valais,  St.  Gall,  Aargau,  Thurgau.  Grisons, 
Geneva,  Vaud,  Neuchatel.  They  were  formerly  dependent  on,  and  protected 
by,  or  freely  associated  with,  the  Thirteen  Cantons. 

bridge,  and  a  Catholic  university.  It  is  the  seat  of  the  bishop  of  Lausanne, 
and  must  not  be  confounded  with  Freiburg-im-Breisgau  in  the  Grand  Duchy 
of  Baden,  which  is  also  a  stronghold  of  Romanism. 


236 


THE    EEFORMATION    IN    TRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 


§  60.    William.  Farel  (1-189-1565). 

Letters  of  Farel  and  to  Farel  in  Herminjakd,  beginning  with  vol.  I.  193,  and 
in  the  Strassburg  edition  of  Calvin's  correspondence,  Opera,  X.-XX. 

Biographies  by  Beza  (Icones,  1580,  with  a  picture) ;  Melchior  Adam  (Decades 
duce,  57-61);  *  Kirchhofer  (1833,  2  vols.);  Verheiden  (^Imagines  et 
Elogia,  1725,  p.  86  sq.,  with  picture)  ;  Cheneviere  (1835) ;  Junod  (1865). 
Merle  d'Aubign^  gives  a  very  minute  but  broken  account  of  Farel's 
earlier  labors,  especially  in  Geneva  (vols.  III.,  IV.,  V.,  books  5,  6,  and  9). 
See  also  Ruchat,  F.  Gouet,  and  other  works  mentioned  in  §  58,  and  art. 
« Farel"  in  La  France  Frotesfanle,  tome  YI.  386-415  (1888). 


GuiLLAtMi:  Farel. 
(From  Bezu's  Icones.) 


Two  years  after  the  political  emancipation  of  Geneva 
from  the  yoke  of  Savoy,  Bern  embraced  the  Protestant 
Reformation  (1528),  and  at  once  exerted  her  political  and 
moral   influence   for  the   introduction    of   the    new  religion 


§  60.     WlLLIA^r   FAllEL.  237 

into  the  neighboring  French  territory  over  which  she  had  ac- 
quired control.  She  found  three  evangelists  ready  for  this 
work,  —  one  a  native  of  Vaud,  and  two  fugitive  Frenchmen. 
The  city  of  Freiburg,  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  Charles  V.,  and 
the  pope  endeavored  to  prevent  the  progress  of  heresy,  but 
in  vain. 

The  pioneer  of  Protestantism  in  Western  Switzerland  is 
William  Farel.  He  was  a  travelling  evangelist,  always  in 
motion,  incessant  in  labors,  a  man  full  of  faith  and  fire, 
as  bold  and  fearless  as  Luther  and  far  more  radical,  but 
without  his  genius.  He  is  called  the  Elijah  of  the  French 
Reformation,  and  "the  scourge  of  the  priests."  Once  an 
ardent  papist,  he  became  as  ardent  a  Protestant,  and  looked 
hereafter  only  at  the  dark  side,  the  prevailing  corruptions 
and  abuses  of  Romanism.  He  hated  the  pope  as  the  veri- 
table Antichrist,  the  mass  as  idolatry,  pictures  and  relics  as 
heathen  idols  which  must  be  destroyed  like  the  idols  of  the 
Canaanites.  Without  a  regular  ordination,  he  felt  himself 
divinely  called,  like  a  prophet  of  old,  to  break  down  idolatry 
and  to  clear  the  way  for  the  spiritual  worship  of  God  accord- 
ing to  his  own  revealed  word.  He  was  a  born  fighter;  he 
came,  not  to  bring  peace,  but  the  sword.  He  had  to  deal 
with  priests  who  carried  firearms  and  clubs  under  their 
frocks,  and  he  fought  them  with  the  sword  of  the  word  and 
the  spirit.  Once  he  was  fired  at,  but  the  gun  burst,  and, 
turning  round,  he  said,  "  I  am  not  afraid  of  your  shots." 
He  never  used  violence  himself,  except  in  language.  He 
had  an  indomitable  will  and  power  of  endurance.  Persecu- 
tion and  violence  only  stimulated  him  to  greater  exertions. 
His  outward  appearance  was  not  prepossessing :  he  was 
small  and  feeble,  with  a  pale  but  sunburnt  face,  narrow 
forehead,  red  and  ill-combed  beard,  fiery  eyes,  and  an  ex- 
pressive mouth. 

Farel  had  some  of  the  best  qualities  of  an  orator:  a 
sonorous  and  stentorian  voice,  appropriate  gesture,  fluency 


238         THE    EEFOilMATlON    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

of  speech,  and  intense  earnestness,  which  always  commands 
attention  and  often  produces  conviction.  His  contempora- 
ries speak  of  the  thunders  of  his  eloquence  and  of  his  trans- 
porting prayers.  '•'•Tua  ilia  fulgura^^^  writes  Calvin.  '-'•Nemo 
tonuit  fortius,'"  says  Beza.  His  sermons  were  extemporized, 
and  have  not  come  down  to  us.  Their  power  lay  in  the 
oral  delivery.  We  may  compare  him  to  Whitefield,  who  was 
likewise  a  travelling  evangelist,  endowed  with  the  magnetism 
of  living  oratory.  In  Beza's  opinion,  Calvin  was  the  most 
learned,  Farel  the  most  forcible,  Viret  the  most  gentle 
preacher  of  that  age.^ 

The  chief  defect  of  Farel  was  his  want  of  moderation  and 
discretion.  He  was  an  iconoclast.  His  violence  provoked 
unnecessary  opposition,  and  often  did  more  harm  than  good. 
Q^^colampadius  praised  his  zeal,  but  besought  him  to  be  also 
moderate  and  gentle.  "Your  mission,"  he  wrote  to  him,  "is 
to  evangelize,  not  to  curse.  Prove  yourself  to  be  an  evan- 
gelist, not  a  tyrannical  legislator.  Men  want  to  be  led,  not 
driven."  Zwingli,  shortly  before  his  death,  exhorted  him 
not  to  expose  himself  rashly,  but  to  reserve  himself  for  the 
further  service  of  the  Lord. 

Farel's  work  was  destructive  rather  than  constructive.  He 
could  pull  down,  but  not  build  up.     He  was  a  conqueror, 

1  Beza,  in  his  Icones,  thus  describes  Farel's  best  qualities:  "Hie  enim  ille 
est  qui  nullis  difficidtatihus  fr actus,  yndlis  minis,  convitiis,  verberihus  denique  inftictis 
territus,  Momhelgardenses,  Neocomenses,  Lausnnenses,  Aqiiileienses,  Genevenses  de- 
nique Christo  lucrijecit.  Fuit  enim  in  hoc  homine  prceter  pietatem,  doctrinam, 
vitoR  innocentiam,  eximiamque  modestiam,  singularis  qucedam  animi  prcesentia, 
ingenium  acre,  sermo  vehementice  plenus,  ut  tonare  potius  quam  loqui  videretur : 
ardorque  denique  tantus  in  jyTccando,  ut  audientes  quasi  in  cesium  usque  subveheret." 
And  he  compares  Calvin,  Farel,  and  Viret  in  these  verses  (in  1568)  :  — 

"  Oallica  mirata  est  Calvinum  ecclesia  nuper, 

Quo  nemo  docuit  doctius. 
Est  qitoque  te  miper  mirata,  Farelle,  tonantem, 

Quo  nemo  tomiit  fortius. 
Et  miratur  ndhuc  fundentem  mella  Viretum, 

Quo  nemo  fatur  dulcius. 
Scilicet  aut  tribus  his  servabere  testibus  oUm, 

Axit  interibis  Gallia." 


§  60.     WILLIAM   FAREL.  239 

but  not  an  organizer  of  his  conquests ;  a  man  of  action,  not 
a  man  of  letters;  an  intrepid  preacher,  not  a  theologian. 
He  felt  his  defects,  and  handed  his  work  over  to  the  mighty 
genius  of  his  younger  friend  Calvin.  In  the  spirit  of  gen- 
uine humility  and  self-denial,  he  was  willing  to  decrease  that 
Calvin  might  increase.    This  is  the  finest  trait  in  his  character.^ 

Guillaume  Farel,  the  oldest  of  seven  children  of  a  poor 
but  noble  family,  was  born  in  the  year  1489  (five  years  after 
Luther  and  Zwingli,  twenty  years  before  Calvin)  at  Gap,  a 
small  town  in  the  alps  of  Dauphine  in  the  south-east  of 
France,  where  the  religious  views  of  the  Waldenses  were 
once  widely  spread.  He  inherited  the  blind  faith  of  his 
parents,  and  doubted  nothing.  He  made  with  them,  as  he 
remembered  in  his  old  age,  a  pilgrimage  to  a  wonder-working 
cross  which  was  believed  to  be  taken  from  the  cross  of  our 
Lord.  He  shared  in  the  superstitious  veneration  of  jDictures 
and  relics,  and  bowed  before  the  authority  of  monks  and 
priests.     He  was,  as  he  said,  more  popish  than  popery. 

At  the  same  time  he  had  a  great  thirst  for  knowledge,  and 
was  sent  to  school  at  Paris.  Here  he  studied  the  ancient 
languages  (even  Hebrew),  philosophy,  and  theology.  His 
principal  teacher,  Jacques  Le  Fevre  d'Etaples  (Faber  Stapu- 
lensis,  1455-1536),  the  pioneer  of  the  Reformation  in  France 
and  translator  of  the  Scriptures,  introduced  him  into  the 
knowledge  of  Paul's  Epistles  and  the  doctrine  of  justifica- 
tion by  faith,  and  prophetically  told  him,  already  in  1512: 
"  My  son,  God  will  renew  the  world,  and  you  will  witness 
it."  2     Farel  acquired  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts  (January, 


1  " L'homme  du  midi  \_Farer\  e'tait  fait  pour  conquerir  ;  I'homme  du  nord  \_Cal- 
vin\  pour  conserver  et  discipliner  la  conquete.  Farel  en  eut  le  sentiment  si  distinct, 
qu'il  s'effa^a  spontane'ment  devant  Calvin  le  jour  ou  il  le  contraignit  par  les  'ton- 
nerres  '  de  sa  parole  de  demeurer  a  Geneve,  qui  avail  besoin  de  son  ge'nie."  Philippe 
Godet,  Hist,  litte'r.  de  la  Suisse  francaise,  p.  51. 

2  "Man  Jils,  Dieu  renouvellera  le  monde  et  tu  en  seras  le  te'moin."  Hermin- 
jard,  I.  5,  note.  Compare  the  passage  there  quoted  from  Le  Fevre's  work  on 
St.  Paul. 


240         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

1517),  and  was  appointed  teacher  at  the  college  of  Cardinal 
Le  Moine. 

The  influence  of  Le  F^vre  and  the  study  of  the  Bible 
brought  him  gradually  to  the  conviction  that  salvation  can 
be  found  only  in  Christ,  that  the  word  of  God  is  the  only 
rule  of  faith,  and  that  the  Roman  traditions  and  rites  are 
inventions  of  man.  He  was  amazed  that  he  could  find  in 
the  New  Testament  no  trace  of  the  pope,  of  the  hierarchy, 
of  indulgences,  of  purgatory,  of  the  mass,  of  seven  sacra- 
ments, of  sacerdotal  celibacy,  of  the  worship  of  Mary  and 
the  saints.  Le  Fevre,  being  charged  with  heresy  by  the 
Sorbonne,  retired  in  1521  to  his  friend  William  Brigonnet, 
bishop  of  Meaux,  who  was  convinced  of  the  necessity  of  a 
reformation  within  the  Catholic  Church,  without  separation 
from  Rome.^  There  he  translated  the  New<  Testament  into 
French,  which  was  published  in  1523  without  his  name 
(almost  simultaneously  with  Luther's  German  New  Testa- 
ment). Several  of  his  pupils,  Farel,  Gerard,  Roussel,  Michel 
d'Arande,  followed  him  to  Meaux,  and  were  authorized  by 
BriQonnet  to  preach  in  his  diocese.  Margaret  of  Valois, 
sister  of  King  Francis  I.  (then  Duchess  of  Alengon,  after- 
wards Queen  of  Navarre),  patronized  the  reformers  and  also 
the  freethinkers.  But  Farel  was  too  radical  for  the  mild 
bishop,  and  forbidden  to  preach,  April  12,  1523.  He  went 
to  Gap  and  made  some  converts,  including  four  of  his 
brothers ;  but  the  people  found  his  doctrine  "  very  strange," 
and  drove  him  away.  There  was  no  safety  for  him  any- 
where in  France,  which  then  began  seriously  to  persecute 
the  Protestants. 

Farel  fled  to  Basel,  and  was  hospitably  received  by  CEco- 
lampadius.  At  his  suggestion  he  held  a  public  disputation 
in  Latin  on  thirteen  theses,  in  which  he  asserted  the  perfec- 

1  Herminjard  (I.  3)  begins  his  Correspondance  des  Ref.  with  a  letter  of 
Le  Fevre  to  Bri^onnet,  Dec.  15,  1512,  in  wliich  he  dedicated  to  him  his  Com- 
mentary on  the  Epistles  of  Paul. 


§  60.     WILLIAM   FAREL.  241 

tion  of  the  Scriptures,  Christian  liberty,  the  duty  of  pastors 
to  preach  the  Gospel,  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith, 
and  denounced  images,  fasting,  celibacy,  and  Jewish  cere- 
monies (Feb.  23,  1524).!  The  disputation  was  successful, 
and  led  to  the  conversion  of  the  Franciscan  monk  Pellican, 
a  distinguished  Greek  and  Hebrew  scholar,  who  afterwards 
l)ecame  professor  at  Ziirich.  He  also  delivered  public  lec- 
tures and  sermons.  Oi^colampadius  wrote  to  Luther  that 
Farel  was  a  match  for  the  Sorbonne.^  Erasmus,  whom  Farel 
imprudently  charged  with  cowardice  and  called  a  Balaam, 
regarded  him  as  a  dangerous  disturber  of  the  peace,^  and  the 
Council  (probably  at  the  advice  of  Erasmus)  expelled  him 
from  the  citj*. 

Farel  now  spent  about  a  year  in  Strassburg  with  Bucer 
and  Capito.  Before  he  went  there  he  made  a  brief  visit  to- 
Ziirich,  Schaffhausen,  and  Constance,  and  became  acquainted 
with  Zwiiigii,  Mj^conius,  and  Grebel.  He  had  a  letter  of 
commendation  to  Luther  from  Q^colampadius,  but  it  is  not- 
likely  that  he  w^ent  to  Wittenberg,  since  there  is  no  allusion 
to  it  either  in  his  or  in  Luther's  letters.  At  the  request  of 
Ulrich,  Duke  of  Wiirtemberg,  he  preached  in  Mompelgard 
(Montbeliard),  and  roused  a  fierce  opposition,  which  forced 
him  soon  to  return  to  Strassburp-.  Here  he  found  Le  Fevre 
and  other  friends  from  ]\Ieaux,  whom  the  persecution  had 
forced  to  flee. 

In  1526  Farel  was  again  in  Switzerland,  and  settled  for  a 
while,  at  the  advice  of  Haller,  as  school  teacher  under  the 

1  Herminjard  (I.  193-195)  gives  the  theses  from  the  Archives  of  Ziirich. 
The  first  is  the  most  characteristic :  "  Ahsolutissimam  nobis  prcescripsit  C/irisliis 
Vivendi  regulam,  cui  nee  addere  licet,  nee  detrahere."  CEcolampadius  served  as 
interpreter,  since  Farel's  French  pronunciation  of  Latin  made  it  diflScult  to 
understand  liim. 

2  "  Nimirum  instrtictus  ad  tolam  Sorbotiicam  affligeyidam,  si  non  et  peidendam." 
Letter  of  May  15,  1524,  in  Herminjard,  I.  215.    • 

3  He  described  him  in  a  letter  to  the  official  of  Besan^on,  1524:  "Nihil 
vidi  unquam  mendacius,  virulentius  aid  seditiosius."  Quite  natural  from  his 
standpoint.     Tlie  two  characters  had  no  points  of  contact. 


242         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

name  of  Guillaume  Ursinus  (with  reference  to  Bern,  the  city 
of  bears),  at  Aigle  (^len)  ^  in  the  Pays  de  Vaud  on  the 
borders  of  Valais,  subject  to  Bern. 

He  attended  the  Synod  in  Bern,  January,  1528,  which 
decided  the  victory  of  the  Reformation,  and  received  a  com- 
mission from  that  city  to  preach  in  all  the  districts  under 
its  control  (March  8,  1528).  He  accordingly  labored  as  a 
sort  of  missionary  bishop  at  Murat  (Murten),  Lausanne, 
Neuchatel,  Valangin,  Yverclun,  Biel  (Bienne),  in  the  Mlin- 
ster  valley,  at  Orbe,  Avenche,  St.  Blaise,  Grandson,  and 
other  places.  He  turned  every  stump  and  stone  into  a  pul- 
pit, every  house,  street,  and  market-place  into  a  church ; 
provoked  the  wrath  of  monks,  priests,  and  bigoted  women; 
was  abused,  called  "heretic  "  and  "devil,"  insulted,  spit  upon, 
and  more  than  once  threatened  with  death.  An  attempt 
to  poison  him  failed.  Wherever  he  went  he  stirred  up  all 
the  forces  of  the  people,  and  made  them  take  sides  for  or 
against  the  new  gospel. 

His  arrival  in  NeuchS,tel  (December,  1529)  marks  an  epoch 
in  its  history.  In  spite  of  violent  opposition,  he  succeeded 
in  introducing  the  Reformation  in  the  city  and  neighboring 
villages.  He  afterwards  returned  to  Neuchatel,  where  he 
finished  his  course.^  Robert  Olivetan,  Calvin's  cousin,  pub- 
lished the  first  edition  of  his  French  translation  of  the  Bible 
at  Neuchfi,tel  in  1535.  Farel  had  urged  him  to  do  this  work. 
It  is  the  basis  of  the  numerous  French  translations  made 
since  that  time. 

In  1532  Farel  with  his  friend  Saunier  visited  the  Walden- 
ses  in  Piedmont  at  the  request  of  Georg  Morel  and  Peter 
Masson,  two  Waldensian  preachers,  who  were  returning  from 
a  visit  to  Strassburg  and  the  Reformed  Churches  of  Switzer- 

1  In  August,  1526,  Bucer  addressed  him,  "Ursinus,  yElce  episcopus."  Her- 
minjard,  I.  461. 

2  For  a  graphic  account  of  his  labors  in  Neuchatel,  see  Vuillemin's  Le 
Chroniqueur,  pp.  86  sqq.,  and  F.  Godet,  Histoire  de  la  reformation  et  du  refuge 
.dans  le  pays  de  Neuchatel  (1859),  pp.  69-190. 


§  61.     FAR  EL   AT   GENEVA.  243 

land.  He  attended  the  Synod  which  met  at  Chanforans  in 
the  valley  of  Angrogne,  Sept.  12,  1532,  and  resolved  to  adopt 
the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation.  He  advised  them  to  estab- 
lish schools.  He  afterwards  collected  money  for  them  and 
sent  them  four  teachers,  one  of  whom  was  Robert  Olivetan, 
who  was  at  that  time  private  tutor  at  Geneva.  This  is  the 
beginning  of  the  fraternal  relations  between  the  Waldenses 
and  the  Reformed  Churches  which  continue  to  this  day. 

§  61.    Farel  at  Creneva.    First  Act  of  the  Reformation  (1535). 

On  their  return  from  Piedmont,  Farel  and  Saunier  stopped 
at  Geneva,  Oct.  2,  1532.  Zwingli  had  previously  directed 
the  attention  of  Farel  to  that  city  as  an  important  field  for 
the  Reformation.     Olivetan  was  there  to  receive  them. 

The  day  after  their  arrival  the  evangelists  were  visited  by 
a  number  of  distinguished  citizens  of  the  Huguenot  party, 
among  whom  was  Ami  Perrin,  one  of  the  most  ardent  promo- 
ters of  the  Reformation,  and  afterwards  one  of  the  chief 
opponents  of  Calvin.  They  explained  to  them  from  the  open 
Bible  the  Protestant  doctrines,  which  would  complete  and 
consolidate  the  political  freedom  recently  achieved.  They 
stirred  up  a  great  commotion.  The  Council  was  alarmed, 
and  ordered  them  to  leave  the  city.  Farel  declared  that  he 
was  no  trumpet  of  sedition,  but  a  preacher  of  the  truth,  for 
which  he  was  ready,  to  die.  He  showed  credentials  from 
Bern,  which  made  an  impression.  He  was  also  summoned  to 
the  Episcopal  Council  in  the  house  of  the  Abb^  de  Beaumont, 
the  vicar-general  of  the  diocese.  He  was  treated  with  inso- 
lence. "  Come  thou,  filth}^  devil,"  said  one  of  the  canons, 
"art  thou  baptized?  Who  invited  you  hither?  Who  gave 
you  authority  to  preach  ?  "  Farel  replied  with  dignity  :  "  I 
have  been  baptized  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and 
the  Holy  Ghost,  and  am  not  a  devil.  I  go  about  preaching 
Christ,  who  died  for  our  sins  and  rose  for  our  justification. 


2-14         THE   REFORMATION    IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Whoever  believes  in  him  will  be  saved ;  unbelievers  will  be 
lost.  I  am  sent  by  God  as  a  messenger  of  Christ,  and  am 
bound  to  preach  him  to  all  who  will  hear  me.  I  am  ready  to 
dispute  with  you,  and  to  give  an  account  of  my  faith  and 
ministry.  Elijah  said  to  King  Ahab,  '  It  is  thou,  and  not  I, 
who  disturbest  Israel.'  So  I  say,  it  is  you  and  yours,  who 
trouble  the  world  by  your  traditions,  your  human  inventions, 
and  your  dissolute  lives."  The  priests  had  no  intention  to 
enter  into  a  discussion ;  they  knew  and  confessed,  "  If  we 
argue,  our  trade  is  gone."  One  of  the  canons  exclaimed: 
"  He  has  blasphemed :  we  need  no  further  evidence ;  he 
deserves  to  die."  Farel  replied:  "Speak  the  words  of  God, 
and  not  of  Caiaphas."  Hereupon  the  whole  assembly  shouted: 
"  Away  with  him  to  the  Rhone  !  Kill  the  Lutheran  dog  !  " 
He  was  reviled,  beaten,  and  shot  at.  One  of  the  syndics 
interposed  for  his  protection.  He  was  ordered  by  the  Epis- 
copal Council  to  leave  Geneva  within  three  hours. 

He  escaped  with  difficulty  the  fury  of  the  priests,  who  pur- 
sued him  with  clubs.  He  was  covered  with  spittle  and 
bruises.  Some  Huguenots  came  to  his  defence,  and  accom- 
panied him  and  Saunier  in  a  boat  across  the  lake  to  a 
place  between  Morges  and  Lausanne.  At  Orbe,  Farel  found 
Antoine  Froment,  a  native  of  Dauphine,  and  prevailed  on 
him  to  go  to  Geneva  as  evangelist  and  a  teacher  of  children 
(November,  1532)  ;  but  he  was  also  obliged  to  flee. 

In  this  critical  condition  the  Roman  party,  supported  by 
Freiburg,  called  to  their  aid  Guy  Furbity,  a  learned  Domini- 
can doctor  of  the  Sorbonne.  He  preached  during  advent, 
1533,  against  the  Protestant  heresy  with  unmeasured  vio- 
lence. In  Jan.  1,  1534,  the  bishop  forbade  all  preaching 
without  his  permission. 

Farel  returned  under  the  protection  of  Bern,  and  held  a 
public  disputation  with  Furbity,  Jan.  29,  1534,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Great  and  Small  Councils  and  the  delegates  of 
Bern.     He  could  not  answer  all  his  objections,  but  he  denied 


§  61.     FAEEL   AT   GENEVA.  245 

the  right  of  the  Church  to  impose  ordinances  which  were  not 
authorized  by  the  Scriptures,  and  defended  the  position  that 
Christ  was  the  only  head  of  the  Church.  He  used  the  occasion 
to  expLain  the  Protestant  doctrines,  and  to  attack  the  Koman 
hierarcliy.  Christ  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  he  said,  are  not  with 
the  pope,  but  with  those  whom  he  persecutes.  The  disputa- 
tion lasted  several  days,  and  ended  in  a  partial  victory  for 
Farel.  Unable  to  argue  from  the  Scriptures,  Furbity  con- 
fessed :  ''  What  I  preached  I  cannot  prove  from  the  Bible ; 
I  have  learned  it  from  the  Summa  of  St.  Thomas";  but  he 
repeated  in  the  pulpit  of  St.  Peter's  his  charges  against  the 
heretics,  Feb.  15,  and  was  put  in  prison  for  several  years. 

Farel  continued  to  preach  in  private  houses.  On  March  1, 
when  a  monk,  Francis  Coutelier,  attacked  the  Reformation, 
he  ascended  the  pulpit  to  refute  him.  This  was  his  first 
public  sermon  in  Geneva.  The  Freiburgers  protested  against 
these  proceedings,  and  withdrew  from  the  coburghery  (Aj)ril 
12).  The  bishop  pronounced  the  ban  over  the  city  (April  30)  ; 
the  Duke  of  Savoy  threatened  war.  But  Bern  stood  by  Gen- 
eva, and  under  her  poAverful  protection,  Farel,  Viret,  and 
Froment  vigorously  pushed  the  Reformation,  though  not 
without  much  violence. 

The  priests,  monks,  and  nuns  gradually  left  the  city,  and 
the  bishop  transferred  his  see  to  Annecy,  an  asylum  prepared 
by  the  Duke  of  Savoy.  Sister  Jeanne  de  Jussie,  one  of  the 
nuns  of  St.  Claire,  has  left  us  a  lively  and  naive  account  of 
their  departure  to  Annecy.  "It  was  a  piteous  thing,"  she 
says,  "  to  see  this  holy  company  in  such  a  plight,  so  over- 
come with  fatigue  and  grief  that  several  swooned  by  the  way. 
It  was  rainy  weather,  and  all  were  obliged  to  walk  through 
muddy  roads,  except  four  poor  invalids  who  were  in  a  car- 
riage. There  were  six  poor  old  women  who  had  taken  their 
vows  more  than  sixteen  years  before.  Two  of  these,  who 
were  past  sixty-six,  and  had  never  seen  anything  of  the 
world,  fainted  away  repeatedly.      They  could  not  bear  the 


246         THE   EEFOEMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZEKLAND. 

wind ;  and  when  they  saw  the  cattle  in  the  fields,  they  took 
the  cows  for  bears,  and  the  long-wooled  sheep  for  ravaging 
wolves.  They  who  met  them  were  so  overcome  with  com- 
passion that  they  could  not  speak  a  word.  And  though  our 
mother,  the  vicaress,  had  supplied  them  all  with  good  shoes 
to  save  their  feet,  the  greater  number  could  not  walk  in 
them,  but  hung  them  at  their  waists.  And  so  they  walked 
from  five  o'clock  in  the  morning,  when  they  left  Geneva,  till 
near  midnight,  when  they  got  to  St.  Julien,  which  is  only  a 
little  league  off."  It  took  the  nuns  fifteen  hours  to  go  a 
short  league.  The  next  day  (Aug.  29)  they  reached  Annecy 
under  the  ringing  of  all  the  bells  of  the  city,  and  found  rest 
in  the  monastery  of  the  Holy  Cross.  The  good  sister  Jussie 
saw  in  the  Reformation  a  just  punishment  of  the  unfaithful 
clergy.  "  Ah,"  she  said,  "  the  prelates  and  churchmen  did 
not  observe  their  vows  at  this  time,  but  squandered  disso- 
lutely the  ecclesiastical  property,  keeping  women  in  adultery 
and  lubricity,  and  awakening  the  anger  of  God,  which 
brought  divine  judgment  on  them."  ^ 

In  Aug.  27,  1535,  the  Great  Council  of  Two  Hundred 
issued  an  edict  of  the  Reformation,  which  was  followed  by 
another.  May  21,  1536.  The  mass  was  abolished  and  for- 
bidden, images  and  relics  were  removed  from  the  churches. 
The  citizens  pledged  themselves  by  an  oath  to  live  according 
to  the  precepts  of  the  Gospel.  A  school  was  established  for 
the  elementary  religious  education  of  the  young  at  the  Con- 
vent de  Rive,  under  the  direction  of  Saunier.  Out  of  it 
grew,  afterwards,  the  college  and  academy  of  Calvin.      A 

^  he  commencement  de  I'here'sie  en  Geneve.  Grenus,  Fragments  historiques, 
pp.  199-208;  Le  Chroniqueur,  147-150.  Ruchat  (III.  383,  ed.  VuUiemin) 
doubts  the  simplicity  of  these  good  sisters,  and  suspects  them  of  occasional 
communication  with  the  Franciscans  through  subterranean  passages  :  "  II  y  a 
pourtant  quelque  lieu  de  douter  si  ces  religieuses  etaient  aussi  simples  que  la  soeur  de 
Jussi  voudrait  nousle  faire  accroire.  Les  chemins  souterrains  qu'on  de'couvrit  api-es 
leur  depart  sous  leur  convent  (et  qui  conduissaient  a  celui  des  Cordeliers  qui  e'tait  a 
quelques  pas  de  la),  donnent  tout  lieu  de  soup^onner  qu'elles  recevaient  de  temps  en 
temps  des  visites  de  ces  bans  freres,  et  qu'ainsi  dies  n'^taient  pas  tant  novices  dans 
les  affaires  du  monde." 


§  62.  THE  LAST  LABORS  OF  FAREL.         247 

general  hospital  was  founded  at  St.  Claire,  and  endowed  with 
the  revenues  of  old  Catholic  hospitals.  The  bishop's  palace 
was  converted  into  a  prison.  Four  ministers  and  two  deacons 
were  appointed  with  fixed  salaries  payable  out  of  the  eccle- 
siastical revenues.  Daily  sermons  were  introduced  at  St. 
Pierre  and  St.  Gervais ;  the  communion  after  the  simj^le 
solemn  fashion  of  Ziirich  was  to  be  celebrated  four  times  a 
year ;  baptism  might  be  administered  on  any  day,  but  onl}'  in 
the  church,  and  by  a  minister.  All  shops  were  to  be  closed 
on  Sunday.  A  strict  discipline,  which  extended  even  to  the 
headdress  of  brides,  began  to  be  introduced. 

This  was  the  first  act  in  the  history  of  the  Reformation  of 
Geneva.  It  was  the  work  of  Farel,  but  only  preparatory  to 
the  more  important  work  of  Calvin.  The  people  were  anx- 
ious to  get  rid  of  the  rule  of  Savoy  and  the  bishop,  but  had 
no  conception  of  evangelical  religion,  and  would  not  submit 
to  discipline.  They  mistook  freedom  for  license.  They  were 
in  danger  of  falling  into  the  opposite  extreme  of  disorder  and 
confusion. 

This  was  the  state  of  things  when  Calvin  arrived  at  Ge- 
neva in  the  summer  of  153(3,  and  was  urged  by  Farel  to 
assume  the  great  task  of  building  a  new  Church  on  the  ruins 
of  the  old.  Although  twenty  years  older,  he  assumed  will- 
ingly a  subordinate  position.  He  labored  for  a  while  as 
Calvin's  colleague,  and  was  banished  with  him  from  Geneva, 
because  they  demanded  submission  to  a  confession  of  faith 
and  a  rigorous  discipline.  Calvin  went  to  Strassburg.  Farel 
accepted  a  call  as  pastor  to  Neuchatel  (July,  1538),  the  city 
where  he  had  labored  before. 

§  62.    The  Last  Labors  of  Farel. 

For  the  remaining  tAventy-seven  years  of  his  life,  Farel 
remained  chief  pastor  at  Neuchatel,  and  built  up  the  Protes- 
tant Church  in  connection  with  Fabri,  his  colleague.  He 
tried  to  introduce  a  severe  discipline,  by  which  he  offended 


248  THE   KEFORIVLATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

many  of  the  new  converts,  and  even  his  friends  in  Bern ;  but 
Fabri  favored  a  milder  course. 

From  Neuchatel  Farel,  following  his  missionary  impulse, 
made  preaching  excursions  to  Geneva,  Strassburg,  and  Metz, 
in  Lorraine.  At  Metz  he  preached  in  the  cemetery  of  the 
Dominicans,  while  the  monks  sounded  all  the  bells  to  drown 
his  voice.  He  accompanied  Calvin  to  Ziirich  to  bring  about 
the  Consensus  Tigurinus  with  the  Zwinglians  (1549).  He 
followed  Servetus  to  the  stake  (Oct.  27,  1553),  and  exhorted 
him  in  vain  to  renounce  his  errors.  He  collected  money  for 
the  refugees  of  Locarno,  and  sent  letters  of  comfort  to  his 
persecuted  brethren  in  France.  He  made  two  visits  to  Ger- 
many (1557)  to  urge  upon  the  German  princes  an  active 
intercession  in  behalf  of  the  Waldenses  and  French  Protes- 
tants, but  without  effect.  In  December,  1558,  when  already 
sixty-nine  years  of  age,  he  married,  against  the  advice  of 
his  friends,  a  poor  maiden,  who  had  fled  with  her  widowed 
mother  from  France  to  Neuchatel.^  Calvin  was  much  an- 
noyed by  this  indiscretion,  but  besought  the  preachers  of 
that  city  to  bear  with  patience  the  folly  of  the  old  bachelor. 

The  marriage  did  not  cool  Farel's  zeal.  In  1559  he  visited 
the  French  refugees  in  Alsace  and  Lorraine.  In  November, 
1561,  he  accepted  an  invitation  to  Gap,  his  birthplace,  and 
ventured  to  preach  in  public,  notwithstanding  the  royal  pro- 
hibition, to  the  large  number  of  his  fellow-citizens  who  had 
become  Protestants. 

Shortly  before  his  death  Calvin  informed  him  of  his  illness. 
May  2,  1564,  in  the  last  letter  from  his  pen :  "  Farewell,  my 
best  and  truest  brother !     And  since  it  is  God's  will  that  you 

1  Six  years  afterwards  he  became  the  father  of  a  son,  his  only  child,  who 
survived  him  three  years.  John  Knox  surpassed  him  in  matrimonial  enter- 
prise :  he  married,  as  a  widower  of  fifty-eight,  a  Scotch  lass  of  sixteen,  of 
royal  name  and  blood  (Margaret  Stuart),  who  bore  him  three  daughters,  and 
two  years  after  his  death  (1572)  contracted  a  second  marriage.  If  Erasmus 
had  lived,  he  might  have  pointed  to  these  examples  in  confirmation  of  his 
witticisms  on  the  marriages  of  Luther  and  OScolampadius. 


§  62.    THE   LAST   LABORS    OF   FAREL.  249 

remain  behind  me  in  the  world,  live  mindful  of  our  friend- 
ship, which  as  it  was  useful  to  the  Church  of  God,  so  the  fruit 
of  it  awaits  us  in  heaven.  Pray  do  not  fatigue  yourself  on 
ray  account.  It  is  with  difficulty  that  I  draw  my  breath,  and 
I  expect  that  every  moment  will  be  the  last.  It  is  enough 
that  I  live  and  die  for  (/hrist,  who  is  the  reward  of  his  fol- 
lowers both  in  life  and  in  death.  Again,  farewell  ^yith  the 
brethren."  ^  Farel,  notwithstanding  the  infirmity  of  old  age, 
travelled  to  Geneva,  and  paid  his  friend  a  touching  fare- 
well visit,  but  returned  home  before  his  death.  He  wrote 
to  Fabri :  "  Would  I  could  die  for  him  I  What  a  beautiful 
course  has  he  happily  finished  I  God  grant  that  we  may 
thus  finish  our  course  according  to  the  grace  that  he  has 
given  us." 

His  last  journey  was  a  farewell  visit  to  the  Protestants  at 
Metz,  who  received  him  with  open  arms,  and  were  exceed- 
ingly comforted  by  his  presence  (May,  1565).  He  preached 
with  the  fire  of  his  youth.  Soon  after  his  return  to  Neu- 
chatel,  he  died  peacefully,  Sept.  13,  1565,  seventy-six  years 
old.  The  friends  who  visited  him  in  his  last  days  were 
deeply  impressed  with  his  heroic  steadfastness  and  hopeful- 
ness. He  was  poor  and  disinterested,  like  all  the  Reformers.^ 
A  monument  was  erected  to  him  at  Neuchatel,  May  4,  1876. 

The  writings  of  Farel  are  polemical  and  practical  tracts 
for  the*  times,  mostly  in  French. 

1  Calvin,  Opera,  XX.  302,  where  this  epistola  is  called  "ultima  omnium  et 
valedictoria." 

2  La  France  Prot.,  VI.  409  :  "  Toute  sa  succession  se  monta  a  120  livres,  preuve 
de  son  entiere  de'sinte'ressement."  Godet,  I.e.,  p.  185 :  "  Calvin  mourant  ne  laissa 
que  125  €cus  de  fortune  a  ses  he'ritiers.  Le  petit  tresor  de  Farel  trouve  apres  sa 
mart  se  montait  a  120  licres  du  pai/s." 

3  See  a  list  of  18  in  Schmidt,  I.e.,  p.  38;  a  more  complete  one  (24)  in  La 
France  Protest.,  VI.  410-414.  Herminjard,  in  the  7  vols,  of  his  Correspond. 
des  Pef.,  gives  107  of  his  letters,  and  242  letters  addressed  to  him. 


250         THE   REFORMATION   IN    FRENCH    SAVITZERLAND. 

§  63.    Peter  Viret  and  the  Reformation  in  Lausanne. 

Biographies  of  Viret  in  Beza's  Icones,  in  Verheiden's  Imagines  et  Elogia 
(witli  a  list  of  his  works,  pp.  88-90),  by  Chexeviere  (1835),  Jaqcemot 
(1856),  C.  Schmidt  (1860).  Eeferences  to  him  in  Ruchat,  Le  Cheoni- 
QUEUR,  Gabeeel,  Meele  d'Aubign^,  etc. 

Farel  wa.s  aided  in  his  evangelistic  efforts  chiefly  by  Viret 
and  Froment,  who  agreed  with  his  views,  but  differed  from 
his  violent  method. 

Peter  Viret,  the  Reformer  of  Lausanne,  w^as  the  only 
native  Swiss  among  the  pioneers  of  Protestantism  in  West- 
ern Switzerland ;  all  othei-s  were  fugitive  Frenchmen.  He 
was  born,  1511,  at  Orbe,  in  the  Pays  de  Vaud,  and  educated 
for  the  priesthood  at  Paris.  He  acquired  a  considerable 
amount  of  classical  and  theological  learning,  as  is  evident 
from  his  writings.  He  passed,  like  Luther  and  Farel, 
through  a  severe  mental  and  moral  struggle  for  truth  and 
peace  of  conscience.  He  renounced  Romanism  before  he 
was  ordained,  and  returned  to  Switzerland.  He  w^as  induced 
by  Farel  in  1531  to  preach  at  Oi^be.  He  met  with  consider- 
able success,  but  also  with  great  difficulty  and  opposition 
from  priests  and  people.  He  converted  his  parents  and  about 
two  hundred  persons  in  Orbe,  to  whom  he  administered 
the  holy  communion  in  1532.  He  shared  the  labors  and 
trials  of  Farel  and  Froment  in  Geneva.  An  attempt  was 
made  to  poison  them ;  he  alone  ate  of  the  poisoned  dish,  but 
recovered,  yet  with  a  permanent  injury  to  his  health. 

His  chief  work  was  done  at  Lausanne,  wiiere  he  labored 
as  pastor,  teacher,  and  author  for  twenty-two  years.  By 
order  of  the  government  of  Bern  a  public  disputation  was 
held  Oct.  1  to  10,  1536.1  Viret,  Farel,  Calvin,  Fabri,  Mar- 
court,  and  Caroli  were  called  to  defend  the  Reformed  doc- 
trines. Several  priests  and  monks  were  present,  as  Drogy, 
Mimard,    Michod,   Loys,    Berilly,  and   a   French   physician, 

'  The  acts  of  this  disputation  are  printed  in  VuUieniin's  Chroniqueur  en  Van 
2536,  No.  17,  pp.  315-326.     The  chapter  of  Lausanne  protested,  pp.  316,  325. 


§  63.     PETEll    VIKET.  251 

Claude  Blancherose.  A  deputy  of  Bern  presided.  The 
discussiou  was  conducted  in  P'rencli.  Farel  prepared  ten 
Theses  in  which  he  asserts  the  supremacy  of  the  Bible,  justi- 
fication by  faith  alone,  the  high-priesthood  and  mediatorship 
of  Christ,  spiritual  worship  without  ceremonies  and  images, 
the  sacredness  of  marriage,  Christian  freedom  in  the  obser- 
vance or  non-observance  of  things  indifferent,  guch  as  fasts 
and  feasts.  Farel  and  Viret  were  the  chief  speakers.  The 
result  was  the  introduction  of  the  Reformation,  November  1 
of  the  same  year.  Yiret  and  Pierre  Caroli  were  appointed 
preachers.  Viret  taught  at  the  same  time  in  the  academy 
founded  by  Bern  in  1540. 

Caroli  stayed  only  a  short  time.  He  was  a  native  of 
France  and  a  doctor  of  the  Sorbonne,  who  had  become  nomi- 
nally a  Protestant,  but  envied  Yiret  for  his  popularity,  took 
offence  at  his  sermons,  and  wantonly  charged  him,  Farel,  and 
Calvin,  with  Arianism.  He  was  deposed  as  a  slanderer, 
and  at  length  returned  to  the  Roman  Church.^ 

In  1549  Beza  was  appointed  second  professor  of  theology 
at  the  academy,  and  greatly  strengthened  Yiret's  hands. 
Five  young  Frenchmen  who  were  trained  by  them  for  the 
ministry,  and  had  returned  to  their  native  land  to  preach 
the  gospel,  were  seized  at  Lyons  and  burned.  May  16,  1553, 
notwithstanding  the  intercession  of  the  Reformed  Cantons 
with  King  Hemy  II. 

Yiret  attempted  to  introduce  a  strict  discipline  with  the 
ban,  but  found  as  much  opposition  as  Calvin  at  Geneva  and 
Farel  at  Neuchatel.  Bern  disapproved  the  ban  and  also  the 
preaching  of  the  rigorous  doctrine  of  predestination.  Beza 
was  discoui-aged,  and  accepted  a  call  to  Geneva  (Septem- 
ber, 1558).  Yiret  was  deposed  (Jan.  20,  1559).  The  pro- 
fessors of  the  academy  and  a  number  of  preachers  resigned. 
Yiret  went  to  Geneva  and  was  appointed  preacher  of  the  city 

1  See  his  letter  of  submission  to  Pope  Paul  III.,  June,  1537,  in  Herminjard, 
IV.  248  sqq. 


252         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

(March  2,  1559).  His  sermons  were  more  popular  and 
impressive  than  those  of  Calvin,  and  better  attended. 

"With  the  permission  of  Geneva,  he  labored  for  a  vi^hile  as 
an  evangelist,  with  great  success,  at  Nismes,  Montpellier,  and 
Lyons.  He  presided  as  Moderator  over  the  fourth  national 
Synod  of  the  Huguenots,  August,  1563.  He  accepted  a  call 
from  Jeanne  d'Albret  to  an  academy  at  Orthez,  in  Beam, 
which  she  founded  in  1566.  There,  in  1571,  he  died,  the  last 
of  the  triumvirate  of  the  founders  of  the  Reformed  Church 
in  French  Switzerland.  He  was  twice  married,  first  to  a 
lad}^  of  Orbe  (1538) ;  a  second  time,  to  a  lady  of  Geneva 
(1546).  He  was  small,  sickly,  and  emaciated,  but  fervent  in 
spirit,  and  untiring  in  labor. 

Viret  was  an  able  and  fruitful  author,  and  shows  an  uncom- 
mon familiarity  with  classical  and  theological  literature.  He 
wrote,  mostly  in  the  form  of  dialogues,  expositions  of  the 
Apostles'  Creed,  the  Ten  Commandments,  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
a  summary  of  Christian  doctrine,  polemical  books  against  the 
Council  of  Trent,  against  the  mass  and  other  doctrines  of 
Romanism,  and  tracts  on  Providence,  the  Sacraments,  and 
practical  religion.  The  most  important  is  The  Christian  Iiv- 
struction  in  the  Doctrine  of  the  Grospel  and  the  Law,  and  in 
the  true  Philosophy  and  Theology  both  Natural  and  Supernat- 
ural (Geneva,  1564,  3  vols.  fob).  His  writings  are  exceed- 
ingly rare.^ 

§  64.    Antoine  Froment. 

A.  Froment  :  Les  actes  et  gestes  mervellleux  de  la  cite  de  Geneve,  nouvellement 
convertie  a  I'Evangile.  Edited  by  G.  Revilliod,  Geneve,  1854.  A  chronicle 
from  1532  to  1536,  fresli  and  lively,  but  partial  and  often  inaccurate. 
Much  used  by  Merle  d'Aubigne.     Letters  in  Herminjard,  Tom.  IV. 

There  is  no  special  monograph  of  Froment,  and  he  is  omitted  in  Beza's  Icones 
and  also  in  Verheiden's  Imagines  et  Elogia  (Hagfe,  1725),  probably  on 
account  of  his  spotted  character.  Sketches  in  La  France  Protest.,  VI. 
723-733,  and  notices  in  Roget,  Merle  d'Aubigne,   Gaberel,  Polenz.     A 

'  C.  Schmidt,  in  his  monograph  on  Viret,  pp.  56-71,  gives  a  list  of  them 
with  extracts.     Comp.  Phil.  Godet,  I.e.  70  sqq. 


§  64.     ANTOINE   FROMENT.  253 

good  article  by  Th.  Schott  in  Herzog^,  IV.  677-099,  and  by  Roget  in 
Lichtenberger's  "  Enoycl.,"  V.  342-344.  On  his  literary  merits  see  Phil. 
GoDET,  Histoire  litteraire  de  la  Suisse  Romande,  82  sqq. 

Antoine  Froment  was  born  in  1509  in  Mens,  in  Dauphin^, 
and  was  one  of  the  earliest  disciples  of  Farel,  his  country- 
man. He  accompanied  him  in  his  evangelistic  tours  through 
Switzerland,  and  shared  in  his  troubles,  persecutions,  and 
successes.  In  1532  he  went  for  the  first  time  to  Geneva, 
and  opened  an  elementary  school  in  which  he  taught  religion. 
He  advertised  it  by  placards  in  these  words :  "  A  man  has 
arrived,  who  in  the  space  of  one  month  will  teach  anybody, 
great  or  small,  male  or  female,  to  read  and  write  French ; 
who  does  not  learn  it  in  tiiat  time  need  not  pay  anything. 
He  will  also  heal  many  diseases  without  charge."  The  peo- 
ple flocked  to  him ;  he  was  an  able  teacher,  and  turned  his 
lessons  into  addresses  and  sermons. 

On  new  year's  day,  in  1533,  he  preached  his  first  sermon 
on  the  public  place,  Molard,  attacked  the  pope,  priests,  and 
monks  as  false  prophets  (Matt.  7  :  15  sq.),  but  was  intei- 
rupted  by  armed  priests,  and  forced  by  the  police  to  flee  to  a 
retreat.  He  left  the  city  by  night,  in  February,  but  returned 
again  and  again,  and  aided  Farel,  Viret,  and  Calvin. 

Unfortunately  he  did  not  remain  faithful  to  his  calling,  and 
fell  into  disgrace.  He  neglected  his  pastoral  duties,  kept  a 
shop,  and  at  last  gave  up  the  ministry.  His  colleagues, 
especially  Calvin,  complained  bitterly  of  him.^  In  Decem- 
ber, 1549,  he  was  engaged  by  Bonivard,  the  official  historian 
of  the  Republic,  to  assist  him  in  his  Chronicle,  which  was 
completed  in  1552.  Then  he  became  a  public  notary  of 
Geneva  (1553).  He  got  into  domestic  troubles.  Soon  after 
the  death  of  his  first  wife,  formerly  abbess  of  a  convent,  he 
married  a  second  time  (1561),  but  committed  adultery  with 
a  servant,  was  deposed,  imprisoned,  and  banished,  1562. 

His  misfortune  seems  to  have  wrought  in  him  a  beneficial 

1  "Froment,"  says  Farel,  "a  de(/ene're' en  ivraie  (u-resse)." 


254  THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

change.  In  1572  he  was  permitted  on  application  to  return 
to  Geneva  in  view  of  his  past  services,  and  in  1574  he  was 
reinstated  as  notary.  He  died  in  1581  (?)  The  Genevese 
honored  his  memory  as  one,  though  the  least  important,  and 
the  least  worthy,  of  the  four  Reformers  of  their  city.  His 
chief  work  is  the  Chronicle  mentioned  above,  which  supple- 
ments the  Chronicles  of  Bonivard,  and  Sister  Jeanne  de 
Jussie.^ 

^  Michelet  (Hist,  de  France,  XI.  91) :  "  Nitl  livre  plus  amusant  que  la  chronique 
de  Froment,  hardi  colporteur  de  la  grace,  naif  et  mordant  satirique  que  les  de't-otes 
ge'nevoises,  plaisamment  d€voil€es  par  lui,  essayerent  de  jeter  au  Rhone." 


From  the  original  oil  painting  in  the  University  Library  of  Geneva.  This 
picture  represents  the  Reformer  as  teaching  or  preaching,  and  is  consid- 
ered the  best. 


256 


CHAPTER   VIII. 
JOHN   CALVIN   AND   HIS  WORK. 

The  literature  in  §  58,  pp.  225-231. 
§  65.    Joh7i  Calvin  compared  with  the   Older  Reformers. 

We  now  approach  the  life  and  work  of  John  Calvin,  who 
labored  more  than  Farel,  Viret,  and  Froment.  He  was  the 
chief  founder  and  consolidator  of  the  Reformed  Church  of 
France  and  French  Switzerland,  and  left  the  impress  of  his 
mind  upon  all  other  Reformed  Churches  in  Europe  and 
America. 

Revolution  is  followed  by  reconstruction  and  consolidation. 
For  this  task  Calvin  was  providentially  foreordained  and 
equipped  by  genius,  education,  and  circumstances. 

Calvin  could  not  have  done  the  work  of  Farel ;  for  he 
was  not  a  missionary,  or  a  popular  preacher.  Still  less^ 
could  Farel  have  done  the  work  of  Calvin ;  for  he  was 
neither  a  theologian,  nor  a  statesman.  Calvin,  the  French- 
man, would  have  been  as  much  out  of  place  in  Ziirich  or 
Wittenberg,  as  the  Swiss  Zwingli  and  the  German  Luther 
would  have  been  out  of  place  and  without  a  popular  con- 
stituency in  French-speaking  Geneva.  Each  stands  first  and 
unrivalled  in  his  particular  mission  and  field  of  labor. 

Luther's  public  career  as  a  reformer  embraced  twenty-nine 
years,  from  1517  to  1546  ;  that  of  Zwingli,  only  twelve  years, 
from  1519  to  1531  (unless  we  date  it  from  his  preaching  at 
Einsiedeln  in  1516) ;  that  of  Calvin,  twenty-eight  years, 
from  1536  to  1564.  The  first  reached  an  age  of  sixty-two; 
the  second,  of  forty-seven ;  the  third,  of  fifty-four.     Calvin 

257 


258         THE    REFORMATION   IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

was  twenty-nve  years  younger  than  Luther  and  Zwingii,  and 
had  the  great  advantage  of  building  on  their  foundation. 
He  had  less  genius,  but  more  talent.  He  was  inferior  to  them 
as  a  man  of  action,  but  superior  as  a  thinker  and  organizer. 
They  cut  the  stones  in  the  quarries,  he  polished  them  in  the 
workshop.  They  produced  the  new  ideas,  he  constructed 
them  into  a  system.  His  was  the  work  of  ApoUos  rather 
than  of  Paul :  to  water  rather  than  to  plant,  God  giving  the 
increase. 

Calvin's  character  is  less  attractive,  and  his  life  less  dra- 
matic than  Luther's  or  Zwingli's,  but  he  left  his  Church  in 
a  much  better  condition.  He  lacked  the  genial  element  of 
humor  and  pleasantry ;  he  was  a  Christian  stoic :  stern, 
severe,  unbending,  yet  with  fires  of  passion  and  affection 
glowing  beneath  the  marble  surface.  His  name  will  never 
rouse  popular  enthusiasm,  as  Luther's  and  Zwingli's  did  at 
the  celebration  of  the  fourth  centennial  of  their  birth ; 
no  statues  of  marble  or  bronze  have  been  erected  to  his 
memory;  even  the  spot  of  his  grave  in  the  cemetery  at 
Geneva  is  unknown.^  But  he  surpassed  them  in  consistency 
and  self-discipline,  and  by  his  exegetical,  doctrinal,  and 
polemical  writings,  he  has  exerted  and  still  exerts  more 
influence  than  any  other  Reformer  upon  the  Protestant 
Churches  of  the  Latin  and  Anglo-Saxon  races.  He  made 
little  Geneva  for  a  hundred  years  the  Protestant  Rome  and 
the  best-disciplined  Church  in  Christendom.  History  fur- 
nishes no  more  striking  example  of  a  man  of  so  little  personal 
popularity,  and  yet  such  great  influence  upon  the  people ;  of 
such  natural  timidity  and  bashfulness  combined  with  such 
strength  of  intellect  and  character,  and  such  control  over  his 
and  future  generations.     He  was  by  nature  and  taste  a  retir- 

1  A  plain  stone,  with  the  letters  "J.  C,"  is  pointed  out  to  the  stranger  as 
marking  his  resting-place  in  the  cemetery  of  Plein  Palais  outside  of  the  city, 
but  it  is  not  known  on  what  authority.  He  himself  especially  enjoined  that 
no  monument  should  mark  his  grave. 


§  65.    JOHN   CALVIN.  259 

ing  scholar,  but  Providence  made  him  an  organizer  and  ruler 
of  churches. 

The  three  leading  Reformers  were  of  different  nationality 
and  education.  Luther,  the  son  of  a  German  peasant,  was 
trained  in  the  school  of  monasticism  and  mysticism,  under 
the  influence  of  St.  Augustin,  Tauler,  and  Staupitz,  and  re- 
tained strong  churchly  convictions  and  prejudices.  Zwingli, 
the  son  of  a  Swiss  country  magistrate,  a  republican  patriot, 
an  admiring  student  of  the  ancient  classics  and  of  Erasmus, 
passed  through  the  door  of  the  Renaissance  to  the  Reforma- 
tion, and  broke  more  completely  away  from  medisevalism. 
Calvin,  a  native  Frenchman,  a  patrician  by  education  and 
taste,  studied  law  as  well  as  theology,  and  by  his  legal  and 
judicial  mind  was  admirably  qualified  to  build  up  a  new 
Christian  commonwealth. 

Zwingli  and  Luther  met  once  face  to  face  at  Marburg,  but 
did  not  understand  each  other.  The  Swiss  extended  to  the 
German  the  hand  of  fellowship,  notwithstanding  their  differ- 
ence of  opinion  on  the  mode  of  Christ's  presence  in  the 
Eucharist ;  but  Luther  refused  it,  under  the  restraint  of  a 
narrower  dogmatic  conscience.  Calvin  saw  neither,  but  was 
intimate  with  Melanchthon,  whom  he  met  at  the  Colloquies 
of  Worms  and  Regensburg,  and  with  whom  he  kept  up  a 
correspondence  till  his  death.  He  rightly  placed  the  German 
Reformer,  as  to  genius  and  power,  above  the  Swiss,  and 
generously  declared  that,  even  if  Luther  should  call  him  a 
devil,  he  would  still  esteem  Luther  as  a  most  eminent  servant 
of  God.  Luther  saw,  probably,  only  two  books  of  Calvin,  — 
his  reply  to  Sadolet  and  his  tract  on  the  Lord's  Supper ;  the 
former  he  read,  as  he  says,  with  singular  delight  ("  cwm 
singulari  voluptate  ").  How  much  more  would  he  have  been 
delighted  with  his  Institutes  or  Commentaries !  He  sent 
respectful  greetings  to  Calvin  through  Melanchthon,  who 
informed  him  that  he  was  in  high  favor  with  the  Wittenberg- 
doctor. 


260         THE   REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Calvin,  in  his  theology,  mediated  between  Zwingli  and 
Luther.  Melanchthon  mediated  between  Luther  and  Calvin  ; 
he  was  a  friend  of  both,  though  unlike  either  in  disposition 
and  temper,  standing  as  a  man  of  peace  between  two  men  of 
war.  The  correspondence  between  Calvin  and  Melanchthon, 
considering  their  disagreement  on  the  deep  questions  of  pre- 
destination and  free-will,  is  highly  creditable  to  their  head 
and  heart,  and  proves  that  theological  differences  of  opinion 
need  not  disturb  religious  harmony  and  personal  friendship. 

The  co-operative  friendships  between  Luther  and  Melanch- 
thon, between  Zwingli  and  CEcolampadius,  between  Farel  and 
Calvin,  between  Calvin,  Beza,  and  Bullinger,  are  among  the 
finest  chapters  in  the  history  of  the  Reformation,  and  reveal 
the  hand  of  God  in  that  movement. 

Widely  as  these  Reformers  differed  in  talent,  temperament, 
and  sundry  points  of  doctrine  and  discipline,  they  were  great 
and  good  men,  equally  honest  and  earnest,  unselfish  and 
unworldly,  brave  and  fearless,  ready  at  any  moment  to  go  to 
the  stake  for  their  conviction.  They  labored  for  the  same 
end:  the  renovation  of  the  Catholic  Church  by  leading  it 
back  to  the  pure  and  perennial  fountain  of  the  perfect  teach- 
ing and  example  of  Chi-ist. 

§  66.    Calvin's  Place  in  History. 

1.  Calvin  was,  first  of  all,  a  theologian.  He  easily  tak-es 
the  lead  among  the  systematic  expoundei's  of  the  Reformed 
system  of  Christian  doctrine.  He  is  scarcely  inferior  to 
Augustin  among  the  fathers,  or  Thomas  Aquinas  among 
the  schoolmen,  and  more  methodical  and  symmetrical  than 
either.  Melanchthon,  himself  the  prince  of  Lutheran  divines 
and  "the  Preceptor  of  Germany,"  called  him  emphatically 
"the  Theologian."! 

1  With  this  judgment  the  Strassburg  editors  of  his  ^yo^ks  agree,  by  calling 
Calvin  "  theologorum  principem  et  antesignanum  "  (Opera,  I.  IX.).  Scaliger  says : 
"Calvin  is  alone  among  theologians;   there  is  no  ancient  to  compare  with 


§  66.   Calvin's  place  ix  histokv.  261 

Calvin's  theology  is  based  upon  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  the  Scriptures.  He  was  the  ablest  exegete  among  the 
Reformers,  and  his  commentaries  rank  among  the  very  best 
of  ancient  and  modern  times.  His  theology,  therefore,  is 
biblical  rather  than  scholastic,  and  has  all  the  freshness  of 
enthusiastic  devotion  to  the  truths  of  God's  Word.  At  the 
same  time  he  was  a  consummate  logician  and  dialectician. 
He  had  a  rare  power  of  clear,  strong,  convincing  statement. 
He  built  up  a  body  of  doctrines  which  is  called  after  him, 
and  which  obtained  symbolical  authority  through  some  of 
the  leading  Reformed  Confessions  of  Faith. 

Calvinism  is  one  of  the  great  dogmatic  systems  of  the 
Church.  It  is  more  logical  than  Lutheranism  and  Arminian- 
ism,  and  as  logical  as  Romanism.  And  yet  neither  Calvinism 
nor  Romanism  is  absolutely  logical.  Both  are  happily  illogi- 
cal or  inconsistent,  at  least  in  one  crucial  point :  the  former 
by  denying  that  God  is  the  author  of  sin  —  which  limits 
Divine  sovereignty ;  the  latter  by  conceding  that  baptismal 
(i.e.  regenerating  or  saving)  grace  is  found  outside  of  the 
Roman  Church  —  which  breaks  the  claim  of  exclusiveness.^ 

The  Calvinistic  system  is  popularly  (though  not  quite 
correctly)  identified  with  the  Augustinian  system,  and  shares 
its  merit  as  a  profound  exposition  of  the  Pauline  doctrines  of 
sin  and  grace,  but  also  its  fundamental  defect  of  confining 
the  saving  grace  of  God  and  the  atoning  work  of  Christ  to 
a  small  circle  of  the  elect,  and  ignoring  the  general  love  of 
God  to  all  mankind  (John  3  :  16).  It  is  a  theology  of  Divine 
sovereignty  rather  than  of  Divine  love ;  and  yet  the  love  of 

him."  The  term  6  d(o\6yos,  as  a  title  of  special  distinction,  was  first  given  to 
the  Apostle  John,  and  afterwards  to  Gregory  Nazianzen ;  in  both  cases  with 
special  reference  to  the  advocacy  of  the  divinity  of  Christ  (the  0€6Tris  rov 
Xoyov).  Calvin  earned  the  title  in  a  more  comprehensive  sense,  as  covering 
the  whole  field  of  exegetical,  dogmatic,  and  polemic  theology. 

^  Expressed  in  the  formula  of  Cyprian:  "extra  ecclesiam  IRomcinaml  nulla 
salus."  Cyprian  was  logically  right,  but  theologically  wrong,  when,  in  his 
controversy  with  the  Roman  bishop,  he  denied  the  validity  of  heretical  and 
schismatical  baptism. 


262         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

God  in  Christ  is  the  true  key  to  his  character  and  works, 
and  offers  the  only  satisfactory  solution  of  the  dark  mystery 
of  sin.  Arminianism  is  a  reaction  against  scholastic  Calvin- 
ism, as  Rationalism  is  a  more  radical  reaction  against  scho- 
lastic Lutheranism.^ 

Calvin  did  not  grow  before  the  public,  like  Luther  and 
Melanchthon,  who  passed  through  many  doctrinal  changes 
and  contradictions.  He  adhered  to  the  religious  views  of  his 
youth  unto  the  end  of  his  life.^  His  Institutes  came  like 
Minerva  in  full  panoply  out  of  the  head  of  Jupiter.  The 
book  was  greatly  enlarged  and  improved  in  form,  but  remained 
the  same  in  substance  through  the  several  editions  (the  last 
revision  is  that  of  1559).  It  threw  into  the  shade  the  earlier 
Protestant  theologies,  —  as  Melanchthon's  Loci^  and  Zwingli's 
Commentary  on  the  True  and  False  Religion,  —  and  it  has 
hardly  been  surpassed  since.  As  a  classical  production  of 
theological  genius  it  stands  on  a  level  with  Origen's  De  Prin- 
cipiis,  Augustin's  De  Civitate  Dei,  Thomas  Aquinas'  Summa 
Theologice^  and  Schleiermacher's  Der  Ch-istliehe  Grlaube. 

2.  Calvin  is,  in  the  next  place,  a  legislator  and  discipli- 
narian. He  is  the  founder  of  a  new  order  of  Church  polity, 
which  consolidated  the  dissipating  forces  of  Protestantism, 
and  fortified  it  against  the  powerful  organization  of  Roman- 
ism on  the  one  hand,  and  the  destructive  tendencies  of  sec- 
tarianism and  infidelity  on  the  other. 

In  this  respect  we  may  compare  him  to  Pope  Hildebrand, 
but  with  this  great  difference,  that  Hildebrand,  the  man  of 
iron,  reformed  the  papacy  of  his  day  on  ascetic  principles, 

^  Harnack  excludes  Calvinism  and  Arminianism  from  his  Dogmengeschichte, 
while  he  devotes  to  Socinianism,  which  is  not  nearly  as  important,  no  less 
than  thirty-eight  pages  (III.  653-691).  A  strange  omission  in  this  important 
work,  completed  in  1890.  He  explains  this  omission  (in  a  private  letter  to 
me,  dated  March  3,  1891)  on  the  ground  that  he  includes  Calvinism  and 
Arminianism  in  the  Enticickluncjsgeschichte  des  Protestantismus,  which  he  did 
not  intend  to  treat  in  his  Dogmengeschichte. 

-  Beza  says :  "  In  the  doctrine  which  he  delivered  at  first,  Calvin  persisted 
steadily  to  the  last,  scarcely-  making  any  change." 


§  66.   Calvin's  place  in  history.  263 

and  developed  the  mediae val  theocracy  on  the  hierarchical 
basis  of  an  exclusive  and  unmarried  priesthood ;  while  Cal- 
vin reformed  the  Church  on  social  principles,  and  founded  a 
theocracy  on  the  democratic  basis  of  the  general  priesthood  of 
believers.  The  former  asserted  the  supremacy  of  the  Church 
over  the  State  ;  the  latter,  the  supremacy  of  Christ  over  both 
Church  and  State.  Calvin  united  the  spiritual  and  secular 
powers  as  the  two  arms  of  God,  on  the  assumption  of  the 
obedience  of  the  State  to  the  law  of  Christ.  The  last  form 
of  this  kind  of  theocracy  or  Christocracy  was  established  by 
the  Puritans  in  New  England  in  1620,  and  continued  for 
several  generations.  In  the  nineteenth  centur}-,  when  the 
State  has  assumed  a  mixed  religious  and  non-religious  char- 
acter, and  is  emancipating  itself  more  and  more  from  the 
rule  of  any  church  organization  or  creed,  Calvin  would,  like 
his  modern  adherents  in  French  Switzerland,  Scotland,  and 
America,  undoubtedly  be  a  champion  of  the  freedom  and  in- 
dependence, of  the  Church  and  its  separation  from  the  State. 

Calvin  found  the  commonwealth  of  Geneva  in  a  condition 
of  license  bordering  on  anarchy:  he  left  it  a  well-regulated 
community,  which  John  Knox,  the  Reformer  of  Scotland, 
from  personal  observation,  declared  to  be  "  the  most  perfect 
school  of  Christ  that  ever  was  in  the  earth  since  the  days  of 
the  Apostles,"  and  which  Valentin  Andrese,  a  shining  light 
of  the  Lutheran  Church,  likewise  from  personal  observation, 
half  a  century  after  Calvin's  death,  held  up  to  the  churches 
of  Germany  as  a  model  for  imitation.^ 

The  moral  discipline  which  Calvin  introduced  reflects  the 
severity  of  his  theology,  and  savors  more  of  the  spirit  of  the 
Old  Testament  than  the  spirit  of  the  New.  As  a  system,  it 
has  long  since  disappeared,  but  its  best  results  remain  in  the 
pure,  vigorous,  and  high-toned  morality  which  distinguishes 
Calvinistic  and  Presbyterian  communities. 

^  See  these  and  other  remjirkahU-  judgments  quoted  more  fully  in  §  110. 


264    THE  EEFOEMATIOX  IN  FRENCH  SWITZERLAND. 

It  is  by  the  combination  of  a  severe  creed  with  severe 
self-discipline  that  Calvin  became  the  father  of  the  heroic 
races  of  French  Huguenots,  Dutch  Burghers,  English  Puri- 
tans, Scotch  Covenanters,  and  New  England  Pilgrims,  who 
sacrificed  the  world  for  the  liberty  of  conscience.  "A  little 
bit  of  the  world's  history,"  says  the  German  historian  Hausser,i 
"was  enacted  in  Geneva,  which  forms  the  proudest  portion 
of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries.  A  number  of 
the  most  distinguished  men  in  France,  the  Netherlands,  and 
Great  Britain  professed  her  creed ;  they  were  sturdy,  gloomy 
souls,  iron  characters  cast  in  one  mould,  in  which  there  was 
an  interfusion  of  Romanic,  Germanic,  mediaeval,  and  modern 
elements ;  and  the  national  and  political  consequences  of  the 
new  faith  were  carried  out  by  them  with  the  utmost  rigor 
and  consistency."  A  distinguished  Scotch  divine  (Principal 
Tulloch)  echoes  this  judgment  when  he  says :  ^  "It  was  the 
spirit  bred  by  Calvin's  discipline  which,  spreading  into  France 
and  Holland  and  Scotland,  maintained  by  its  single  strength 
the  cause  of  a  free  Protestantism  in  all  these  lands.  It  was 
the  same  spirit  which  inspired  the  early  and  lived  on  in  the 
later  Puritans  ;  which  animated  such  men  as  Milton  and 
Owen  and  Baxter ;  which  armed  the  Parliament  of  England 
with  strength  against  Chai'les  I.,  and  stirred-  the  great  soul 
of  Cromwell  in  its  proudest  triumphs ;  and  which,  while  it 
thus  fed  every  source  of  political  liberty  in  the  Old  World, 
burned  undimned  in  the  gallant  crew  of  the  '  ]Ma}'flower,'  — 
the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  —  who  first  planted  the  seeds  of  civili- 
zation in  the  great  continent  of  the  West."  ^ 

1  The  Period  of  the  Reformation,  ed.  by  Oncken,  transl.  by  Mrs.  Sturgis 
(New  York,  1874),  p.  255. 

^  Luther  and  Other  Leaders  of  the  Reformation,  p.  264  sq.  (3d  ed.  1883). 

•^  George  Bancroft,  the  historian  of  the  United  States,  derives  the  free 
institutions  of  America  chiefly  from  Calvinism  through  the  medium  of  Puri- 
tanism. It  is  certain  that,  in  the  colonial  period,  Calvinism  was  the  most 
powerful  factor  in  the  theology  and  religious  life  of  America ;  but  since  the 
close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  Arminian  Methodism  fairly  divides  the  field 


§  66.  Calvin's  place  in  history.  265 

Calvin  was  intolerant  of  any  dissent,  either  papal  or  heret- 
ical, and  his  early  followers  in  Europe  and  America  abhorred 
religious  toleration  (in  the  sense  of  indifference)  as  a  pestif- 
erous error ;  nevertheless,  in  their  conflict  with  reactionary 
Romanism  and  political  despotism,  they  became  the  chief 
promoters  of  civil  and  religious  liberty  based  upon  respect 
for  God's  law  and  authority.  The  solution  of  the  apparent 
inconsistency  lies  in  the  fact  that  Calvinists  fear  God  and 
nothing  else.  In  their  eyes,  God  alone  is  great,  man  is  but 
a  shadow.  The  fear  of  God  makes  them  fearless  of  earthly 
despots.  It  humbles  man  before  God,  it  exalts  him  before 
his  fellow-men.  The  fear  of  God  is  the  basis  of  moral  self- 
government,  and  self-government  is  the  basis  of  true  freedom.^ 

3.  Calvin's  influence  is  not  confined  to  the  religious  and 
moral  sphere  ;  it  extends  to  the  intellectual  and  literary 
development  of  France.  He  occupies  a  prominent  position 
in  the  history  of  the  French  language,  as  Luther,  to  a  still 
higher  degree,  figures  in  the  history  of  the  German  language. 
Luther  gave  to  the  Germans,  in  their  own  vernacular,  a 
version  of  the  Bible,  a  catechism,  and  a  hymn-book.  Calvin 
did  not  translate  the  Scriptures  (although  from  his  commen- 
taries a  tolerably  complete  version  might  be  constructed), 
and  his  catechism  and  a  few  versified  psalms  never  became 

with  it  and  is  numerically  the  strongest  denomination  in  the  United  States  at 
the  present  day.  The  Baptists,  who  come  next  in  numerical  strength,  the 
Presbyterians,  the  Congregationalists,  and  the  Dutch  and  German  Reformed 
rank  on  the  Calvinistic,  but  the  Protestant  Episcopalians  and  Lutherans, 
predominantly  on  the  Arminian  side.  The  Episcopal  Church,  however,  leaves 
room  for  the  moderate  Calvinism  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  (Art.  17),  the 
high  Calvinism  of  the  Lambeth  Articles  and  Irish  Articles,  and  the  semi- 
Catholic  tendency  of  the  Prayer-Book.  The  Lutheran  Formula  of  Concord 
is  Calvinistic  in  the  doctrine  of  unconditional  election  of  believers  and  the 
slavery  of  the  human  will,  but  Arminian  in  the  doctrine  of  universal  atone- 
ment and  universal  vocation,  and  semi-Catholic  in  the  doctrine  of  the  sacra- 
ments (baptismal  regeneration  and  the  eucharistic  presence). 
^  Goethe  gives  classic  expression  to  this  truth  in  the  lines  :  — 

"In  der  Beschrdnkung  erst  zeigt  sich  der  Meister, 
Und  das  Gesetz  mir  Icann  tins  Freiheit  geben." 


266         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

popular;  but  lie  wrote  classical  French  as  well  as  classical 
Latin,  and  excelled  his  contemporaries  in  both.  He  was 
schooled  in  the  Renaissance,  but,  instead  of  running  into  the 
pedantic  Ciceronianism  of  Bembo,  he  made  the  old  Roman 
tongue  subservient  to  Christian  thought,  and  raised  the 
French  language  to  the  dignity  of  one  of  the  chief  organs 
of  modern  civilization,  distinguished  for  directness,  clearness, 
precision,  vivacity,  and  elegance. 

The  modern  French  language  and  literature  date  from 
Calvin  and  his  contemporary,  Fran9ois  Rabelais  (1483-1553). 
These  two  men,  so  totally  different,  reflect  the  opposite 
extremes  of  French  character.  Calvin  was  the  most  relig- 
ious, Rabelais  the  most  witty  man,  of  his  generation;  the 
one  the  greatest  divine,  the  other  the  greatest  humorist,  of 
France ;  the  one  a  Christian  stoic,  the  other  a  heathen  Epi- 
curean ;  the  one  represented  discipline  bordering  on  tyranny, 
the  other  liberty  running  into  license.  Calvin  created  the 
theological  and  polemical  French  style,  —  a  style  which  suits 
serious  discussion,  and  aims  at  instruction  and  conviction. 
Rabelais  created  the  secular  style,  which  aims  to  entertain 
and  to  please. 1 

Calvin  sharpened  the  weapons  with  which  Bossuet  and  the 
great  Roman  Catholic  divines  of  the  seventeenth  century 
attacked  Protestantism,  with  which  Rousseau  and  the  phi- 
losophers of  the  eighteenth  century  attacked  Christianity, 
and  with  which  Adolf  Monod  and  Eugene  Bersier  of  the 
nineteenth  century  preached  the  simple  gospel  of  the  New 
Testament.2 

1  Calvin  alludes  once  (in  a  letter  of  1553)  to  the  Pantagrml  of  Rabelais, 
which  was  condemned  as  an  obscene  book. 

2  Bossuet  (in  his  Histoire  des  Variations)  says:  " Rien  ne  flattait  davantage 
Calvin  que  la  gloire  de  bien  e'crire.  Donnons  lui  done,  puisqu'il  le  veut  tant  cette 
gloire,  d  'avoir  aussi  bien  €crit  qu'homme  de  son  siecle.  .  .  .  Sa  plume  e'tait  plus 
correcte,  surtout  en  latin,  que  celle  de  Luther;  et  son  style,  qui  e'tait  plus  triste,  e'tait 
aussi  plus  suivi  et  plus  chatie.  lis  excellaient  Vun  et  I'autre  a  purler  la  langue  de 
leur  pays."  Martin,  in  his  Histoire  de  France  (Tom.  VIII.  185  sq.),  discusses 
at  some  length  the  merits  of  Calvin  for  French  prose,  and  calls  hira  the  first 


§  67.    CALVIN'S   LITERARY   LABORS.  267 


§  67.    Calvin  s  Literary  Labors. 

The  best  edition  of  Calvin's  Opera  by  the  Strassburg  professors,  Baum, 
CuNiTz,  and  Reuss  (now  all  dead),  embraces  so  far  48  quarto  vols. 
(1863-1892) ;  the  remaining  volumes  were  prepared  for  publication  by 
Dr.  Reuss  before  his  death  (1891).  He  wrote  to  me  from  Neuhof,  near 
Strassburg,  July  11,  1887  :  '' Alles  ist  zum  Druck  vorbereitet  und  ganz  fertig 
mit  Prolegomenis,  etc.  Es  bleiht  nlchts  mein-  zu  thun  iibrig  als  die  Correctur 
und  die  Fortsetzung  des  immer  a  jour  gehaltenen  Index  rerum  et  nominum,  et 
locorum  S.  S.,  loas  ein  anderer  nach  meinem  Tode  besorgen  Icann.  Denn  ich 
werde  die  Vollendung  nicht  erlcben.  Fur  den  Schluss  habe  ich  sogar  noch  ein 
Supplement  ausgearbeitet,  ndmlich  eine  franzosische  Bibel,  extrahirt  aus  den 
franzosischen  Commentaren  und  Predigten,  nebst  alien  Varianten  der  zu  Cal- 
vin's Zeiten  in  Genf  gedruckten  Bibeln."   Vol.  45  sqq.  are  edited  by  Erichson. 

Older  editions  appeared  at  Geneva,  1617,  in  7  vols.,  in  15  fol.,  and  at  Amster- 
dam, 1667-1671,  in  9  vols.  fol.  The  English  translation,  Edinburgh, 
1843-1854,  has  52  vols.  8°.  Several  works  have  been  separately  pub- 
lished in  Latin,  French,  German,  Dutch,  English,  and  other  languages. 
See  a  chronological  list  in  Henry:  Das  Leben  Joh.  Calvins,  vol.  III. 
Bellagen,  175-252,  and  in  La  France  Prot.  III.  545-636  (2d  ed.). 

The  literary  activit}^  of  Calvin,  whether  we  look  at  the 
number  or  at  the  importance  of  works,  is  not  surpassed  by 
any  ecclesiastical  writer,  aiicient  or  modern,  and  excites 
double  astonishment  when  we  take  into  consideration  the 
shortness  of  his  life,  the  frailty  of  his  health,  and  the  mul- 
tiplicity of  his  other  labors  as  a  teacher,  preacher,  church 
ruler,  and  correspondent.  Augustin  among  the  Fathers, 
Thomas  Aquinas  among  the  Schoolmen,  Luther  and  Me- 
lanchthon  among  the  Reformers,  were  equally  fruitful ;  but 
they  lived  longer,  with  the  exception  of  Thomas  Aquinas. 
Calvin,  moreover,  wrote  in  two  languages  with  equal  clear- 
ness, force,  and  elegance  ;  while  Augustin  and  Thomas 
Aquinas  wrote  only  in  Latin ;  Luther  was  a  master  of  Ger- 
man ;  and  Melanchthon,  a  master  of  Latin  and  Greek,  but  his 
German  is  as  indifferent  as  Luther's  Latin. 

Calvin's  works  may  be  divided  into  ten  classes. 

writer  of  the  sixteenth  century  "par  la  duree  et  I'influence  de  sa  langue,  de  son 
style."  Pierre  Larousse,  in  his  Grand  Dictionnaire  (Tom.  III.  186),  calls  Calvin 
"fondateur  de  la  Peforme  en  France  et  un  des  peres  de  notre  langue."  Equally 
favorable  are  the  judgments  of  Sayous,  Lacroix,  Nisard,  and  Marc-Monnier. 


268         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

1.  ExEGETiCAL  WRITINGS.  Commentaries  on  the  Penta- 
teuch and  Joshua,  on  the  Psalms,  on  the  Larger  and  Minor 
Prophets ;  Homilies  on  First  Samuel  and  Job ;  Commentaries 
on  all  the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  except  the  Apoca- 
lypse.    They  form  the  great  body  of  his  writings.^ 

2.  Doctrinal.  The  Institutes  (Latin  and  French),  first 
published  at  Basel,  1536 ;  2d  ed.,  Strassburg,  1539 ;  5th  Latin 
ed.,  Geneva,  1559.^ 

Minor  doctrinal  works :  Three  Catechisms,  1537,  1542, 
and  1545 ;  On  the  Lord's  Supper  (Latin  and  French),  1541 ; 
the  Consensus  Tigurinus,  1549  and  1551  (in  both  languages)  ; 
the  Consensus  Genevensis  (Latin  and  French),  1552 ;  the 
Gallican  Confession  (Latin  and  French),  1559  and  1562.^ 

3.  Polemical  and  Apologetic* 

(a)  Against  the  Roman  Church :  Response  to  Cardinal 
Sadoletus,  1539 ;  Against  Pighius,  on  Free-will,  1543 ;  On 
the  Worship  of  ReHcs,  1543 ;  Against  the  Faculty  of  the 
Sorbonne,  1544;  On  the  Necessity  of  a  Reformation,  1544; 
Against  the  Council  of  Trent,  1547. 

(6)  Against  the  Anabaptists :  On  the  Sleep  of  the  Soul 
(Psychopannj'-chia),  1534 ;  Brief  Instruction  against  the 
Errors  of  the  Sect  of  the  Anabaptists,  1544. 

(c)  Against  the  Libertines :  Adversus  fanaticam  et  furio- 
sam  sectam  Lihertinorum  qui  se  Spirituales  vocant  (also  in 
French),  1545. 

(c?)  Against  the  Anti-Trinitarians  :  Defensio  ortliodoxce  fidei 
8.   Tri7iitatis  adversus  prodigiosos  errores  Serveti,  1554;  Re- 

1  Opera,  vols.  XXIII.-XLIV.,  contain  the  Old  Testament  Commentaries. 
Those  on  the  New  Testament  have  been  separately  edited  in  Latin  by  Tho- 
luck,  1833-'38,  7  vols.  8°. 

2  Ibid.  vols.  I.-IV.  (1863-'66).  Latin  and  French.  There  are  three  Eng- 
lish translations  of  the  Institittes,  one  by  Thomas  Norton  (London,  1561,  etc.), 
another  by  John  Allen  (London,  1813,  3d  ed.  1844,  in  2  vols.),  a  third  by 
Henry  Beveridge  (Edinburgh,  1845-'46,  3  vols.).  The  work  was  also  trans- 
lated into  Italian,  Spanish,  Dutch,  German,  Hungarian,  Greek,  and  other 
languages.     A  new  French  ed.  by  Fr.  Baumgartner,  Gen.  1888. 

2  Tractatus  theologici  minores,  in  Opera,  vol.  V.,  etc.  *  Vols.  V.-IX. 


§  67.   calvin's  literary  labors.  269 

sponsum  ad  Qucestioties  Gr.  Blandatrce^  1558 ;  Adversus  Valen- 
tinum  Grentilein,  1561 ;  Meisjjonsum  ad  nobiles  Fratres  Polonos 
(Socinians)  de  controversia  Mediaforis,  1561 ;  Brevis  admoni- 
tio  ad  Fratres  Polonos  ne  triplicem  in  Deo  essentiam  pro  tribus 
personis  imaginando  tres  sibi  Beos  fabricent,  1563. 

(e)  Defence  of  the  Doctrine  of  Predestination  against 
Bolsec  and  Castellio,  1554  and  1557. 

(/)  Defence  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Lord's  Supper  against 
the  Calumnies  of  Joachim  Westphal,  a  Lutheran  fanatic  (two 
Befensiones  and  an  Admonitlo  ultima^,  1555,  1556,  1557,  and 
a  tract  on  tlie  same  subject  against  Hesshus  (^ad  discutiendas 
Heshusii  nebulas^,  1561. 

4.  Ecclesiastical  and  Liturgical.  Ordinances  of  the 
Church  of  Geneva,  1537 ;  Project  of  Ecclesiastical  Ordi- 
nances, 1541  ;  Formula  of  Oath  prescribed  to  Ministers, 
1542 ;  Order  of  Marriage,  1545 ;  Visitation  of  the  Churches 
in  the  Country,  1546  ;  Order  of  Baptism,  1551 ;  Academic 
Laws,  1559 ;  Ecclesiastical  Ordinances,  and  Academic  Laws, 
1561 ;  Liturgical  Prayers. ^ 

5.  Sermons  and  Homilies.  They  are  very  numerous, 
and  were  mostly  taken  down  by  auditors.'^ 

6.  Minor  Treatises.  His  academic  oration,  for  Cop  in 
Paris,  1533  ;  Against  Astrology,  1549  ;  On  Certain  Scandals, 
1550,  etc. 

7.  CoNSiLiA  on  various  doctrinal  and  polemical  subjects. 

8.  Letters.  Calvin's  correspondence  was  enormous,  and 
fills  ten  volumes  in  the  last  edition  of  his  works.^ 

1  Vol.  X.  Pars  I.  (1871),  pp.  5-146,  and  vol.  VI.  161-210. 

2  Henry  (II.  198)  says  that  the  Geneva  library  contains  forty-four  manu- 
script volumes  of  sermons  of  Calvin ;  but  the  librarian  Diodati  informed  him 
afterwards  (III.  Preface,  p.  viii.)  that  there  are  only  nine  volumes  left, 
namely,  the  sermons  between  the  years  1549-51,  1555-56,  1560-61.  The 
sermons  on  the  Decalogue,  on  Deuteronomy,  on  Job,  on  the  Sacrifice  of 
Abraham,  and  many  others  were  published  during  his  life-time. 

3  Vols.  -X.-XX.  The  Strassburg  editors  give  in  all  4271  letters  of  Calvin 
and  to  Calvin.  Herminjard  has  published  so  far  his  correspondence  down  to 
1542  (the  seventh  volume  appeared  in  1886). 


270         THE   IIEFORIMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

9.  Poetical.  A  hymn  to  Christ,  free  metrical  versions 
of  several  psalms,  and  an  epic  (Ejnnicion  Christo  cantatum, 
1541).! 

10.  Calvin  edited  Seneca,  Be  Clementia,  with  notes,  1532 ; 
a  French  translation  of  Melanchthon's  Loci,  with  preface, 
1546 ;  and  wrote  preface  to  Olivetan's  French  Bible,  1535, 
etc. 

The  Adieus  to  the  Little  Council,  and  to  the  ministers  of 
Geneva,  delivered  on  his  death-bed  in  1564,  form  a  worthy 
conclusion  of  the  literary  labors  of  this  extraordinary  teacher. 

§  68.    Tributes  to  the  Memory  of  Calvin. 

Conip.  the  large  collection  of  Opinions  and  Testimonies  respecting  the  Writiyigs 
of  Calvin,  in  the  last  volume  of  the  English  edition  of  his  works  published 
by  the  Calvin  Translation  Society,  Edinburgh,  185i,  pp.  376-1(54.  I  have 
borrowed  from  it  several  older  testimonies. 

No  name  in  church  history  —  not  even  Hildebrand's  or 
Luther's  or  Loyola's  —  has  been  so  much  loved  and  hated, 
admired  and  abhorred,  praised  and  blamed,  blessed  and 
cursed,  as  that  of  John  Calvin.  Living  in  a  fiercely  polemic 
age,  and  standing  on  the  watch-tower  of  the  reform  move- 
ment in  Western  Europe,  he  was  the  observed  of  all  observ- 
ers, and  exposed  to  attacks  from  every  quarter.  Religious  and 
sectarian  passions  are  the  deepest  and  strongest.  Melanch- 
thon  prayed  for  deliverance  from  "the  fury  of  theologians." 
Roman  Catholics  feared  Calvin  as  their  most  dangerous 
enemy,  though  not  a  few  of  them  honorably  admitted  his 
virtues.  Protestants  were  divided  according  to  creed  and 
prejudice :  some  regarding  him  as  the  first  among  the  Re- 
formers and  the  nearest  to  Paul ;  others  detesting  his  favorite 
doctrine  of  predestination.  Even  his  share  in  the  burning 
of  Servetus  was  defended  as  just  during  the  sixteenth  and 

1  Vols.  V.  423-428,  and  VI.  212-224.  A  French  metrical  translation  of 
the  Epinicion  appeared  in  Paris,  1555,  under  the  title,  Chant  de  Victoire  chante 
a  Jesus  Christ,  etc. 


§  68.     TRIBUTES    TO   THE   MEMORY   OF   CALVIN".  271 

seventeenth  centuries,  but  is  now  universally  deplored  or 
condemned.^ 

Upon  the  whole,  the  verdict  of  history  is  growingly  in  his 
favor.  He  improves  upon  acquaintance.  Those  who  know 
him  best  esteem  him  most.  The  fruits  of  his  labors  are 
abundant,  especially  in  the  English-speaking  world,  and  con- 
stitute his  noblest  monument.  The  slanderous  charges  of 
Bolsec,  thougli  feebly  re-echoed  by  Audin,  are  no  longer  be- 
lieved. All  impartial  writers  admit  the  purity  and  integrity, 
if  not  the  sanctity,  of  his  character,  and  his  absolute  freedom 
from  love  of  gain  and  notoriety.  One  of  the  most  eminent 
skeptical  historians  of  France  goes  so  far  as  to  pronounce 
him  "  the  most  Christian  man  "  of  his  age.  Few  of  the  great 
luminaries  of  the  Churcli  of  God  have  called  forth  such 
tributes  of  admiration  and  praise  from  able  and  competent 
judges. 

The  following  selection  of  testimonies  may  be  regarded  as 
a  fair  index  of  the  influence  which  this  extraordinary  man 
has  exerted  from  his  humble  study  in  "the  little  corner" 
on  the  south-western  border  of  Switzerland  upon  men  of 
different  ages,  nationalities,  and  creeds,  down  to  the  present 
time. 

1  Lu  France  Protestante  par  MM.  Eugene  et  Eiiiile  Haag,  Paris,  2d  ed. 
Tom.  III.  (1881),  p.  508 :  "  Trois  pcn-tis  religieiix,  divise's  par  des  animosite's  que 
le  temps  n'a  pas  encore  assoupies,  nous  out  transmis  des  documents  sur  la  vie  de  cet 
homme  illustre.  Les  uns,  depuis  I'apostat  Bolsec  jusqu'au  ne'o-catholique  romantique 
Audin,  depuis  le  luthe'rien  fanatique  Westphai  jusqu'aux  '  vieitx  genevois'  Galiffe 
pere  et  fils,  n^e'coutant  que  la  voix  d'line  haine  implacable  ou  d'une  jalousie  ficrieuse, 
nous  le  peignent  comme  une  espece  de  sce'le'rat  souille'  des  vices  les  plus  honteux, 
comme  un  despots  alte're'  de  sang,  tandis  que  les  autres,  depuis  T/ie'odore  de  Beze, 
son  coUegue,  jusqu'au  pasteur  Paul  Henry,  de  Berlin,  son  z€l€  disciple,  ce'dant  a 
Ventrainenent  d'une  amitie  trop  indulgente  ou  d'une  admiration  un  peu  exalte'e,  7ious 
le  pre'sentent  comme  un  parfait  type  de  la  vertu. 

"  D'autres,  dans  ces  derniers  temps  surtout,  s'e'levant  au-dessus  d'e'troits  pre'juge's 
dogmatiques,  moins  hommes  de  parti  que  philosophes,  ont  entrepris  de  juger  cette 
grande  figure  historique  avec  I'impartialite  que  commande  I'histoire  ;  ils  ont  vu  en 
Calvin,  non  pas  le  fondateur  d'une  secte,  mais  une  de  ces  hautes  intelligences  qui 
apparaissent  de  loin  en  loin  pour  dominer  une  e'poque,  '  et  r^pandent  sur  les  jilns 
grandes  choses  I'eclat  de  leur  propre  grandeur.' " 


272         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

TRIBUTES   OF   CONTEMPORARIES  (Sixteenth  Century). 

Martin  Luther  (1483-1546). 

From  a  letter  to  Bucer,  Oct.  14,  1539. 

"Present  my  respectful  greetings  to  Sturm  and  Calvin  [then  at  Strass- 
burg],  whose  books  I  have  perused  with  singular  pleasure  (quorum  Hbellos 
singulari  cum  voluptale  legi)." 

Martin  Bucer  (1491t1551). 

"  Calvin  is  a  truly  learned  and  singularly  eloquent  man  (vere  doctus  mireque 
facundus  vir),  an  illustrious  restorer  of  a  purer  Christianity  (purioris  Chris- 
tianismi  instaurator  eximius)." 

Theodore  Beza  (1519-1605). 
From  his  Vita  Calvini  (Latin)  at  the  close  (Opera,  XXI.  172). 

"I  have  been  a  witness  of  Calvin's  life  for  sixteen  years,  and  I  think  I  am 
fully  entitled  to  say  that  in  this  man  there  was  exhibited  to  all  a  most  beau- 
tiful example  of  the  life  and  death  of  the  Christian  (longe  pulcherrimum  vere 
chrisliance  turn  vitce  turn  mortis  exemphnii),  which  it  will  be  as  easy  to  calumniate 
as  it  will  be  difficult  to  emulate." 

Compare  also  the  concluding  remarks  of  his  French  biography,  vol.  XXI. 
46  (Aug.  19,  1564). 

John  Sturm  of  Strassburg  (1507-1589). 

"John  Calvin  was  endued  with  a  most  acute  judgment,  the  highest  learn- 
ing, and  a  prodigious  memory,  and  was  distinguislied  as  a  writer  by  variety, 
copiousness,  and  purity,  as  may  be  seen  for  instance  from  his  Institutes  of  the 
Christian  Beligion.  ...  I  know  of  no  work  which  is  better  adapted  to  teach 
religion,  to  correct  morals,  and  to  remove  errors." 

Jerome  Zanchi  (1516-1590). 

An  Italian  convert  to  Protestantisna.     Professor  at  Strassburg  and  Heidelberg. 

From  a  letter  to  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse. 

"Calvin,  whose  memory  is  honored,  as  all  Europe  knows,  was  held  in  the 
highest  estimation,  not  only  for  eminent  piety  and  the  highest  learning  (prce- 
stanti  pietate  et  maxima  eruditione),  but  likewise  for  singular  judgment  on  every 
subject  (singulari  in  rebus  omnibus  judicio  clarissimus)."  '  ■ 

Bishop  Jewel  (1522-1571). 
"  Calvin,  a  reverend  father,  and  worthy  ornament  of  the  Church  of  God." 

Joseph  Scaliger  (1540-1609). 

"  Calvin  is  an  instructive  and  learned  theologian,  with  a  higher  purity  and 
elegance  of  style  than  is  expected  from  a  theologian.     The  two  most  eminent 


§  68.    TRIBUTES   TO   THE   MEMORY   OF    CALVIN.  273 

theologians  of  our  times  are  John  Calvin  and  Peter  Martyr ;  the  former  of 
whom  has  treated  sound  learning  as  it  ought  to  be  treated,  with  truth  and 
purity  and  simplicity,  without  any  of  the  scholastic  subtleties.  Endued  with 
a  divine  genius,  he  penetrated  into  many  things  which  lie  beyond  the  reach 
of  all  who  are  not  deeply  skilled  in  the  Hebrew  language,  though  he  did  not 
himself  belong  to  that  class." 

"  0  how  well  Calvin  apprehends  the  meaning  of  the  Prophets !  No  one 
better.  ...  O  what  a  good  book  is  the  Institutes!  .  .  .  Calvin  stands  alone 
among  theologians  (Solus  inter  theologos  Calviuus)." 

This  judgment  of  the  greatest  scholar  of  his  age,  who  knew  thirteen 
languages,  and  was  master  of  philology,  history,  chronology,  philosophy,  and 
theology,  is  all  the  more  weighty  as  he  was  one  of  the  severest  of  critics. 

Florimond  de  R.5CMOND  (1540-1602). 

Counseiller  du  Roy  au  Parleraent  de  Bordeaux.    Roman  Catholic. 

From  his  L'histoire  de  la  naissanse,  progrez,  et  decadence  de  I'heWsie  de  ce  siecle, 
div'tse'  en  huit  livres,  dedie'a  notre  saint  Pere  le  Pape  Paul  cinquieme.  Paris, 
1605.     Bk.  VII.  ch.  10. 

"  Calvin  had  morals  better  regulated  and  settled  than  N.,  and  shewed  from 
early  youth  that  he  did  not  allow  himself  to  be  carried  away  by  the  pleasures 
of  sense  (jilaisirs  de  la  chair  et  du  ventre).  .  .  .  With  a  dry  and  attenuated 
body,  he  always  possessed  a  fresh  and  vigorous  intellect,  ready  in  reply,  bold 
in  attack ;  even  in  his  youth  a  great  faster,  either  on  account  of  his  health, 
and  to  allay  the  headaches  with  which  he  was  continually  afflicted,  or  in  order 
to  have  his  mind  more  disencumbered  for  the  purposes  of  writing,  studying, 
and  improving  his  memory.  Calvin  spoke  little ;  what  he  said  were  serious 
and  impressive  words  (ce  n'estoit  que  propos  serieux  et  qui  portoijent  coup) ;  he 
never  appeared  in  company,  and  always  led  a  retired  life.  He  had  scarcely 
his  equal ;  for  during  twenty-three  years  that  he  retained  possession  of  the 
bishopric  {Vevesche')  of  Geneva,  he  preached  every  day,  and  often  twice  on 
Sundays.  He  lectured  on  theology  three  times  a  week  ;  and  every  Friday  he 
entered  into  a  conference  which  he  called  the  Congregation.  His  remaining 
hours  were  employed  in  composition,  and  answering  the  letters  which  came 
to  him  as  to  a  sovereign  pontiff  from  all  parts  of  heretical  Christendom  {qui 
arrivoi/ent  a  luy  de  toute  la  Chre'tiente'  he're'tique,  comme  au  Souveraine  Poniife).  .  .  . 

"Calvin  had  a  brilliancy  of  spirit,  a  subtlety  of  judgment,  a  grand  mem- 
ory, an  eminent  erudition,  and  tlie  power  of  graceful  diction.  ...  No  man 
of  all  those  who  preceded  him  has  surpassed  him  in  style,  and  few  since  have 
attained  that  beauty  and  facility  of  language  which  he  possessed." 

Etienne  Pasquier  (1528-1615). 

Roman  Catholic.     Conseiller  et  Avocat  General  du  Roy  en  la  Chambre  des  Comptes  de  Paria. 

From  Les  Recherches  de  la  France,  p.  769  (Paris,  1633). 

...  "He  [Calvin]  wrote  equally  well  in  Latin  and  French,  the  latter  of 
which  languages  is  greatly  indebted  to  him  for  having  enriched  it  with  an 


274         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

infinite  number  of  fine  expressions  (em-ichie  d'une  infinite  de  beaux  traits), 
though  I  could  have  wished  that  they  had  been  written  on  a  better  subject. 
In  short,  a  man  wonderfully  conversant  with  and  attached  to  the  books  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  such,  that  if  he  had  turned  his  mind  in  the  proper 
direction,  he  might  have  been  ranked  with  the  most  distinguished  doctors 
of  the  Church." 

Jacques  Auguste  de  Thou  (Thuancs,  1553-1617). 

President  of  the  Parliament  of  Paris.     A  liberal  Roman  Catholic  and  one  of  the  framers  of 
the  Edict  of  Nantes. 

From  the  36th  book  of  his  Historia  sui  Temporis  (from  1543-1607). 

"John  Calvin,  of  Noyon  in  Picardy,  a  person  of  lively  spirit  and  great 
eloquence  {d'un  esprit  vif  et  d'une  grande  eloquence)}  and  a  theologian  of  high 
reputation  among  the  Protestants,  died  of  asthma,  May  20  [27],  1564,  at 
Geneva,  where  he  had  taught  for  twenty-three  years,  being  nearly  fifty-six 
years  of  age.  Though  he  had  labored  under  various  diseases  for  seven  years, 
this  did  not  render  him  less  diligent  in  his  office,  and  never  hindered  him 
from  writing." 

De  Thou  has  nothing  unfavorable  to  say  of  Calvin. 

TESTIMONIES  OF   LATER  FRENCH   WRITERS. 

Charles  Drelincourt  (1595-1669). 

"  In  that  prodigious  multitude  of  books  which  were  composed  by  Calvin, 
you  see  no  words  thrown  away;  and  since  the  prophets  and  apostles,  there 
never  perhaps  was  a  man  who  conveyed  so  many  distinct  statements  in  so 
few  words,  and  in  such  appropriate  and  well-chosen  terms  (en  des  mots  si 
propres  et  si  bien  choisis).  .  .  .  Never  did  Calvin's  life  appear  to  me  more 
pure  or  more  innocent  than  after  carefully  examining  the  diabolical  calum- 
nies with  which  some  have  endeavored  to  defame  his  character,  and  after 
considering  all  the  praises  which  his  greatest  enemies  are  constrained  to  bestow 
on  his  memory." 

Moses  Amtraut  (1596-1645). 

"  That  incomparable  Calvin,  to  whom  mainly,  next  to  God,  the  Church 
owes  its  Reformation,  not  only  in  France,  but  in  many  other  parts  of  Europe." 

Bishop  Jacques  Benigne  Bossuet  (1627-1704). 

From  his  Histoire  des   Variations  des  Eglises  Protestantes  (1688),  the  greatest 
polemical  work  in  French  against  the  Reformation. 

"  I  do  not  know  if  the  genius  of  Calvin  would  be  found  as  fitted  to  excite 
the  imagination  and  stir  up  the  populace  as  was  that  of  Luther,  but  after  the 

1  Or,  as  quoted  from  another  edition  by  the  Strassburg  editors  (XXI.  11)  : 
" personnage  d'un  grand  esprit  et  jnerveilleusement  eloquent  (admirabili  facundia 
prmditus)."     A  French  translation  of  the  Historia  appeared  in  1734. 


§  68.    TRIBUTES   TO   THE   MEMORY   OF   CALVIN.  275 

movement  had  commenced,  he  rose  in  many  countries,  more  especially  in 
France,  above  Luther  himself,  and  made  himself  head  of  a  party  which  hardly 
yields  to  that  of  the  Lutherans.  By  his  searching  intellect  and  his  bold 
decisions,  he  improved  upon  all  those  who  had  sought  in  this  centurj'  to 
establish  a  new  church,  and  gave  a  new  turn  to  the  pretended  reformation. 

"  It  is  a  weak  feeling  which  makes  us  desirous  to  find  anything  extraordi- 
nary in  the  death-beds  of  these  people.  God  does  not  always  bestow  these 
examples.  Since  he  permits  heresy  for  the  trial  of  his  people,  it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  to  complete  this  trial  he  allows  the  spirit  of  seduction  to 
prevail  in  them  even  to  the  end,  with  all  the  fair  appearances  by  which  it  is 
covered ;  and,  without  learning  more  of  the  life  and  death  of  Calvin,  it  is 
enough  to  know  that  he  has  kindled  in  his  country  a  flame  which  not  all  the 
blood  shed  on  its  account  has  been  able  to  extinguish,  and  that  he  has  gone 
to  appear  before  the  judgment  of  God  without  feeling  any  remorse  for  a  great 
crime.  .  .  . 

"  Let  us  grant  him  then,  since  he  wishes  it  so  much,  the  glory  of  having 
written  as  well  as  any  man  of  his  age;  let  us  even  place  him,  if  desired,  above 
Luther;  for  whilst  the  latter  was  in  some  respects  more  original  and  lively, 
Calvin,  his  inferior  in  genius,  appears  to  have  surpassed  him  in  learning. 
Luther  triumphed  as  a  speaker,  but  the  pen  of  Calvin  was  more  correct, 
especially  in  Latin,  and  his  style,  though  severe,  was  much  more  consecutive 
and  chaste.  They  equally  excelled  in  speaking  the  language  of  their  coun- 
try, and  both  possessed  an  extraordinary  vehemence.  Each  by  his  talents 
has  gained  many  disciples  and  admirers.  Each,  elated  by  success,  has  fancied 
to  raise  himself  above  the  Fathers  ;  neither  could  bear  contradiction,  and 
their  eloquence  abounds  in  nothing  more  largely  than  virulent  invective." 

Richard  Simon  (1(338-1712). 

One  of  the  greatest  critical  and  biblical  scliolars  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

From  his  Critical  History  of  the  Old  Testament  (Latin  and  French). 

"  As  Calvin  was  endued  with  a  lofty  genius,  we  are  constantly  meeting  with 
something  in  his  commentaries  which  delights  the  mind  (quo  animus  rapitur)  ; 
and  in  consequence  of  his  intimate  and  perfect  acquaintance  with  human 
nature,  his  ethics  are  truly  charming,  while  he  does  his  utmost  to  maintain 
their  accordance  with  the  sacred  text.  Had  he  been  less  under  the  influence 
of  prejudice,  and  had  he  not  been  solicitous  to  become  the  leader  and  stand- 
ard-bearer of  heresy,  he  might  have  produced  a  work  of  ne  greatest  useful- 
ness to  the  Catholic  Church." 

The  same  passage,  with  additions,  occurs  in  French.  Simon  says  that  no 
author  "had  a  better  knowledge  of  the  utter  inability  of  the  human  heart," 
but  that  "he  gives  too  much  prominence  to  this  inability,"  and  "lets  no 
opportunity  pass  of  slandering  the  Roman  Church,"  so  that  part  of  his  com- 
mentaries is  "  useless  declamations"  (de'clamations  inutiles).  "  Calvin  displays 
more  genius  and  judgment  in  his  works  than  Luther;  he  is  more  cautious, 
and  takes  care  not  to  make  use  of  weak  proofs,  of  which  his  adversaries 
might  take  advantage.     He  is  subtle  to  excess  in  his  reasoning,  and  his  com- 


276         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

mentaries  are  filled  with  references  skilfully  drawn  from  the  text  —  which  are 
capable  of  prepossessing  tiie  minds  of  those  readers  who  are  not  profoundly 
acquainted  with  religion." 

Simon  greatly  underrates  Calvin's  knowledge  of  Hebrew  when  he  says  that 
he  knew  not  much  more  than  the  Hebrew  letters.  Dr.  Diestel  (Geschichie  des 
Alten  Test,  in  der  christl.  Kirche,  1869,  p.  267)  justly  pronounces  this  a  slander 
which  is  refuted  by  every  page  of  Calvin's  commentaries.  He  ascribes  to 
him  a  very  good  knowledge  of  Hebrew:  " ausgewdhlt  mit  einer  sehr  tiichtigen 
hebrdischen  Sprachkenntniss." 

Pierre  Bayle  (1647-1706). 

Son  of  a  Reformed  minister,  educated  by  the  Jesuits  of  Toulouse,  converted  to  Romanism, 
returned  to  Protestantism,  skeptical,  the  author  of  a  Dictionnaire  historique  et  critique. 

"That  a  man  who  had  acquired  so  great  a  reputation  and  so  great  an 
authority  should  have  had  only  a  hundred  crowns  of  salary,  and  have  desired 
no  more,  and  that  after  having  lived  fifty-five  years  with  every  sort  of  fru- 
gality, he  left  to  his  heirs  only  the  value  of  three  hundred  crowns,  including 
his  library,  is  a  circumstance  so  heroical,  that  one  must  be  devoid  of  feeling 
not  to  admire  it,  and  one  of  the  most  singular  victories  which  virtue  and 
greatness  of  soul  have  been  able  to  achieve  over  nature,  even  among  ministers 
of  the  gospel.  Calvin  has  left  imitators  in  so  far  as  regards  activity  of  life, 
zeal  and  affection  for  the  interest  of  his  party;  they  employ  their  eloquence, 
their  pens,  their  endeavors,  their  solicitations  in  the  advancement  of  the 
kingdom  of  God ;  but  they  do  not  forget  themselves,  and  they  are,  generally 
speaking,  an  exemplification  of  the  maxim  that  the  Church  is  a  good  mother, 
in  wliose  service  nothing  is  lost. 

"  The  Catholics  have  been  at  last  obliged  to  dismiss  to  the  region  of  fable 
the  atrocious  calumnies  (Jes  calomnies  atroces)  which  they  had  uttered  against 
the  moral  character  of  Calvin ;  their  best  authors  now  restrict  themselves  to 
stating  that  if  he  was  exempt  from  the  vices  of  the  body,  he  has  not  been  so 
from  those  of  the  mind,  such  as  pride,  passion,  and  slander.  I  know  that  the 
Cardinal  de  Richelieu,  or  that  dexterous  writer  who  has  published  under  his 
name  '  The  Method  of  Conversation,'  had  adopted  the  absurdities  of  Bolsec. 
But  in  general,  eminent  authors  speak  no  more  of  that.  The  mob  of  authors 
will  never  renounce  it.  These  calumnies  are  to  be  found  in  the  '  Systema 
decretoruin  doymaticorum,'  published  at  Avignon  in  1693,  by  Francis  Porter. 
Thus  the  work  of  Bolsec  will  always  be  cited  as  long  as  the  Calvinists  have 
adversaries,  but  it  will  be  sufficient  to  brand  it  eternally  with  calumny  that 
there  is  among  Catholics  a  certain  number  of  serious  authors  who  will  not 
adopt  its  fables." 

Jean  Alphonse  Turretin  (1617-1737). 

Professor  of  theology  of  Geneva  and  representative  of  a  moderate  Calvinism.  The  most 
distinguished  theologian  of  his  name,  also  called  Turretin  the  younger,  to  distinguish 
him  from  his  father  Francois. 

"John  Calvin  was  a  man  whose  memory  will  be  blessed  to  the  latest  age 
(vir  bene.dictce  in  omne  cevum  memorice).  .  .  .     He  has  by  his  immense  labors  in- 


§  68.     TRIBUTES    TO    THE    MEMORY    OF    CALVIN.  277 

structed  and  adorned  not  only  the  Church  of  Geneva,  but  the  whole  Reformed 
world,  so  that  not  unfrequently  all  the  Reformed  Churches  are  in  the  gross 
called  after  his  name." 

Montesquieu  (1689-1755). 
Author  of  De  l' esprit  des  lots  (the  oracle  of  the  friends  of  moderate  freedom). 
"The  Genevese  should  bless  the  birthday  of  Calvin." 

Voltaire  (169-1-1778). 

"  Essai  sur  les  moeiirs  et  I'esprit  des  nations." 

"The  famous  Calvin,  whom  we  regard  as  the  Apostle  of  Geneva,  raised 
himself  up  to  the  rank  of  Pope  of  the  Protestants  {s'e'rigea  en  pape  des  Protes- 
tants). He  was  acquainted  with  Latin  and  Greek,  and  the  bad  philosophy  of 
his  time.  He  wrote  better  than  Luther,  and  spoke  worse ;  both  were  labo- 
rious and  austere,  but  hard  and  violent  (dtu-s  et  emporte's).  .  .  .  Calvinism 
conforms  to  the  republican  spirit,  and  yet  Calvin  had  a  tyrannical  spirit.  .  .  . 
He  demanded  the  toleration  which  he  needed  for  himself  in  France,  and  he 
armed  himself  with  intolerance  at  Geneva.  .  .  .  The  severity  of  Calvin  was 
united  with  the  greatest  disinterestedness  (aw  plus  grand  de'sinte'ressement) ." 

Jean  Jaques  Rousseau  (1712-1778). 

A  native  of  Geneva.     The  apostle  of  the  French  Revolution,  as  Calvin  was  the  apostle  of  the 
French  Reformation. 

From  Lettres  e'crites  de  la  montagne. 

"  Quel  homme  fat  jamais  plus  tranchant,  plus  impe'rieux,  plus  decisif,  plus 
divinement  infaillible  a  son  gr€  que  Calvin,  pour  qui  la  moindre  opposition  .  .  .  e'tait 
toujours  une  oeuvre  de  Satan,  un  crime  digne  dufeu !  " 

D'Alembert  (1717-1783). 

"Calvin  justly  enjoyed  a  great  reputation  —  a  literary  man  of  the  first 
rank  (homme  de  leltre  du  premier  ordre)  —  writing  in  Latin  as  well  as  one 
could  do  in  a  dead  language,  and  in  French  with  singular  purity  for  his  time 
(at'ec  une  pur ete' sing uliere  pour  son  temps).  This  purity,  which  our  able  gram- 
marians admire  even  at  this  day,  renders  his  writings  far  superior  to  almost 
all  those  of  the  same  age,  as  the  works  of  the  Port-Royalists  are  distinguished 
even  at  the  present  day,  for  the  same  reason,  from  the  barbarous  rhapsodies 
of  their  opponents  and  contemporaries. 

Frederic  Ancillon  (1767-1837). 

Tableau  des  Re'volutions  du  Si/sti-me  Politique  de  VEurope. 

"  Calvin  was  not  only  a  profound  theologian,  but  likewise  an  able  legis- 
lator; the  share  which  he  had  in  the  framing  of  the  civil  and  religious  laws 
which  have  produced  for  several  centuries  the  liappiness  of  the  Genevan 
republic,  is  perhaps  a  fairer  title  to  renown  than  his  theological  works;  and 


278         THE   REFORMATION   TN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

this  republic,  celebrated  notwithstanding  its  small  size,  and  which  knew  how 
to  unite  morals  with  intellect,  riches  with  simplicity,  simplicity  with  taste, 
liberty  with  order,  and  which  has  been  a  focus  of  talents  and  virtues,  has 
proved  that  Calvin  knew  men,  and  knew  how  to  govern  them." 

Fr.  Pierre  Guillaume  Guizot  (1787-1874). 

Celebrated  French  historian  and  statesman,  of  Huguenot  descent. 

From  St.  Louis  et  Calvin,  pp.  361  sqq. 

"  Calvin  is  great  by  reason  of  his  marvellous  powers,  his  lasting  labors, 
and  the  moral  height  and  purity  of  his  character.  .  .  .  Earnest  in  faith,  pure 
in  motive,  austere  in  his  life,  and  mighty  in  his  works,  Calvin  is  one  of  those 
who  deserve  their  great  fame.  Three  centuries  separate  us  from  him,  but  it 
is  impossible  to  examine  his  character  and  history  without  feeling,  if  not 
affection  and  sympathy,  at  least  profound  respect  and  admiration  for  one  of 
the  great  Reformers  of  Europe  and  of  the  great  Christians  of  France." 

By  the  same  (1787-187-1). 

From  Muse'e  des  protestants  celebres. 

"  Luther  vint  pour  detruire,  Calvin  pour  fonder,  par  des  ne'cessite's  e'gales,  mais 
differentes.  .  .  .  Calvin  fut  I'homme  de  cette  seconde  e'poque  de  toutes  les  grandes 
revolutions  sociales,  oil,  apres  avoir  conquis  par  la  guerre  le  terrain  qui  doit  leur 
appartenir,  elles  travaillent  a  s'y  €tablir  par  la  paix,  selon  des  principes  et  sous  les 
formes  qui  conviennent  a  leur  nature.  .  .  .  L'ide'e  g^n€rale  selon  laquelle  Calvin 
agit  en  brulant  Servet  e'tait  de  son  siecle,  et  on  a  tort  de  la  luv  iynputer." 

Franqois  Aug.  Marie  Mignet  (179G-1884). 

Celebrated  French  historian  and  academician. 

From  his  Memoire  stir  I'e'tablissement  de  la  Heforme  a  Geneve. 

"  Calvin  fut,  dans  le  protestantisme,  apres  Luther,  ce  qu'est  la  conse'quance  apres 
le  principe ;  dans  la  Suisse,  ce  qu'est  la  regie  apres  une  revolution.  .  .  .  Calvin, 
s'il  n'avait  ni  le  ge'nie  de  I'invention  ni  celui  de  la  conquete ;  s'il  n'e'tait  ni  un  r€vo- 
lutionnaire  comme  Tether  ni  un  missionaire  comme  Farel,  il  avait  une  force  de 
logique  qui  devait  pousser  plus  loin  la  reforme  du  premier,  et  une  facidtd'  d'organi- 
sation  qui  devait  achever  I'ceuvre  du  second,  C est  par  la  qu'il  renouvela  la  face  du 
protestantisme  et  qu'il  constitua  Geneve." 

JcLES  Michelet  (1798-1874). 
Histoire  de  France,  vol.  XI.  {Les  Guerres  de  Religion),  Paris,  1884,  pp.  88,  89,  92. 

"  C'€tait  un  travailleur  terrible,  avec  un  air  souffrant,  une  constitution  miserable 
et  d€bile,  veillant,  s'lisant,  se  consumant,  ne  distinguant  ni  nuit  ni  jour.  .  .  . 

"  C'e'tait  une  langue  inouie  [Calvin's  French  style],  la  nouvelle  langue  frangaise. 
Vingte  ans  apres  Commijies,  trente  ans  avayit  Montaigne,  deja  la  langue  de  Rous- 
seau.  .   .    .     Son  plus  redoutable  attribut,  c'est  sa  pe'ne'trante  clarte',  son  extreme 


§  68.     TRIBUTES    TO    THE    MEMORY    OF    CALVIN.  279 

lumiere  d'argent,  plutot  d'acier,  d'une  lame  qui  brille,  mais  qui  tranche.  On  sent 
que  cette  lumiere  vient  du  dedans,  du  fond  de  la  conscience,  d'un  cceur  aprement 
c(Tnvaincu,  dont  la  logique  est  Valiment.  .  .  . 

"  Le  fond  de  ce  grand  et  puissant  theologien  e'tait  d'etre  iin  Icgiste.  II  I'e'tait  de 
culture,  d'esprit,  de  caraclere.  II  en  avait  les  deux  tendances:  I'appel  au  juste,  au 
vrai,  un  dpre  besoin  de  justice;  mais,  d'autre  part  aussi,  I'esprit  dur,  absolu,  des 
tribunaux  d'alors,  et  il  le  porta  dans  la  theologie.  .  .  .  La  predestination  de  Calvin 
se  trouva,  en  pratique,  une  machine  a  foire  des  martyrs." 

Bon  Louis  Henri  Martin  (1810-1883). 

Histoire  de  France  depuis  les  teinps  les  plus  recule's  jusqu'en  1789,  Tom.  VIII. 
p.  325,  of  the  fourth  edition,  Paris,  18G0.    Crowned  by  the  French  Academy. 

Martin,  in  his  standard  work,  thus  describes  the  influence  of  Calvin  upon 
the  city  of  Geneva :  "  Caluin  ne  la  sauve  pas  seulement,  mais  conquiert  a  cette 
petite  ville  une  grandeur,  une  puissance  morale  immense.  II  en  foit  la  capitale  de 
la  ReJ'orme,  autant  que  la  Reforme  pent  avoir  une  capitale,  pour  la  moitie'  du  monde 
protestant,  avec  une  vaste  influence,  accepte'e  ou  subie,  sur  I'autre  moitie'.  Geneve 
n'est  rien  par  la  population,  par  les  amies,  par  le  territoire:  elle  est  tout  par 
I'esprit.  Un  seid  avantage  materiel  lui  garanlit  tous  ses  avantages  mnraux :  son 
admirable  position,  qui  foit  d'elle  une  petite  France  re'publicaine  et  protestante, 
independante  de  la  monarchic  catholique  de  France  et  a  I'abri  de  I'absorption  monar- 
chique  et  catholique  ;  la  Suisse  protestante,  allie'e  ne'cessaire  de  la  roijaute  fran^aise 
contre  I'empereur,  couvre  Geneve  par  la  politique  vis-a-vis  du  roi  et  par  I'^pe'e  contre 
les  maisons  d' Autriche  et  de  Savoie." 

Ernest  Renan  (1823-1892). 

Renan,  a  member  of  the  French  Academy,  a  brilliant  genius,  and  one  of  the  first  historians 
of  France,  was  educated  for  the  Roman  Catholic  priesthood,  but  became  a  skeptic.  This 
maizes  his  striking  tribute  all  the  more  significant. 

From  his  article  on  John  Calvin  in  his  Etudes  d'histoire  religieuse,  7th  ed. 
Paris,  1880,  pp.  337-357. 

"  Calvin  was  one  of  those  absolute  men,  cast  complete  in  one  mould,  who 
is  taken  in  wholly  at  a  single  glance :  one  letter,  one  action  suffices  for  a 
judgment  of  him.  There  were  no  folds  in  that  inflexible  soul,  which  never 
knew  doubt  or  hesitation.  .  .  .  Careless  of  wealth,  of  titles,  of  honors,  indif- 
ferent to  pomp,  modest  in  his  life,  apparently  humble,  sacrificing  everything 
to  the  desire  of  making  others  like  himself,  I  hardly  know  of  a  man,  save 
Ignatius  Loyola,  who  could  match  him  in  those  terrible  transports.  ...  It 
is  surprising  that  a  man  who  appears  to  us  in  his  life  and  writings  so  unsym- 
pathetic should  have  been  the  centre  of  an  immense  movement  in  his  genera- 
tion, and  that  this  harsh  and  severe  tone  should  have  exerted  so  great  an 
mfluence  on  the  minds  of  his  contemporaries.  How  was  it,  for  example,  that 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  women  of  hor  time,  Rene'e  of  France,  in  her 
court  at  Ferrara,  surrounded  by  the  flower  of  European  wits,  was  captivated 
by  that  stern  master,  and  by  him  drawn  into  a  course  that  must  have  been  so 
thickly  strewn  with  thorns  1     This  kind  of  austere  seduction  is  exercised  by 


280        THE   REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

those  only  who  work  with  real  conviction.  Lacking  that  vivid,  deep,  sympa- 
thetic ardor  which  was  one  of  the  secrets  of  Luther's  success,  lacking  the 
charm,  the  perilous,  languishing  tenderness  of  Francis  of  Sales,  Calvm  suc- 
ceeded more  than  all,  in  an  age  and  in  a  country  which  called  for  a  reaction 
towards  Christianity,  simply  because  he  was  the  most  Christian  man  of  his 
century  (fhomme  le  plus  chre'tien  de  son  siecle,  p.  342)." 

Felix  Bungener   (1814-1874). 

Pastor  of  tbe  national  Church  of  Geneva,  and  author  of  several  historical  works. 

From  Calvin,  sa  vie,  son  ceiivre  et  ses  cents,  Paris,  1862;    English  translation 
(Edinburgh,  1863),  pp.  338,  349. 

"  Let  us  not  give  him_  praise  which  he  would  not  have  accepted.  God  alone 
creates ;  a  man  is  great  only  because  God  thmks  lit  to  accomplish  great  things 
by  his  instrumentality.  Never  did  any  great  man  understand  this  better  than 
Calvin.  It  cost  him  no  effort  to  refer  all  the  glory  to  God;  nothing  indicates 
that  he  was  ever  tempted  to  appropriate  to  himself  the  smallest  portion  of  it. 
Luther,  in  many  a  passage,  complacently  dwells  on  the  thought  that  a  petty 
monk,  as  he  says,  has  so  well  made  the  Pope  to  tremble,  and  so  well  stirred 
the  whole  world.  Calvin  will  never  say  any  such  thing;  he  never  even  seems 
to  say  it,  even  in  the  deepest  recesses  of  his  heart ;  everywhere  you  perceive 
the  man,  who  applies  to  all  things  —  to  the  smallest  as  to  the  greatest  —  the 
idea  that  it  is  God  who  does  all  and  is  all.  Read  again,  from  this  point  of 
view,  the  very  pages  in  which  he  appeared  to  j'ou  the  haughtiest  and  most 
despotic,  and  see  if,  even  there,  he  is  anything  other  than  the  workman  re- 
ferring all,  and  in  all  sincerity,  to  his  master.  .  .  .  But  the  man,  in  spite  of  all 
his  faults,  has  not  the  less  remained  one  of  the  fairest  types  of  faith,  of  earnest 
piety,  of  devotedness,  and  of  courage.  Amid  modern  laxity,  there  is  no 
character  of  whom  the  contemplation  is  more  instructive ;  for  there  is  no  man 
of  whom  it  has  been  said  with  greater  justice,  in  the  words  of  an  apostle, 
'  he  endured  as  seeing  him  who  is  invisible.'  " 

FROM   DUTCH    SCHOLARS. 

James  Arminius  (1560-1609). 

The  founder  of  Arminianism. 

"  Next  to  the  study  of  the  Scriptures  which  I  earnestly  inculcate,  I  exhort 
my  pupils  to  peruse  Calvin's  Commentaries,  which  I  extol  in  loftier  terms  than 
Helmich  himself  [a  Dutch  divine,  1551-1608] ;  for  I  affirm  that  he  excels 
beyond  comparison  (incomparabilem  esse)  in  the  interpretation  of  Scripture, 
and  that  his  commentaries  ought  to  be  more  highly  valued  than  all  that  is 
handed  down  to  us  by  the  library  of  the  fathers ;  so  that  I  acknowledge  him 
to  have  possessed  above  most  others,  or  rather  above  all  other  men,  what  may 
be  called  an  eminent  spirit  of  prophecy  (spiritum  aJiquem  prophetice  eximium). 
His  Institutes  ought  to  be  studied  after  the  [Heidelberg]  Catechism,  as  con- 
taining a  fuller  explanation,  but  with  discrimination  {cum  delectu),  like  the 
writings  of  all  men." 


§  68.    TRIBUTES   TO   THE   MEMORY   OF   CALVIN,  281 

Dan.  Gerdes  (1698-1767). 

Historia  Evangelii  Renovati,  IV.  41  sq.  (Groningse,  1752). 

"  Calvin's  labors  were  so  highly  useful  to  the  Church  of  Christ,  that  there 
is  hardly  any  department  of  the  Christian  world  to  be  found  that  is  not  full 
of  them,  —  hardly  any  heresy  that  has  arisen  which  he  has  not  successfully 
encountered  with  that  two-edged  sword,  the  Word  of  God,  or  a  portion  of 
Christian  doctrine  which  he  has  not  illustrated  in  a  remarkable  manner. 
Certainly  his  commentaries  on  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  arc  all  that  could 
be  desired;  every  one  of  his  sermons  is  full  of  unction;  his  Institutes  bear  the 
most  complete  and  finished  execution  ;  his  doctrinal  treatises  are  distinguished 
by  solidity;  his  critical  works  by  warmth  and  fervor;  his  practical  writings  by 
virtue  and  piety ;  and  his  letters  by  mildness,  prudence,  gravity,  and  wisdom." 

JUDGMENTS   OF   GERMAN   SCHOLARS. 

John  Lawkence  Mosheim  (1695-1755). 

From  the   English   translation  of  his   Institutes  of  Ecclesiastical  History,  by 
James  Murdock,  D.D.,  New  York,  1854,  vol.  III.  163,  167,  192.  " 

"  Calvin  was  venerated,  even  by  his  enemies,  for  his  genius,  learning,  elo- 
quence, and  other  endowments,  and  moreover  was  the  friend  of  Melanchthon. 

"  Few  persons  of  his  age  will  bear  any  comparison  with  Calvin  for  patient 
industry,  resolution,  hatred  of  the  Roman  superstition,  eloquence,  and  genius. 
Possessing  a  most  capacious  mind,  he  endeavored  not  only  to  establish  and 
bless  his  beloved  Geneva  with  the  best  regulations  and  institutions,  but  also  to 
make  it  the  mother  and  the  focus  of  light  and  influence  to  the  whole  Reformed 
Church,  just  as  Wittenberg  was  to  the  Lutheran  community. 

"  The  first  rank  among  the  interpreters  of  the  age  is  deservedly  assigned 
to  John  Calvin,  who  endeavored  to  expound  nearly  the  whole  of  the  sacred 
volume. 

"  His  Institutes  are  written  in  a  perspicuous  and  elegant  style,  and  have 
nothing  abstruse  and  diflScult  to  be  comprehended  in  the  arguments  or  mode 
of  reasoning." 

Johannes  von  Muller  (1752-1809). 

The  great  historian  of  Switzerland,  called  "  the  German  Tacitus." 

Allgemeine  Geschickte,  Bk.  III. 

"John  Calvin  had  the  spirit  of  an  ancient  lawgiver,  a  genius  and  charac- 
teristic which  gave  him  in  part  unmistakable  advantages,  and  failings  which 
were  only  the  excess  of  virtues,  by  the  assistance  of  which  he  carried  through 
his  objects.  He  had  also,  like  other  Reformers,  an  indefatigable  industry, 
with  a  fixed  regard  to  a  certain  end,  an  invincible  perseverance  in  principles 
and  duty  during  his  life,  and  at  his  death  the  courage  and  dignity  of  an 
ancient  Roman  censor.  He  contributed  greatly  to  the  development  and 
advance  of  the  human  intellect,  and  more,  indeed,  than  he  himself  foresaw. 
For  among  the  Genevese  and  in  France,  the  principle  of  free  inquiry,  on 
which  he  was  obliged  at  first  to  found  his  system,  and  to  curb  which  he 
afterwards  strove  in  vain,  became  more  fruitful  in  consequences  than  among 
nations  which  are  less  inquisitive  than  the  Genevese,  and  less  daring  than  the 
French.  From  this  source  were  developed  gradually  philosophical  ideas, 
which,  though  they  are  not  yet  purified  sufficiently  from  the  passions  and 


282         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

views  of  their  founders,  have  yet  banished  a  great  number  of  gloomy  and 
pernicious  prejudices,  and  have  opened  us  prospects  of  a  pure  practical 
wisdom  and  better  success  for  the  future." 

Fr.  August  Tholuck  (1799-1877). 

Commentary  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Momans,  3d  ed.  1831,  p.  19. 

"  In  his  [Calvin's]  Exposition  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  are  united 
pure  Latinity,  a  solid  method  of  unfolding  and  interpreting,  founded  on  the 
principles  of  grammatical  science  and  historical  knowledge,  a  deeply  pene- 
trating faculty  of  mind,  and  vital  piety." 

Dr.  TwESTEN  (1789-1876). 

The  successor  of  Schleiermacher  in   the  chair   of  systematic  theology  at  Berlin,  and   an 
orthodox  Lutheran  in  the  United  Evangelical  Church  of  Prussia. 

From  his  Dogmatik  der  evamjelisch  Lutherischen  Kirche,  I.  216  (4th  ed.  Ham- 
burg, 1838). 

After  speaking  very  highly  and  justly  of  Melanchthon  and  John  Gerhard, 
Twesten  thus  characterizes  Calvin's  Institutes :  — 

"  Mehr  aits  einem  Gusz,  als  Melanchthon' s  Loci,  die  reife  Frucht  eines  tie/ 
religiosen  icnd  dcht  ivissenschaftlichen  Geistes,  mit  groszer  Klarheit,  Kraft  und 
Schonheit  der  Darstellung  geschrieben,  einfach  in  der  Anlage,  reich  und  grilndlick 
in  der  Ausfiihrung,  verdient  es  neben  jenen  auch  in  unserer  Kirche  als  eins  der 
vorziiglichsten  Werke  auf  detn  Gebiete  der  dogmatischen  Literatur  iiberhaupt  studi7-t 
zu  werden." 

Paul  Henrt. 

Doctor  of  theology  and  pastor  of  a  French  Reformed  Church  in  Berlin,  author  of  two 
learned  biographies  of  Calvin  :  a  large  one,  in  3  vols.  (1833-1844),  which  is  chiefly  valuable 
as  a  collection  of  documents,  and  a  popular  one  in  1  vol. 

From  Das  Leben  Johann  Calvins  (Hamburg  and  Gotha,  1846),  pp.  443  sqq. 

"  The  whole  tendency  of  Calvin  was  practical ;  learning  was  subordinate ; 
the  salvation  of  the  world,  the  truth  was  to  him  the  main  thing.  His  spiritual 
tendency  was  not  philosophical,  but  his  dialectical  bent  ran  principles  to  their 
utmost  consequences.  He  had  an  eye  to  the  minutest  details.  His  former 
study  of  law  had  trained  him  for  business.  .  .  .  He  was  a  watchman  over  the 
whole  Church.  .  .  .  All  his  theological  writings  excel  in  acuteness,  dialectics, 
and  warmth  of  conviction.  He  had  great  eloquence  at  command,  but  de- 
spised the  art  of  rhetoric.  .  .  .  Day  and  night  he  was  occupied  with  the  work 
of  the  Lord.  He  disliked  the  daily  entreaties  of  his  colleagues  to  grant  him- 
self some  rest.  He  continued  to  labor  through  his  last  sicknesses,  and  only 
stopped  dictating  a  week  before  his  death,  when  his  voice  gave  out.  .  .  .  .AH 
souglit  his  counsel ;  for  God  endowed  him  with  such  a  happy  spirit  of  wisdom 
that  no  one  regretted  to  have  followed  his  advice.  How  great  was  his  erudi- 
tion!  How  marvellous  his  judgment!  How  peculiar  his  kindness,  which 
came  to  the  aid  even  of  the  smallest  and  lowliest,  if  necessary,  and  his 
meekness  and  patient  forbearance  with  the  imperfections  of  others!" 


§  68.    TRIBUTES   TO   THE   MEMORY   OF   CALVIN.  283 

Dr.  L.  Stahelin. 

Johannes  Calvin.     Leben  unci  ausgewdhlle  Schri/ten.     Elberfeld,  1863.     Vol.  II. 

pp.  3G5-393. 

This  description  of  Calvin's  character  as  a  man  and  as  a  Christian  is 
faithful  in  praise  and  censure,  but  too  profuse  to  be  inserted.  Dr.  Stahelin 
emphasizes  the  logic  of  liis  intellect  and  conscience,  his  firm  assurance  of 
eternal  election,  his  constant  sense  of  the  nearness  of  God,  "tlie  majesty" 
of  his  character,  the  predominance  of  the  Old  Testament  feature,  his  resem- 
blance to  Moses  and  the  Hebrew  Prophets,  his  irritability,  anger,  and  con- 
temptuousness,  relieved  by  genuine  humility  before  God,  his  faithfulness  to 
friends,  his  life  of  unceasing  prayer,  his  absolute  disinterestedness  and  conse- 
cration to  God.  He  also  quotes  the  remarkable  testimony  of  Renan,  that 
Calvin  was  "the  most  Christian  man  in  Christendom." 

Dr.  Friedkich  Tuechsel  (1805-1885). 
Die  Protestantischen  Antitriniturier.     Heidelberg,  1839-1844  (I.  177). 

"  People  have  often  supposed  that  they  were  insulting  Calvin's  memory  by 
calling  him  the  Pope  of  Protestantism !  He  was  so,  but  in  the  noblest  sense 
of  the  expression,  through  the  spiritual  and  moral  superiority  with  which  the 
Lord  of  the  Church  had  endowed  him  for  its  deliverance ;  through  his  unwea- 
ried, universal  zeal  for  God's  honor;  through  his  wise  care  for  the  edifying 
of  the  kingdom  of  Christ;  in  a  word,  through  all  which  can  be  comprehended 
in  the  idea  of  the  papacy,  of  truth  and  honor." 

LuDwiG  Hausser  (1818-1867). 
Professor  of  history  at  Heidelberg. 
The  Period  of  the  Reformation,  edited  by  Oncken   (1868,  2d  ed.  1880),  trans- 
lated by  Mrs.  Sturge,  New  York,  1874  (pp.  241  and  244). 

"As  the  German  Reformation  is  connected  with  Martin  Luther,  and  the 
Swiss  with  Ulrich  Zwingli,  that  of  the  Romanic  and  Western  European 
nations  is  connected  with  John  Calvin,  the  most  remarkable  personage  of  tlie 
time.  He  was  not  equal  either  to  Luther  or  Zwingli  in  general  talent,  mental 
vigor,  or  tranquility  of  soul ;  but  in  logical  acuteness  and  talent  for  organiza- 
tion he  was  at  least  equal,  if  not  superior,  to  either.  He  settled  the  basis  for 
the  development  of  many  states  and  churches.  He  stamped  the  form  of  the 
Reformation  in  countries  to  which  he  was  a  stranger.  The  French  date  the 
beginnings  of  their  literary  development  from  him,  and  his  influence  was  not 
restricted  to  the  sphere  of  religion,  but  embraced  their  intellectual  life  in 
general;  no  one  else  has  so  permanently  influenced  the  spirit  and  form  of 
their  written  language  as  he. 

"At  a  time  when  Europe  had  no  solid  results  of  reform  to  show,  this  little 
State  of  Geneva  stood  up  as  a  great  power;  year  by  year  it  sent  forth  apostles 
into  the  world,  who  preached  its  doctrines  everywhere,  and  it  became  the  most 
dreaded  counterpoise  to  Rome,  when  Rome  no  longer  had  any  bulwark  to 
defend  her.     The  missionaries  from  this  little  community  displayed  the  lofty 


284         THE   REFORJVIATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

and  dauntless  spirit  which  results  from  stoical  education  and  training;  they 
bore  the  stamp  of  a  self-renouncing  heroism  which  was  elsewhere  swallowed 
up  in  theological  narrowness.  They  were  a  race  with  vigorous  bones  and 
sinews,  for  whom  nothing  was  too  daring,  and  who  gave  a  new  direction  to 
Protestantism  by  causing  it  to  separate  itself  from  the  old  traditional  mo- 
narchical authority',  and  to  adopt  the  gospel  of  democracy  as  part  of  its* 
creed.  It  formed  a  weighty  counterpoise  to  the  desperate  efforts  which  the 
ancient  Church  and  monarchical  power  were  making  to  crush  the  spirit  of 
the  Reformation. 

"It  was  impossible  to  oppose  Caraffa,  Philip  II.,  and  the  Stuarts,  with 
Luther's  passive  resistance ;  men  were  wanted  who  were  ready  to  wage  war  to 
the  knife,  and  such  was  the  Calvinistic  school.  It  everywhere  accepted  the 
challenge ;  throughout  all  the  conflicts  for  political  and  religious  liberty,  up 
to  the  time  of  the  first  emigration  to  America,  in  France,  the  Netherlands, 
England,  and  Scotland,  we  recognize  the  Genevan  school." 

Dr.  Karl  Rudolf  Hagexbach  (1801-1874). 

Swiss  Reformed,  of  Basel. 

Geschichte  des  Reformation,  5th  ed.  edited  by  Nippold,  Leipzig,  1887,  p.  605. 

"  Calvin  hatte  so  zu  sagen  kein  irdisches  Yaterland,  dessen  Freiheit  er,  wie 
Zwinyli,  zu  icahren  sich  bewogen  fand.  Das  himmlische  Vaterland,  die  Stadt 
Gottes  war  es,  in  icelche  er  atle  zu  sammeln  sich  berufen  suh.  Ikm  gait  nicht 
Grieehe,  nicht  Skythe,  nicht  Franzose,  nicht  Deutscher,  nicht  Eidgenosz,  sonderii 
einzig  xmd  allein  die  neue  Kreatur  in  Christo.  Es  tcdre  thoricht,  ihm  solches  zum 
Vorwurf  zu  machen.  Es  ist  vielmehr  richtig  bemerkt  warden,  trie  Calvin,  obgleich 
er  nicht  die  Grosze  Genfs  ats  solche  gesuchi,  dennoch  dieser  Stadt  zu  einer  welt- 
geschichtlichen  Grosze  verholjen,  die  sie  ohne  ihn  niemals  erreicht  haben  wiirde. 
Aber  so  viel  ist  richtig,  dasz  das  Reinmenschliche,  das  im  Familien-  und  Volks- 
leben  seine  Wurzel  hat,  und  das  durch  das  Christenthum  nicht  verdrdngt,  aber  wohl 
veredelt  werden  soil,  bei  Calvin  weniger  zur  Entwickelung  kam.  Manner  des  stren- 
gen  Gedankens  und  einer  rigiden  Gesetzlichkeit  werden  geneigt  sein,  Calvin  iiber 
Luther  und  Zwingli  zu  erheben.  Und  er  hat  auch  seine  unbestreitbaren  Vorziige. 
Poetisch  angelegte  Gemiitsmenschen  aber  iverden  anfdnglich  Calvin  und  seiner  vom 
Naturboden  losgelosten,  abstrakten  Frommigkeit  gegeniiber  sich  eines  gewissen  Fros- 
telns  nicht  erwehren  konnen  und  einige  Zeit  brauchen,  bis  sie  es  iiberwunden  haben  ; 
wdhrend  sie  sich  zu  dem  herzgewinnenden  Luther  sogleich  und  auch  dann  noch  hinge- 
zogen  Juhlen,  wenn  er  schdumt  und  vor  Zorn  nbersprudelt." 

Dr.  Is.  DoRXER  (1809-1884). 

Geschichte  der  Protesiantischen  Theologie,     Miinchen,  1867,  pp.  374,  376. 

"Calvin  was  equally  great  in  intellect  and  character,  lovely  in  social  life, 
full  of  tender  sympathy  and  faithfulness  to  friends,  yielding  and  forgiving 
towards  personal  offences,  but  inexorably  severe  when  he  saw  the  honor  of 
God  obstinately  and  malignantly  attacked.  He  combined  French  fire  and 
practical  good  sense  with  German  depth  and  soberness.     He  moved  as  freely 


§  68.     TRIBUTES    TO    THE    MEMORY    OF    CALVIN.  285 

in  tlie  world  of  ideas  as  in  the  business  of  Church  government.  Ho  was  an 
architectonic  genius  in  science  and  practical  life,  always  with  an  eye  to  the 
holiness  and  majesty  of  God."     (Condensed  translation.) 

Dr.  K.\HNis  (Lutheran,  1814-1888). 

Die  Ltttherische  Dogmatik.     Leipzig,  1861,  vol.  II.  p.  490  sq. 

"  The  fear  of  God  was  the  soul  of  liis  piety,  the  rock-like  certainty  of  his 
election  before  the  foundation  of  the  world  was  his  power,  and  the  doing  of 
tlie  will  of  God  his  single  aim,  which  he  pursued  with  trembling  and  fear.  .  .  . 
No  otiier  Reformer  has  so  well  demonstrated  the  truth  of  Christ's  word  that, 
in  the  kingdom  of  God,  dominion  is  service.  'No  other  had  such  an  energy  of 
self-sacrifice,  such  an  irrefragable  conscientiousness  in  the  greatest  as  well  as 
the  smallest  things,  such  a  disciplined  power.  This  man,  whose  dying  body 
was  only  held  together  by  the  will  flaming  from  his  eyes,  had  a  majesty  of 
character  which  commanded  the  veneration  of  his  contemporaries." 

F.  W.  Kamfschulte  (18.31-1872). 

Catholic  Professor  of  History  in  the  University  of  Bonn  from  1860  to  1872,  and  author  of 
au  able  and  impartial  work  on  Calvin,  which  was  interrupted  by  his  death.  Vols.  II. 
and  111.  were  never  published.     He  protested  against  the  Vatican  decrees  of  1870. 

Johann  Calvin.     Seine  Kirche  und  sein  Staat  in  Genf.     Erster  Band,  Leipzig, 

1869,  p.  274  sq. 

"  Calvin's  Lehrhuch  der  christlichen  Religion  ist  ohne  Frage  das  hervorragendste 
und  bedeutendste  Erzeugniss,  ivelches  die  reformatorische  Literatur  des  sechszehnten 
Jahrhunderts  auf  dem  Gebiete  der  Dogmatik  aufzuweisen  hat.  Schon  ein  ober- 
Jldchliclier  Vergleich  lasst  uns  den  gewaltigen  Fortschritt  eikennen,  den  es  gegeniiber 
den  bisherigen  Leistungen  auf  diesem  Gebiete  bezeichnet.  Statt  der  unvoUkommenen, 
nach  der  einen  oder  andern  Seite  unzuldnglichen  Versuche  Melanchthon's,  Zwingli's, 
Farel's  erhalten  ivir  aiis  Calvin'^s  Hand  das  Kunstwerk  eines,  wenn  audi  nicht 
harmonisch  in  sich  abgeschlossenen,  so  dock  ivohlgegliederten,  durchgebildeten  Sys- 
tems, das  in  alien  seinen  Theilen  die  leitenden  Grundgedanken  widerspiegelt  und 
von  vollstdndiger  Beherrschung  des  Stoffes  zeugt.  Es  halte  sine  unverkennbare 
Berechtigung,  wenn  man  den  Verfasser  der  Institution  ah  den  Aristoteles  der  Befor- 
mation  bezeichnete.  Die  ausserordentliche  Belesenheit  in  der  biblischen  und  patris- 
tischen  Literatur,  icie  sie  schon  in  den  friiheren  Ausgaben  des  Werkes  hervortritt, 
setzt  in  Erstaunen.  Die  Methode  ist  lichtvoll  und  klar,  der  Gedankengang  streng 
logisch,  iiberall  durchsichtig,  die  Eintheilung  und  Ordnung  des  Stoffes  dem  leitenden 
Grundgedanken  entsprechend ;  die  Darstellung  schreitet  ernst  und  gemessen  vor  und 
nimmt,  obschon  in  den  spdteren  Ausgaben  mehr  gelehrt  als  anziehend,  me.hr  auf  den 
Verstand  als  auf  das  Gemiith  berechnet,  dock  zuweilen  einen  hiiheren  S<hwung  an. 
Calvin's  Institution  enthdlt  Abschnitte,  die  dem  Schonsten,  ivas  von  Pascal  und 
Bossuet  geschrieben  warden  ist,  an  die  Seite  gestellt  werden  konnen :  Stellen,  wie 
jene  ttber  die  Erhabenheit  der  heiilgen  Schrift,  iiber  das  Elend  des  gefallenen  Men- 
schen,  iiber  die  Bedeutung  des  Gebetes,  werden  nie  verfehlen,  auf  den  Leser  einen 
tiefen  Eindruck  zu  machen.  Auch  von  den  katholischen  Gegnern  Calvin's  sind 
diese  VorzUge  anerkannt  und  manche  Abschnitte  seines  Werkes  sogar  henutzt  warden. 


286         THE   KEFOEMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

il/an  beqreijl  es  voUlommen,  ivenn  er  selbst  mit  dem  Gefiihl  der  Befriedigung  und 
des  Stolzes  auf  sein  Werk  blickt  und  in  seinen  ubrigen  Schriften  gem  auf  das 
'  Lehrbuch '  zuriickverweist." 

"  Und  dock  beschleicht  itns,  trotz  aJler  Bewunderung,  zu  der  uns  der  Verfasser 
nothigt,  bei  dem  Durchlesen  seines  IVerkes  ein  unheimliches  Geftihl.  Ein  System, 
das  von  dem  furchtbaren  Gedanken  der  doppelten  Prcedestination  ausgeht,  welches 
die  Menschen  oline  jede  Rucksicht  auf  das  eigene  Verhalten  in  Erwdhlte  und  Ver- 
worfene  scheidel  und  die  Einen  wie  die  Anderen  zu  blossen  Werkzeugen  zur  Verherr- 
lichung  der  'gotdichen  Majestdt  macht  .  .  .  ein  solckes  System  kann  unmoglich 
dem  deukenden,  Belehrung  und  Trust  snchenden  Menschengeist  innere  Ruhe  und 
Befriedigung  gewahren." 

Baum,  CuNiTz,  and  Reuss. 

Job.  Calvini  Opera,  vol.  I.  p.  ix. 

The  Strassburg  editors  of  Calvin's  Works  belong  to  the  modern  liberal 
school  of  theology. 

"  Si  Lutherum  virum  maximum,  si  Zivinglium  civem  Christianum  nulli  secun- 
dum, si  Melanthonem  prceceptorem  doctissimum  merito  appellaris,  Calvinum  jure 
vocaris  theologoeum  pkincieem  et  antesignanum.  In  hoc  enini  quis  linguarum 
et  literarum  prcesidia,  quis  disciplinarum  fere  omnium  non  miretur  orbem  ?  De 
cujus  copia  doctrince,  rerumque  dispositione  aptissime  concinnata,  et  argumentorum 
vi  ac  validitate  in  dogmaticis  ;  de  ingenii  acumine  et  subtilitate,  atque  nunc  festiva 
nunc  mordaci  salsedine  in  jwlemicis,  de  felicissima  perspicuitate,  sobrietate  ac  saga- 
citate  in  exegeticis,  de  nervosa  eloqnentia  et  libertate  in  parceneticis  ;  de  prudentia 
sapientiaque  legislatoria  in  ecclesiis  constituendis,  ordinandis  ac  regendis  incom- 
parabile,  inter  omnes  viros  doctos  et  de  rebus  evangelicis  libere  sentientes  jam  abunde 
constat.  Imo  inter  ipsos  adversarios  romanos  nullus  hodie  est,  vel  mediocri  harum 
rerum  cognitione  imbutus  vel  tantilla  judicii  prcfditus  cequitate,  qui  argumentorum 
et  sententiarum  ubertatem,  proprietatem  verborum  sermonemque  castigatum,  stili 
denique,  tarn  latini  quam  gallici,  gravitatem  et  luciditatem  non  admiretur.  Quae 
cuncta  quum  in  singulis  fere  scriptis,  turn  prcecipue  relucent  in  immortali  ilia  Insli- 
tutione  religionis  Christianoe,  qua.  omnes  ejusdem  generis  expositiones  inde  ab  apos- 
tolorum  temporibus  conscriptas,  adeoque  ipsos  Melanthonis  Locos  tkeologicos,  absque 
omni  controversia  longe  antecellit  atque  eruditum  et  ingenuum  lectorem,  etiamsi  alicubi 
secus  senserit,  hodieque  quasi  vinctum  trahit  et  vel  invitum  rapit  in  admirationem." 


TRIBUTES   FROM   ENGLISH   WRITERS  (mostly  Episcopal). 

Richard  Hooker  (1553-1600). 

From  his  Preface  to  the  Ecclesiastical  Polity  (Keble's  ed.  vol.  I.  p.  158). 

"Whom  [Calvin],  for  my  own  part,  I  think  incomparably  the  wisest  man 
that  ever  the  French  Church  did  enjoy  since  the  hour  it  enjoyed  him.  His 
bringing  up  was  in  the  study  of  the  civil  law.  Divine  knowledge  he  gathered 
not  by  hearing  or  reading  so  much  as  by  teaching  others.  For,  though  thou- 
sands were  debtors  to  him,  as  touching  knowledge  of  this  kind,  yet  he  to  none. 


§  68.     TRIBUTES    TO    THE    MEMORY    OF    CALVIK.  287 

but  only  to  God,  the  Author  of  that  most  blessed  fountain,  the  Book  of  Life, 
and  of  the  admirable  dexterity  of  wit,  together  with  the  helps  of  other  learn- 
ing, which  were  his  guides.  —  We  should  be  injurious  unto  virtue  itself,  if  we 
did  derogate  from  them  whom  their  industry  hath  made  great.  Two  things 
of  principal  moment  there  are,  which  have  deservedly  procured  him  honor 
throughout  the  world :  the  one,  his  exceeding  pains  in  composing  the  histitii- 
tions  of  the  Christian  Heligion ;  the  other,  his  no  less  industrious  travails  for 
exposition  of  Holy  Scripture,  according  unto  the  same  Institutions,  .  .  . 

"Of  what  account  the  Master  of  Sentences  [Peter  Lombard]  was  in  the 
Church  of  Rome;  the  same  and  more,  among  the  preachers  of  Reformed 
Churches,  Calvin  had  purchased;  so  that  the  perfectest  divines  were  judged 
they  which  were  skilf  uUest  in  Calvin's  writings ;  his  books  almost  the  very 
canon  to  judge  both  doctrine  and  discipline  by." 

Bishop  Lancelot  Andrewes  (1555-1626). 

"Calvin  was  an  illustrious  person,  and  never  to  be  mentioned  without  a 
preface  of  the  highest  honor." 

Dr.  John  Donne  (1573-1631). 

Royal  Chaplain  and  Dean  of  St.  Paul's,  London ;  distinguished  as  a  poet  and  divine. 

"St.  Augustin,  for  sharp  insight  and  conclusive  judgment  in  exposition  of 
places  of  Scripture,  which  he  always  makes  so  liquid  and  pervious,  hath 
scarce  been  equalled  therein  by  any  of  all  the  writers  in  the  Church  of  God, 
except  Calvin  may  have  that  honor,  for  whom  (when  it  concerns  not  points 
of  controversy)  I  see  the  Jesuits  themselves,  though  they  dare  not  name  him, 
have  a  high  degree  of  reverence." 

Bishop  Hall  (1574-1656). 

Works,  III.  516. 

"Reverend  Calvin,  whose  judgment  I  so  much  honor,  that  I  reckon  him 
among  the  best  interpreters  of  Scripture  since  the  Apostles  left  the  earth." 

Bishop  Sanderson  (1587-1663). 

"  When  I  began  to  set  myself  to  the  study  of  Divinity  as  my  proper 
business,  Calvin's  Institutions  were  recommended  to  me,  as  they  generally 
were  to  all  young  scholars  in  those  times,  as  the  best  and  most  perfect  system 
of  Divinitj',  and  the  fittest  to  be  laid  as  a  groundwork  in  the  study  of  the 
profession.  And,  indeed,  my  exi^ectation  was  not  at  all  ill-deemed  in  the 
study  of  those  Institutions." 

Richard  Baxter  (1615-1691). 

"  I  know  no  man,  since  the  Apostles'  days,  whom  I  value  and  honor  more 
than  Calvin,  and  whose  judgment  in  all  things,  one  with  another,  I  more 
esteem  and  come  nearer  to." 


288         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

Bishop  Wilson  of  Calcutta. 

From  Sermon  preached  on  the  death  of  the  Rev.  Basil  Wood. 

"  Calvin's  Commentaries  remain,  after  three  centuries,  unparalleled  for  force 
of  mind,  justness  of  exposition,  and  practical  views  of  Christianity." 

Archbishop  Lavv^rence. 

From  his  Bampion  Lectures. 

"Calvin  was  both  a  wise  and  a  good  man,  inferior  to  none  of  his  contem- 
poraries in  general  ability,  and  superior  to  almost  all  in  the  art,  as  well  as 
elegance,  of  composition,  in  the  perspicuity  and  arrangement  of  his  ideas,  the 
structure  of  his  periods,  and  the  Latinity  of  his  diction." 

Archdeacon  Julius  Charles  Hare  (1795-1855). 

He  had,  of  all  Englishmen,  the  best  knowledge  and  highest  appreciation  of  Luther. 

From  his  Mission  of  the  Comforter,  II.  449. 

"Calvin's  Commentaries,  although  they  too  are  almost  entirely  doctrinal 
and  practical,  taking  little  note  of  critical  and  ijliilosopliical  questions,  keep 
much  closer  to  the  text  [than  Luther's],  and  make  it  their  one  business  to 
bring  out  the  meaning  of  tlie  words  of  Scripture  with  fulness  and  precision. 
This  they  do  with  the  excellence  of  a  master  riciily  endowed  with  tlie  word  of 
wisdom  and  with  the  word  of  knowledge,  and  from  the  exemplary  union  of  a 
severe  masculine  understanding  with  a  profound  insight  into  tiie  spiritual 
depths  of  the  Scriptures,  they  are  especially  calculated  to  be  useful  in  coun- 
teracting the  erroneous  tendencies  of  an  age,  when  we  seem  about  to  be 
inundated  with  all  that  was  fantastical  and  irrational  in  the  exegetical  mys- 
ticism of  the  Fathers,  and  are  bid  to  see  divine  power  in  all  allegorical 
cobwebs,  and  iieavenly  life  in  artificial  flowers.  I  do  not  mean  to  imply  an 
a(lo])tion  or  approval  of  all  Calvin's  views,  wlietlier  on  doctrinal  or  other 
questions.  But  we  may  happily  owe  much  gratitude  and  love,  and  the  deep- 
est intellectual  obligations,  to  those  whom  at  the  same  time  we  may  deem  to 
be  mistaken  on  certain  points." 

Thomas  H.  Dyer. 

The  Life  of  John  Calvin.     London,  1850,  p.  533  sq. 

"That  Calvin  was  in  some  respects  a  really  great  man,  and  that  the  elo- 
quent panegyric  of  his  friend  and  disciple  Beza  contains  much  that  is  true, 
will  hardly  be  denied.  In  any  circumstances  his  wonderful  abilities  and 
extensive  learning  would  have  made  him  a  shining  light  among  the  doctors 
of  the  Reformation;  an  accidental,  or,  as  his  friends  and  followers  would  say, 
a  providential  and  predestinated  visit  to  Geneva,  made  him  the  head  of  a 
numerous  and  powerful  sect.  Naturally  deficient  in  that  courage  which  forms 
so  prominent  a  trait  in  Luther's  character,  and  which  prompted  him  to  beard 
kings  and  emperors  face  to  face,  Calvin  arrived  at  Geneva  at  a  time  when 
the  rough  and  initiatory  work  of  Reform  had  already  been  accomplished  by 


§  08.     TRIBUTES    TO    THE    INIEMORY    OF    CALVIN.  289 

his  bolder  and  nioro  active  friend  Farel.  Some  peculiar  circumstances  in 
tiie  political  condition  of  that  place  favored  the  views  which  he  seems  to  have 
formed  very  shortly  after  his  arrival.  .  .  . 

"Tiie  preceding  narrative  has  already  shown  how,  from  that  time  to  the 
hour  of  his  death,  his  care  and  labor  were  constantly  directed  to  the  consoli- 
dation of  his  power,  and  to  the  development  of  his  scheme  of  ecclesiastical 
polity.  In  these  objects  he  was  so  successful  that  it  may  be  safely  affirmed 
that  none  of  the  Reformers,  not  even  Luther  himself,  attained  to  so  absolute 
and  extensive  an  influence." 

Archdeacon  Fkkdicric  W.  Fakrak,  D.D.,  F.R.S. 

Historij  of  Interpretation.     London,  1886,  pp.  342-344. 

"The  greatest  exegete  and  theologian  of  the  Reformation  was  imdoubtedly 
Calvin.  He  is  not  an  attractive  figure  in  the  history  of  that  great  movement. 
The  mass  of  mankind  revolt  against  the  ruthless  logical  rigidity  of  his 
'  iiorrible  decree.'  They  fling  it  from  their  belief  with  the  eternal  'God 
forbid ! '  of  an  inspired  natural  horror.  They  dislike  the  tyranny  of  theo- 
cratic sacerdotalism  ['?]  which  he  establi.slied  at  Geneva.  Nevertheless  his 
Commentaries,  almost  alone  among  those  of  his  epoch,  are  still  a  living  force. 
They  are  far  more  profound  than  those  of  Zwingli,  more  thorough  and  scien- 
tific, if  less  original  and  less  spiritual,  than  those  of  Luther.  In  spite  of  his 
many  defects  —  the  inequality  of  his  works,  his  masterful  arrogance  of  tone, 
his  inconsequent  and  in  part  retrogressive  view  of  inspiration,  the  manner 
in  which  he  explains  away  every  passage  which  runs  counter  to  his  dogmatic 
prepossessions  —  in  spite,  too,  of  his  'hard  expressions  and  injurious  declama- 
tions'—  he  is  one  of  the  greatest  interpreters  of  Scripture  who  ever  lived. 
He  owes  that  position  to  a  combination  of  merits.  He  had  a  vigorous  intel- 
lect, a  dauntless  spirit,  a  logical  mind,  a  quick  insight,  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  the  human  heart,  quickened  by  rich  and  strange  experience;  above  all,  a 
manly  and  glowing  sense  of  the  grandeur  of  the  Divine.  The  neatness,  pre- 
cision, and  lucidity  of  his  style,  his  classic  training  and  wide  knowledge,  his 
methodical  accuracy  of  procedure,  his  manly  independence,  his  avoidance  of 
needless  and  commonplace  homiletics,  liis  deep  religious  feeling,  his  careful 
attention  to  the  entire  scope  and  context  of  every  passage,  and  the  fact  that 
he  has  commented  on  almost  the  whole  of  the  Bible,  make  him  tower  above 
the  great  majority  of  those  who  have  written  on  Holy  Scripture.  Nothing 
can  furnish  a  greater  contrast  to  many  helpless  commentaries,  with  their 
congeries  of  vacillating  varlurnm  annotations  heaped  together  in  aimless  mul- 
tiplicity, than  the  terse  and  decisive  notes  of  the  great  Genevan  theologian. 
...  A  characteristic  feature  of  Calvin's  exegesis  is  its  abhorrence  of  hollow 
orthodoxy.  He  regarded  it  as  a  disgraceful  offering  to  a  God  of  truth.  He 
did  not  hold  the  theory  of  verbal  dictation.  He  will  never  defend  or  harmo- 
nize what  he  regards  as  an  oversight  or  mistake  in  the  sacred  writers.  He 
scorns  to  support  a  good  cause  by  bad  reasoning.  .  .  .  But  the  most  charac- 
teristic and  original  feature  of  his  Commentaries  is  his  anticipation  of  modern 
criticism   in   his  views   about  the   Messianic  prophecies.      He  saw  that  the 


290         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

words  of  psalmists  and  prophets,  while  they  not  only  admit  of  but  demand 
'germinant  and  springing  developments,'  were  yet  primarily  applicable  to  the 
events  and  circumstances  of  their  own  days." 


SCOTCH   TRIBUTES. 

In  Scotland,  the  land  of  John  Knox,  who  studied  at  the  feet  of  Calvin,  his  principles  were 
most  highly  appreciated  and  most  fully  carried  out. 

Sir  William  Hamilton  (1788-1856). 

"Looking  merely  to  his  learning  and  ability,  Calvin  was  superior  to  all 
modern,  perhaps  to  all  ancient,  divines.  Succeeding  ages  have  certainly  not 
exhibited  his  equal.  To  find  his  peer  we  must  ascend  at  least  to  Aquinas  or 
Augustin." 

Dr.  William  Cunningham  (1805-1861). 

Principal  of  the  New  College  and  Professor  of  Church  History  in  Edinburgh.    Presbyterian 
of  the  Free  Church. 

Reformers,  and  the  Theology  of  the  Reformation.     Edinburgh,  1866, 
pp.  292,  294,  299. 

"  John  Calvin  was  by  far  the  greatest  of  the  Reformers  with  respect  to  the 
talents  he  possessed,  the  influence  he  exerted,  and  the  service  he  rendered  to 
the  establishment  and  diffusion  of  important  truth.  .  .  . 

"  The  systematizing  of  divine  truth,  and  the  full  organization  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church  according  to  the  word  of  God,  are  the  great  peculiar  achieve- 
ments of  Calvin.  For  this  work  God  eminently  qualified  him,  by  bestowing 
upon  him  the  highest  gifts  both  of  nature  and  of  grace ;  and  this  work  he 
was  enabled  to  accomplish  in  such  a  way  as  to  confer  the  greatest  and  most 
lasting  benefits  upon  the  Church  of  Christ,  and  to  entitle  him  to  the  commen- 
dation and  the  gratitude  of  all  succeeding  ages.  .  .  . 

"  Calvin  certainly  was  not  free  from  the  infirmities  which  are  always  found 
in  some  form  or  degree  even  in  the  best  men ;  and  in  particular,  he  occasion- 
ally exhibited  an  angry  impatience  of  contradiction  and  opposition,  and  some- 
times assailed  and  treated  the  opponents  of  the  truth  and  cause  of  God  with 
a  violence  and  invective  which  cannot  be  defended,  and  should  certainly  not 
be  imitated.  He  was  not  free  from  error,  and  is  not  to  be  implicitly  followed 
in  his  interpretation  of  Scripture,  or  in  his  exposition  of  doctrine.  But 
whether  we  look  to  the  powers  and  capacities  with  which  God  endowed  him, 
the  manner  in  which  he  employed  them,  and  the  results  by  which  his  labors 
have  been  followed,  —  or  to  the  Christian  wisdom,  magnanimity,  and  devoted- 
ness  which  marked  his  character  and  generally  regulated  his  conduct,  there 
is  probably  not  one  among  the  sons  of  men,  beyond  the  range  of  those  whom 
God  miraculously  inspired  by  his  Spirit,  who  has  stronger  claims  upon  our 
veneration  and  gratitude." 

In  another  place  which  I  cannot  refer  to,  Cunningham,  the  successor  of 
Chalmers,  says :  "  Calvin  is  the  man  who,  next  to  St.  Paul,  has  done  most 
good  to  mankind." 


§  68.     TRIBUTES    TO    THE    MEMORY    OF    CALVIN.  291 

Dr.  John  Tulloch  (1823-1880). 

Principal  of  St.  Mary's  College  in  the  University  of  St.  Andrews,  of  the  Established  Church 

of  Scotland. 

Luther  and  other  Leaders  of  the  Beformation.     Edinburgh  and  London,  3d  ed. 
1883,  pp. 234-237,  243,  245. 

"  Thus  lived  and  died  Calvin,  a  great,  intense,  and  energetic  character, 
who,  more  than  any  other  of  that  great  age,  has  left  his  impress  upon  the 
history  of  Protestantism.  Nothing,  perhaps,  more  strikes  us  than  the  con- 
trast between  the  single  naked  energy  which  his  character  presents  and  of 
which  his  name  has  become  symbolical,  and  the  grand  issues  which  have 
gone  forth  from  it.  Scarcely  anywhere  else  can  we  trace  such  an  impervious 
potency  of  intellectual  and  moral  influence  emanating  from  so  narrow  a 
centre. 

"There  is  in  almost  every  respect  a  singular  dissimilarity  between  the 
Genevan  and  the  Wittenberg  reformer.  In  personal,  moral,  and  intellectual 
features,  they  stand  contrasted  —  Luther  with  his  massive  frame  and  full,  big 
face  and  deep  melancholy  eyes;  Calvin,  of  moderate  stature,  pale  and  dark 
complexion,  and  sparkling  eyes,  that  burned  nearly  to  the  moment  of  his 
death  (Beza:  Vita  Calv.).  Luther,  fond  and  jovial,  relishing  his  beer  and 
hearty  family  repasts  with  his  wife  and  children ;  Calvin,  spare  and  frugal, 
for  many  years  taking  only  one  meal  a  day,  and  scarcely  needing  sleep.  In 
the  one,  we  see  a  rich  and  complex  and  buoyant  and  affectionate  nature 
touching  humanity  at  every  point,  in  the  other,  a  stern  and  grave  unity  of 
moral  character.  Both  were  naturally  of  a  somewhat  proud  and  imperious 
temper,  but  the  violence  of  Luther  is  warm  and  boisterous,  that  of  Calvin 
is  keen  and  zealous.  It  might  have  been  a  very  uncomfortable  thing,  as 
Melanchthon  felt,  to  be  exposed  to  Luther's  occasional  storms;  but  after  the 
storm  was  over,  it  was  pleasant  to  be  folded  once  more  to  the  great  heart  that 
was  sorry  for  its  excesses.  To  be  the  object  of  Calvin's  dislike  and  anger 
was  something  to  fill  one  with  dread,  not  only  for  the  moment,  but  long  after- 
wards, and  at  a  distance,  as  poor  Castellio  felt  when  he  gathered  the  pieces 
of  driftwood  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine  at  Basel. 

"In  intellect,  as  in  personal  features,  the  one  was  grand,  massive,  and 
powerful,  through  depth  and  comprehension  of  feeling,  a  profound  but  exag- 
gerated insight,  and  a  soaring  eloquence ;  the  other  was  no  less  grand  and 
powerful,  through  clearness  and  correctness  of  judgment,  vigor  and  consist- 
ency of  reasoning,  and  weightiness  of  expression.  Both  are  alike  memorable 
in  the  service  which  they  rendered  to  their  native  tongue  —  in  the  increased 
compass,  flexibility,  and  felicitous  mastery  which  they  imparted  to  it.  The 
Latin  works  of  Calvin  are  greatly  superior  in  elegance  of  style,  symmetry  of 
method,  and  proportionate  vigor  of  argument.  He  maintains  an  academic 
elevation  of  tone,  even  when  keenly  agitatec?  in  temper;  while  Luther,  as  , 
Mr.  Hallam  has  it,  sometimes  descends  to  mere  'bellowing  in  bad  Latin.' 
Yet  there  is  a  coldness  in  the  elevation  of  Calvin,  and  in  his  correct  and  well- 
balanced  sentences,  for  which  we  should  like  ill  to  exchange  the  kindling 
though  rugged  paradoxes  of  Luther.     The  German  had  the  more  rich  and 


292         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

teeming  —  the  Genevan  the  harder,  more  serviceable,  and  enduring  mind. 
When  interrupted  in  dictating  for  several  hours,  Beza  tells  us  that  he  could 
return  and  commence  where  he  had  left  off;  and  that  amidst  all  the  multi- 
plicity of  his  engagements,  he  never  forgot  what  he  required  to  know  for  the 
performance  of  any  duty. 

"As  preachers,  Calvin  seems  to  have  commanded  a  scarcely  less  powerful 
success  than  Luther,  although  of  a  different  character  —  the  one  stimulating 
and  rousing,  '  boiling  over  in  every  direction  '  —  the  other  instructive,  argu- 
mentative, and  calm  in  the  midst  of  his  vehemence  (Beza :  Vita  Calv.). 
Luther  flashed  forth  his  feelings  at  the  moment,  never  being  able  to  compose 
what  might  be  called  a  regular  sermon,  but  seizing  the  principal  subject,  and 
turning  all  his  attention  to  that  alone.  Calvin  was  elaborate  and  careful  in 
his  sermons  as  in  everything  else.  The  one  thundered  and  lightened,  filling 
the  souls  of  his  hearers  now  with  shadowy  awe,  and  now  with  an  intense  glow 
of  spiritual  excitement ;  the  other,  like  the  broad  daylight,  filled  them  with 
a  more  diffusive  though  less  exhilarating  clearness.  .  .  . 

"An  impression  of  majesty  and  yet  of  sadness  must  ever  linger  around 
the  name  of  Calvin.  He  was  great  and  we  admire  him.  The  world  needed 
him  and  we  honor  him ;  but  we  cannot  love  him.  He  repels  our  affections 
while  he  extorts  our  admiration ;  and  while  we  recognize  the  worth,  and  the 
divine  necessity,  of  his  life  and  work,  we  are  thankful  to  survey  them  at  a 
distance,  and  to  believe  that  there  are  also  other  modes  of  divinely  governing 
the  world,  and  advancing  the  kingdom  of  righteousness  and  truth. 

"  Limited,  as  compared  with  Luther,  in  his  personal  influence,  apparently 
less  the  man  of  the  hour  in  a  great  crisis  of  human  progress,  Calvin  towers 
far  above  Luther  in  the  general  influence  over  the  world  of  thought  and  the 
course  of  history,  which  a  miglity  intellect,  inflexible  in  its  convictions  and 
constructive  in  its  genius,  never  fails  to  exercise." 

William  Lindsay  Alexander,  D.D.,  F.Il.S.E.  (1808-1884). 

Professor  of  Theology  and  one  of  the  Bible  Revisers.    Congregationalist. 

From  Encyclopwdia  Britannica,  9th  ed.  vol.  IV.  (1878)  p.  721. 

""Calvin  was  of  middle  stature;  his  complexion  was  somewhat  pallid  and 
dark;  his  eyes,  to  the  latest  clear  and  lustrous,  bespoke  the  acumen  of  his 
genius.  He  was  sparing  in  his  food  and  simple  in  his  dress ;  he  took  but 
little  sleep,  and  was  capable  of  extraordinary  efforts  of  intellectual  toil.  His 
memory  was  prodigious,  but  he  used  it  only  as  the  servant  of  his  higher 
faculties.  As  a  reasoner  he  has  seldom  been  equalled,  and  the  soundness  and 
penetration  of  his  judgment  were  such  as  to  give  to  his  conclusions  in  prac- 
tical questions  almost  the  appearance  of  predictions,  and  inspire  in  all  his 
friends  the  utmost  confidence  in  the  wisdom  of  his  counsels.  As  a  theologian 
he  stands  on  an  eminence  which  only  Augustin  has  surpassed;  whilst  in  his 
skill  as  an  expounder  of  Scripture,  and  his  terse  and  elegant  style,  he  pos- 
sessed advantages  to  which  Augustin  was  a  stranger.  His  private  character 
was  in  harmony  with  his  public  reputation  and  position.  If  somewhat  severe 
and  irritable,  he  was  at  the  same  time  scrupulously  just,  truthful,  and  stead- 


§  68.     TRIBUTES    TO    THE    MEMORY    OF    CALVIN.  293 

fast;  he  never  deserted  a  friend  or  took  an  unfair  advantage  of  an  antago- 
nist; and  on  befitting  occasions  he  could  be  cheerful  and  even  facetious 
among  his  intimates." 


TESTIMONIES   OF   AMERICAN  DIVINES. 

Dr.  Henry  B.  Smith  (1815-1877). 

Professor  of  Theology  in  the  Union  Theological  Seminary,  New  York.     Presbyterian. 

From  his  Address  before  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Cliurch, 
St.  Louis,  1855,  delivered  by  request  of  the  Presbyterian  Historical  Society. 
See  Faith  and  Philosophi/,  pp.  98  and  99. 

"Though  the  Reformation,  under  God,  began  with  Luther  in  the  power 
of  faith,  it  was  carried  on  by  Calvin  with  greater  energy,  and  with  a  more 
constructive  genius,  both  in  theology  and  in  church  polity,  as  he  also  had  a 
more  open  field.  The  Lutheran  movement  affected  chiefly  the  centre  and 
the  north  of  Europe;  the  Reformed  Cliurches  were  planted  in  the  west  of 
Europe,  all  around  the  ocean,  in  the  Britisli  Isles,  and  by  their  very  geograph- 
ical site  were  prepared  to  act  the  most  efficient  part,  and  to  leap  the  walls  of 
the  old  world,  and  colonize  our  shores. 

"Nothing  is  more  striking  in  a  general  view  of  the  history  of  the  Reformed 
Churches  than  the  variety  of  countries  into  which  we  find  their  characteristic 
spirit,  both  in  doctrine  and  polity,  penetrating.  Throughout  Switzerland  it 
was  a  grand  popular  movement.  There  is  first  of  all,  Zwingli,  the  hero  of 
Zurich,  already  in  1516  preaching  against  the  idolatrous  veneration  of  Mary, 
a  man  of  generous  culture  and  intrepid  spirit,  who  at  last  laid  down  his  life 
upon  the  field  of  battle.  In  Basle  we  find  CEcolampadius,  and  also  Bullinger 
[in  Zurich],  the  chronicler  of  the  Swiss  reform.  Farel  aroused  Geneva  to 
iconoclasm  by  his  inspiring  eloquence. 

"Thither  comes  in  1536,  from  the  France  which  disowned  him,  Calvin,  the 
mighty  law-giver,  great  as  a  preacher,  an  expositor,  a  teacher  and  a  ruler ; 
cold  in  exterior,  but  burning  with  internal  fire ;  who  produced  at  twenty-six 
years  of  age  his  unmatched  Institutes,  and  at  thirty-five  had  made  Geneva, 
under  an  almost  theocratic  government,  the  model  city  of  Europe,  with  its 
inspiring  motto,  'post  tenebras  lux.'  He  was  feared  and  opposed  by  the  liber- 
tines of  his  day,  as  he  is  in  our  own.  His  errors  were  those  of  his  own  times : 
his  greatness  is  of  all  times.  Hooker  calls  him  'incomparably  the  wisest 
man  of  the  French  Church ; '  he  compares  him  to  the  '  Master  of  Sentences,' 
and  says,  'that  though  thousands  were  debtors  to  him  as  touching  divine 
knowledge,  yet  he  was  to  none,  only  to  God.'  Montesquieu  declares  that 
'the  Genevese  should  ever  bless  the  day  of  his  birth.'  Jewel  terms  him  'a 
reverend  Father,  and  worthy  ornament  of  the  Church  of  God.'  '  He  that  will 
not  honor  the  memory  of  Calvin,'  says  Mr.  Bancroft,  'knows  but  little  of  the 
origin  of  American  liberty.'  Under  his  influence  Geneva  became  the  'fertile 
seed-plot'  of  reform  for  all  Europe;  with  Zurich  and  Strassburg,  it  was  the 
refuge  of  the  oppressed  from  tlie  British  Isles,  and  thus  indoctrinated  England 
and  ourselves  with  its  own  spirit." 


294  THE   REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

From  Dr.  Smith's  article  "  Calvin  "  in  Appleton's  American  Ci/clopcedia. 

"  Calvin's  system  of  doctrine  and  polity  has  shaped  more  minds  and  en- 
tered into  more  nations  than  that  of  any  other  Reformer.  In  every  land  it 
made  men  strong  against  the  attempted  interference  of  the  secular  power 
with  the  rights  of  Christians.  It  gave  courage  to  the  Huguenots ;  it  shaped 
the  theology  of  the  Palatinate ;  it  prepared  the  Dutch  for  the  heroic  defence 
of  their  national  rights;  it  has  controlled  Scotland  to  the  present  hour; 
it  formed  the  Puritanism  of  England;  it  has  been  the  basis  of  the  New 
England  character;  and  everywhere  it  has  led  the  way  in  practical  reforms. 
His  theology  assumed  different  types  in  the  various  countries  into  which  it 
penetrated,  while  retaining  its  fundamental  traits." 

Dr.  George  P.  Fisher  (b.  1827). 
Professor  of  Church  History  in  Yale  Divinity  School,  New  Haven.    Congregationalist. 
From  his  Historij  of  the  Reforviation.     New  York,  1873,  pp.  206  and  238. 

"  When  we  look  at  his  extraordinary  intellect,  at  his  culture  —  which 
opponents,  like  Bossuet,  have  been  forced  to  commend  —  at  the  invincible 
energy  which  made  him  endure  with  more  than  stoical  fortitude  infirmities  of 
body  under  which  most  men  would  have  sunk,  and  to  perform,  in  the  midst 
of  them,  an  incredible  amount  of  mental  labor;  when  we  see  him,  a  scholar 
naturally  fond  of  seclusion,  physically  timid,  and  recoiling  from  notoriety 
and  strife,  abjuring  the  career  that  was  most  to  his  taste,  and  plunging,  with 
a  single-hearted,  disinterested  zeal  and  an  indomitable  will,  into  a  hard,  pro- 
tracted contest ;  and  when  we  follow  his  steps,  and  see  what  things  he  effected, 
we  cannot  deny  him  the  attributes  of  greatness.  .  .  . 

"His  last  days  were  of  a  piece  with  his  life.  His  whole  course  has  been 
compared  by  Vinet  to  the  growth  of  one  rind  of  a  tree  from  another,  or  to  a 
chain  of  logical  sequences.  He  was  endued  with  a  marvellous  power  of 
understanding,  although  the  imagination  and  sentiments  were  less  roundly 
developed.  His  systematic  spirit  fitted  him  to  be  the  founder  of  an  enduring 
school  of  thought.  In  this  characteristic  he  may  be  compared  with  Aquinas. 
He  has  been  appropriately  styled  the  Aristotle  of  the  Reformation.  He  was 
a  perfectly  honest  man.  He  subjected  his  will  to  the  eternal  rule  of  right,  as 
far  as  he  could  discover  it.  His  motives  were  pure.  He  felt  that  God  was 
near  him,  and  sacrificed  everything  to  obey  the  direction  of  Providence.  The 
fear  of  God  ruled  in  his  soul ;  not  a  slavish  fear,  but  a  principle  such  as 
animated  the  prophets  of  the  Old  Covenant.  The  combination  of  his  qualities 
was  such  that  he  could  not  fail  to  attract  profound  admiration  and  reverence 
from  one  class  of  minds,  and  excite  intense  antipathy  in  another.  There  is 
no  one  of  the  Reformers  who  is  spoken  of,  at  this  late  day,  with  so  much 
personal  feeling,  either  of  regard  or  aversion.  But  whoever  studies  his  life 
and  writings,  especially  the  few  passages  in  which  he  lets  us  into  his  confi- 
dence and  appears  to  invite  our  sympathy,  will  acquire  a  growing  sense  of 
his  intellectual  and  moral  greatness,  and  a  tender  consideration  for  his  errors.' 


§  68.     TRIBUTES   TO   THE   MEMORY    OF    CALVIN.         295 

G.  G.  Hereick,  D.D. 

Congregational  Minister  of  Mount  Vernon  Chuvcli,  Boston. 

From  Some  Heretics  of  Yesterday.     Boston,  1890,  pp.  210  sqq. 

"Calvin  gathered  up  the  spiritual  and  intellectual  forces  that  had  been 
started  by  the  Reformation  movement,  and  marshalled  and  systematized  them, 
and  bound  them  into  unity  by  the  mastery  of  his  logical  thought,  as  the  river 
gathers  cloud  and  rill,  and  snow-drift  and  dew-fall,  and  constrains  them 
through  its  own  channel  into  the  unity  and  directness  of  a  powerful  current. 
The  action  of  Luther  was  impulsive,  magnetic,  popular,  appealing  to  senti- 
ment and  feeling,  that  of  Calvin  was  logical  and  constructive,  appealing  to 
understanding  and  reason.     He  was  the  systematizer  of  the  Reformation.  .  .  . 

"Calvin's  work  was  national,  and  more;  he  gave  to  the  Reformation  a 
universality  like  that  of  the  gigantic  system  with  which  they  [the  Reformers] 
all  were  at  war.  Calvin,  more  than  any  other  man  that  has  ever  lived, 
deserves  to  be  called  the  Pope  of  Protestantism.  While  he  was  still  living 
his  opinions  were  deferred  to  by  kings  and  prelates,  and  even  after  he  was 
dead  his  power  was  confessed  by  his  enemies.  The  papists  called  his  Institutes 
The  Heretics'  Koran.  .  .  .  He  set  up  authority  against  authority,  and  main- 
tained and  perpetuated  what  he  set  up  by  the  inherent  clearness  and  energy 
and  vigor  of  his  own  mental  conceptions.  The  authority  of  the  Romish  Pope 
was  based  upon  the  venerable  tradition  of  the  past  that  had  grown  up  by  the 
accretion  of  ages;  the  authority  of  the  Protestant  Pope  rested  upon  a  logical 
structure  which  he  himself  built  up,  out  of  blocks  hewn  from  alleged  Scrip- 
ture assertion  and  legitimate  inferences  therefrom.  .  .  . 

"The  man  himself  is  one  of  the  wonders  of  all  time,  and  his  work  was 
admirable,  beyond  any  words  of  appreciation  that  it  is  possible  for  me  to 
utter.  For  while  he  himself  tolerated  no  differences  of  theological  opinion, 
and  would  have  bound  all  thought  by  his  own  logical  chain,  this  nineteenth 
century  is  as  much  indebted  to  his  work  as  it  is  to  that  of  Luther.  That  work 
constituted  the  world's  largest  step  towards  democratic  freedom.  It  set  the 
individual  man  in  the  presence  of  the  living  God,  and  made  the  solitary  soul, 
whether  of  prince  or  pauper,  to  feel  its  responsibility  to,  and  dependence 
upon.  Him  alone  who  from  eternity  has  decreed  the  sparrow's  flight  or  fall. 
Out  of  this  logical  conception  of  the  equality  of  all  men  in  the  presence  of 
Jehovah,  he  deduced  the  true  republican  character  of  the  Church ;  a  theory 
to  which  all  Americans,  and  especially  we  of  New  England,  owe  our  rich 
inheritance.  He  gave  to  the  world,  what  it  had  not  before,  a  majestic  and 
consistent  conception  of  a  kingdom  of  God  ruling  in  the  affairs  of  men ;  of 
the  beauty  and  the  blessedness  of  a  true  Christian  state;  of  the  possibility 
of  the  city  of  God  being  one  day  realized  in  the  universal  subordination  of 
human  souls  to  divine  authority.  .  .  ." 

For  testimonies  bearing  upon  Calvin's  system  of  discipline,  see  below,  §  110. 


CHAPTER   IX. 
FROM   FRANCE   TO   SWITZERLAND. 

§  69.    CalviTi's  Youth  and  Training. 

Calvini  Opera,  vol.  XXI.  (1879).  —  On  Noyon  and  the  family  of  Calvin, 
Jacques  le  Vasseur  (Dr.  of  theology,  canon  and  dean  of  the  cathedral 
of  Noyon)  :  Annales  de  I'e'glise  cathedrale  de  Noyon.  Paris,  1633,  2  vols.  4°. 
—  Jacques  Desmay  (Dr.  of  the  Sorbonne  and  vicar-general  of  the  diocese 
of  Rouen)  :  Remarques  sur  la  vie  de  Jean  Calvin  tire'es  des  liegistres  de 
Noyon,  lieu  de  sa  naissance.     Rouen,  1621. 

Thomas  M'Crie  (d.  1835)  :  The  Early  Years  of  Calvin.  A  Fragment.  1509- 
1536.  Ed.  by  William  Ferguson.  Edinburgh,  1880  (199  pp.).  A  post- 
humous work  of  the  learned  biographer  of  Knox  and  Melville. 

Abel  Lefranc  :  La  Jeunesse  de  Calvin.     Paris  (33  rue  de  Seine),  228  pp. 

Comp.  the  biographies  of  Calvin  by  Henry,  large  work,  vol.  I.  chs.  I. -VIII. 
(small  ed.  1846,  pp.  12-29);  Dyer  (1850),  pp.  4-10;  STAHEtiN  (1862) 
I.  3-12;  *Kampschulte  (1869),  I.  221-225. 

"As  David  was  taken  from  the  sheepfold  and  elevated  to 
the  rank  of  supreme  authority ;  _  so  God  having  taken  me 
from  my  originally  obscure  and  humble  condition,  has  reck- 
oned me  worthy  of  being  invested  with  the  honorable  office 
of  a  preacher  and  minister  of  the  gospel.  When  I  was  yet  a 
very  little  boy,  my  father  had  destined  me  for  the  study  of 
theology.  But  afterwards,  when  he  considered  that  the 
legal  profession  commonly  raised  those  who  follow  it,  to 
wealth,  this  prospect  induced  him  suddenly  to  change  his 
purpose.  Thus  it  came  to  pass,  that  I  was  withdrawn  from 
the  study  of  philosophy  and  was  put  to  the  study  of  law. 
To  this  pursuit  I  endeavored  faithfully  to  apply  myself,  in 
obedience  to  the  will  of  my  father ;  but  God,  by  the  secret 
guidance  of  his  providence,  at  length  gave  a  different  direc- 

296 


§  69.   Calvin's  youth  and  training.  297 

tion  to  my  course.  And  first,  since  I  was  too  obstinately 
devoted  to  the  superstitions  of  popery  to  be  easily  extricated 
from  so  profound  an  abyss  of  mire,  God  by  a  sudden  conver- 
sion subdued  and  brought  my  mind  to  a  teachable  frame, 
which  was  more  burdened  in  such  matters  than  might  have 
been  expected  from  one  at  my  early  period  of  life.  Having 
thus  received  some  taste  and  knowledo^e  of  true  gfodliness,  I 
was  immediately  inflamed  with  so  intense  a  desire  to  make 
progress  therein,  that  though  I  did  not  altogether  leave  off 
other  studies,  I  yet  pursued  them  with  less  ardor."  ^ 

This  is  the  meagre  account  which  Calvin  himself  incident- 
ally gives  of  his  youth  and  conversion,  in  the  Preface  to  his 
Commentary  on  the  Psalms,  when  speaking  of  the  life  of 
David,  in  which  he  read  his  own  spiritual  experience.  Only 
once  more  he  alludes,  very  briefly,  to  his  change  of  religion. 
In  his  Answer  to  Cardinal  Sadoletus,  he  assures  him  that 
he  did  not  consult  his  temporal  interest  when  he  left  the 
papal  jDarty.  "  I  might,"  he  said,  "  have  reached  without 
difficulty  the  summit  of  my  wishes,  namely,  the  enjoyment 
of  literary  ease,  with  something  of  a  free  and  honorable 
station. "  ^ 

Luther  indulged  much  more  freely  in  reminiscences  of  his 
hard  youth,  his  early  monastic  life,  and  his  discovery  of  the 
doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  alone,  which  gave  peace 
and  rest  to  his  troubled  conscience. 

John  Calvin  3  was  born  July  10,  1509,  —  twenty-five  years 
after  Luther  and  Zwingli,  —  at  Noyon,  an  ancient  cathedral 
city,  called  Noyon-la-Sainte^  on  account  of  its  many  churches, 
convents,  priests,  and  monks,  in  the  northern  province  of 
Picardy,  which  has  given  birth  to  the  crusading  monk,  Peter 
of  Amiens,  to  the  leaders  of  the   French  Reformation  and 

1  Opera,  XXXI.  21  (Latin  and  French).  ^  Opera,  V.  .388  sqq. 

^  The  Latinized  form  of  Caitvin  or  Chauvin.  Alculn,  one  of  his  assumed 
names,  is  an  anagram  of  Calvin.  See  Ln  France  Protest.,  III.  518,  note.  He 
assumed  the  name  Calvinus  in  his  book  on  Seneca,  1532. 


298         THE    REFOTIMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

counter-Reformation  (the  Ligue),  and  to  man}-  revolution- 
ary as  well  as  reactionary  characters.^ 

His  father,  Gerard  Cauvin,  a  man  of  hard  and  severe  char- 
acter, occupied  a  prominent  position  as  apostolic  secretary  to 
the  bishop  of  Noyon,  proctor  in  the  Chapter  of  the  diocese, 
and  fiscal  procurator  of  the  county,  and  lived  on  intimate 
terms  with  the  best  families  of  the  .  neighborhood.^  His 
mother,  Jeanne  Lefranc,  of  Cambrai,  was  noted  for  her 
beauty  and  piety,  but  died  in  his  early  youth,  and  is  not 
mentioned  in  his  letters.  The  father  married  a  second  time. 
He  became  involved  in  financial  embarrassment,  and  was 
excommunicated,  perhaps  on  suspicion  of  heresy.  He  died 
May  26  (or  25),  1531,  after  a  long  sickness,  and  would  have 
been  buried  in  unconsecrated  soil  but  for  the  intercession  of 
his  son,  Charles,  who  gave  security  for  the  discharge  of  his 
father's  obligations.^ 

Calvin  had  four  brothers  and  two  sisters.'*  Two  of  his 
brothers  died  young,  the  other  two  received  a  clerical  edu- 
cation, and  were  early  provided  with  benefices  through  the 
influence  of  the  father. 

Charles,  his  elder  brother,  was  made  chaplain  of  the  cathe- 
dral in  1518,  and  cur^  of  Roupy,  but  became  a  heretic  or 


1  Michelet  (Histoire  de  France,  XI.  88)  calls  Picardy  "  un  pays  fecond  en 
r€volutionnaires,  en  brouillants  amis  de  I'humanite'."  Lefranc  (p.  24)  :  "  Les  deux 
mouvements  contraires,  la  Reforme  fran^aise  et  ce  qui  la  combattit  avec  le  plus 
d'acharnement,  la  Ligue,  sont  ne's  dans  le  menie  pays."  Noyon  lies  67  miles 
N.N.E.  of  Paris,  is  enclosed  with  gardens,  has  a  large  old  cathedral,  a  bishop's 
palace,  a  hospital,  a  seminary,  several  public  fountains,  manufactures  of  fine 
linens,  tulle,  oil,  leather,  and  a  brisk  trade,  with  a  population  of  about  6000. 
From  Lippincott's  Gazetteer,  p.  1620. 

2  "  De  notaire  apostotiqiie,  la  premiere  charge  qu'il  obtint,  il  devint  successivement 
notaire  du  chapitre,  greffier  de  Vofficialite',  procureur  Jiscal  du  comte  et  promoteur 
du  chapitre.  C'est  a  Noyon,  en  quelque  sorte,  le  fac-totum  du  clerge'."  Lefranc, 
p.  2. 

3  Lefranc,  pp.  17  and  199.  Herminjard,  II.  394.  Bolsec,  in  his  Histoire 
de  Calvin,  calls  Ge'rard  Cauvin  "  un  tres-exe'crable  blasphemateur  de  Dieu."  Per- 
haps he  confounded  him  with  his  eldest  son,  Charles. 

•*  See  the  genealogical  table  in  Henry,  vol.  III. ;  Beilage,  16,  p.  174. 


§  69.   calvin's  youth  and  training.  299 

infidel,  was  excommunicated  in  1531,  and  died  Oct.  1,  1537, 
having  refused  the  sacrament  on  his  death-bed.  He  was 
buried  by  night  between  the  four  piUars  of  a  gibbet.^ 

His  younger  brother,  Antoine,  was  chaphiin  at  Tournerolle, 
near  Traversy,  but  embraced  the  evangelical  faith,  and,  with 
his  sister,  Marie,  followed  the  Reformer  to  Geneva  in  1536. 
Antoine  kept  there  a  bookstore,  received  the  citizenship  gra- 
tuitously, on  account  of  the  merits  of  his  brother  (1546),  was 
elected  a  member  of  the  Council  of  Two  Hundred  (1558), 
and  of  the  Council  of  the  Sixty  (1570),  also  one  of  the  direc- 
tors of  the  hospital,  and  died  in  1573.  He  was  married  three 
times,  and  divorced  from  his  second  wife,  the  daughter  of  a 
refugee,  on  account  of  her  proved  adultery  (1557).  Calvin 
had  innocently  to  suffer  for  this  scandal,  but  made  him  and 
his  five  children  chief  heirs  of  his  little  property .^ 

The  other  sister  of  Calvin  was  married  at  Noyon,  and 
seems  to  have  remained  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

A  relative  and  townsman  of  Calvin,  Pierre  Robert,  called 
Olivetan,  embraced  Protestantism  some  years  before  him, 
and  studied  Greek  and  Hebrew  with  Bucer  at  Strassburg  in 
1528.^  He  joined  Farel  in  Neuchatel,  and  published  there 
his  French  translation  of  the  Bible  in  1535. 

More  than  a  hundred  years  after  Calvin's  death,  another 
member  of  the  family,  Eloi  Cauvin,  a  Benedictine  monk,  re- 
moved from  Noyon  to  Geneva,  and  embraced  the  Reformed 
religion  (June  13,  1667).* 

These  and  other  facts  show  the  extent  of  the  anti-papal 

1  "  Carolus  ejus  frater  et  presbyter  Nociodiini  mortuus  noctu  et  clam  sepultiis 
est  inter  quatuor  columnas  furcce  publiccc  quia  Eucharistiam  sumere  noluerat." 
Papire  Masson,  Vita  Calv.;  Lefranc,  pp.  18-21  and  210. 

2  Beza,  at  the  close  of  his  Latin  Vita  Calv.  (in  Calvin's  Opera,  XXI.  171), 
and  Lefranc,  I.e.,  p.  184. 

3  Letter  of  Bucer  to  Farel,  May  1,  1528,  in  Herminjard,  II.  no.  232,  and 
Opera,  X.  Pt.  I.  p.  1.  The  "Juvenis  Noviodune/isis"  there  mentioned  was  not 
Calvin,  as  Kampschulte  (I.  231)  conjectures,  but  probably  Olivetan.  There 
is  no  trace  of  such  an  early  visit  of  Calvin  to  Strassburg. 

*  La  France  Prot.  III.  639. 


300         THE   REFORMATION    IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

sentiment  in  the  family  of  Cauvin.  In  1561  a  large  number 
of  prominent  persons  of  Noyon  were  suspected  of  heresy, 
and  in  1562  the  Chapter  of  Noyon  issued  a  profession  of 
faith  against  the  doctrines  of  Calvin.^ 

After  the  death  of  Calvin,  Protestantism  was  completely 
crushed  out  in  his  native  town. 

Calvin  received  his  first  education  with  the  children  of 
the  noble  family  de  Mommor  (not  Montmor),  to  which  he 
remained  gratefully  attached.  He  made  rapid  progress  in 
learning,  and  acquired  a  refinement  of  manners  and  a  certain 
aristocratic  air,  which  distinguished  him  from  Luther  and 
Zwingli.  A  son  of  de  Mommor  accompanied  him  to  Paris, 
and  followed  him  afterwards  to  Geneva. 

His  ambitious  father  destined  him  first  for  the  clerical 
profession.  He  secured  for  him  even  in  his  twelfth  year 
(1521)  a  part  of  the  revenue  of  a  chaplaincy  in  the  cathedral 
of  Noyon .2  In  his  eighteenth  year  Calvin  received,  in  addi- 
tion, the  charge  of  S.  Martin  de  Marteville  (Sept.  27,  1527), 
although  he  had  not  yet  the  canonical  age,  and  had  only 
received  the  tonsure. 

Such  shocking  irregularities  were  not  uncommon  in  those 
days.     Pluralism  and  absenteeism,  though  often  prohibited 

1  See  the  list  and  the  profession  in  Lefranc,  216  sqq.  He  goes,  however, 
too  far  when  he  says  (p.  x.  sq.)  :  "  Ge  qui  ressort  d'une  etude  attentive  des  fails, 
c'est  que  Calvin  est  sorti  deja  protestant  de  sa  ville  natale.  C'est  dans  ce  centre 
qu'il  puisa  ses  ide'es.  II  y  trouva  tout  d'abord  I'appui  le  plus  ferine,  ses  amis  les 
plus  chauds  et  ses  lieutenants  les  plus  de'voue's.  A  un  moment  donne',  la  moitie  de  la 
population  se  de'clara  pour  lui.  Chose  remarquable,  un  nombre  conside'rable  des  ses 
compatriots,  et  parmi  eux  les  personnages  les  plus  en  vue,  le  suivirent  jusqua  Genere. 
Durant  toute  sa  vie,  Calvin  conserva  d'actifs  rapports  avec  sa  ville  natale  et  ceux 
de  ses  fideles  qui  y  etaient  reste's."  Calvin  was  not  converted  before  1532. 
See  §  72. 

'■^  Desmay  (quoting  from  the  Registres  of  Noyon,  see  Op.  XXI.  189)  : 
"  Jean  Calvin  obtient  une  portion  du  revenue  de  la  chapelle  de  la  Ge'sine  de  la  Vierge 
fonde'e  dans  la  cathe'drale  de  Noyon."  There  were  four  chaplains  at  Noyon. 
The  first  two  had  to  say  mass  alternately  every  morning.  John  Calvin,  not 
being  ordained,  had  to  pay  a  priest  to  take  his  place.  Lefranc,  p.  10.  Zwingli 
received  a  papal  pension  even  after  he  had  begun  his  work  of  reform.  See 
above,  §  8,  p.  31  sq.    This  is  all  wrong,  but  was  not  so  considered  at  that  time. 


§  69.     CALVIN'S    YOUTH    AND   TRAINING.  301 

by  councils,  were  among  the  crying  abuses  of  the  Church. 
Charles  de  Hangest,  bishop  of  Noyon,  obtained  at  fifteen 
years  of  age  a  dispensation  from  the  pope  "  to  hold  all  kinds 
of  offices,  compatible  and  incompatible,  secular  and  regular, 
etiam  tria  curata^'' ;  and  his  nephew  and  successor,  Jean 
de  Hangest,  was  elected  bishop  at  nineteen  years  of  age. 
Odet  de  Chatillon,  brother  of  the  famous  Colign}^,  was 
created  cardinal  in  his  sixteenth  year.  Pope  Leo  X.  re- 
ceived the  tonsure  as  a  boy  of  seven,  was  made  archbishojD  in 
his  eighth,  and  cardinal-deacon  in  his  thirteenth  year  (with 
the  reservation  that  he  should  not  put  on  the  insignia  of  his 
dignity  nor  discharge  the  duties  of  his  office  till  he  was 
sixteen),  besides  being  canon  in  three  cathedrals,  rector  in 
six  parishes,  prior  in  three  convents,  abbot  in  thirteen  addi- 
tional abbeys,  and  bishop  of  Amalfi,  deriving  revenues  from 
them  all ! 

Calvin  resigned  the  chaplaincy  in  favor  of  his  younger 
brother,  April  30,  1529.  He  exchanged  the  charge  of  S. 
Martin  for  that  of  the  village  Pont-l'Ev^que  (the  birthplace 
of  his  father),  July  5,  1529,  but  he  resigned  it,  May  4,  1534, 
before  he  left  France.  In  the  latter  parish  he  preached 
sometimes,  but  never  administered  the  sacraments,  not  being 
ordained  to  the  priesthood.^ 

The  income  from  the  chaplaincy  enabled  him  to  prosecute 
his  studies  at  Paris,  together  with  his  noble  companions. 
He  entered  the  College  de  la  Marche  in  August,  1523,  in 
his  fourteenth  year.^     He  studied  grammar  and  rhetoric  with 

1  Beza  says :  "  Quo  loco  [Pons  Episcopi]  constat  Calvlnum,  antequam  Gallia 
excederet,  nullis  alioqui  pontijiciis  ordinibus  (unquam)  initiatum,  aliquot  ad  popu- 
lum  condones  habuisse."  Op.  XXI.  121.  "  Unquam"  is  omitted  in  the  text,  but 
added  in  the  notes.  The  French  biography  of  Colladon  reads :  "  En  laquelle 
cure  il  a  depuis  prescM  par  fois,  avans  qu'il  se  retirast  de  France."     Ibid.  54. 

2  This  is  the  date  given  by  Kampschulte  (I.  223),  Lefranc  (p.  14),  and 
others.  According  to  Opera,  XXI.  189,  Calvin  was  "  Corderii  discipulus  in 
Collegia  de  la  Marche  Lutetice"  in  the  year  1529 ;  but  in  that  year  he  was  a 
student  of  the  university.  There  is  some  confusion  in  the  dates  referring  to 
the  period  of  his  studies  in  Paris. 


302         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

au  experienced  and  famous  teacher,  Marthurin  Cordier  (Cor- 
datus).  He  learned  from  him  to  think  and  to  write  Latin, 
and  dedicated  to  him  in  grateful  memory  his  Commentary 
on  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Thessalonians  (1550).  Cordier 
became  afterwards  a  Protestant  and  director  of  the  College 
of  Geneva,  where  he  died  at  the  age  of  eighty-five  in  the 
same  year  with  Calvin  (1564)  .^ 

From  the  College  de  la  Marche  Calvin  was  transferred  to 
the  strictly  ecclesiastical  College  de  Montague,  in  which 
philosophy  and  theology  were  taught  under  the  direction  of 
a  learned  Spaniard.  In  February,  1528,  Ignatius  Loyola,  the 
founder  of  the  order  of  the  Jesuits,  entered  the  same  college 
and  studied  under  the  same  teacher.  The  leaders  of  the  two 
opposite  currents  in  the  religious  movement  of  the  sixteenth 
century  came  very  near  living  under  the  same  roof  and  sitting 
at  the  same  table. 

Calvin  showed  during  this  early  period  alread}^  the  promi- 
nent traits  of  his  character:  he  was  conscientious,  studious, 
silent,  retired,  animated  by  a  strict  sense  of  duty,  and  exceed- 
ingly religious.^  An  uncertain  tradition  says  that  his  fellow- 
students  called  him  "the  Accusative,"  on  account  of  his 
censoriousness.^ 

NOTES.      SLANDEROUS   REPORTS   ON   CALVIN'S   YOUTH. 

Thirteen  years  after  Calvin's  death,  Bolsec,  his  bitter  enemy,  once  a 
Romanist,  then  a  Protestant,  then  a   Romanist  again,  wrote  a  calumnious 

^  Cordier  was  called  "  lingme,  morum  vitceque  magister."  He  was  the  RoUin 
of  the  sixteenth  century.  He  wrote  Kudimenta  grammaticcB ;  le  miroir  de  la 
jeunesse ;  commetitaritts  puerorum,  etc.  See  Lefranc,  p.  62,  and  "Bulletin  de 
la  Soc.  de  I'liist.  du  Protest.  fran9ais,"  XVII.  449. 

2  Beza-CoUadon  (XXI.  54)  :  "  Quant  ii  scs  moews,  il  estoit  sur  tout  fort  con- 
sciencieu.r,  enneini  des  vices,  et  fort  adonne  au  seriHce  de  Dieu  qu'on  appeloit  pour 
lors :  tellement  que  son  caiur  tendoit  enlierevient  a  la  Theologie,  et  son  pere  preten- 
doit  de  I'l/  /aire  employer."  In  the  Latin  Vita,  Beza  says  that  he  was  "  tenera 
cetate  mirum  in  modum  religiosus."  With  this  agrees  the  testimony  of  the 
Roman  Catholic,  Florimond  de  Raemond,  previously  quoted,  p.  273. 

3  Le  Vasseur,  p.  1158.  Beza  gives  some  probability  to  this  report  by  the 
notice  that  Calvin  was  "severus  omnium  in  suis  sodalibus  censor." 


§  69.   Calvin's  youth  and  training.  303 

history  of  his  life  (Histoire  de  la  vie,  7nau7-s,  actes,  doctrine,  Constance,  et  mort  de 
Jean  Calvin,  Lyon,  1577,  republished  by  Louis-Frau9ois  Chastel,  Magistral, 
Lyon,  1875,  pp.  323,  with  an  introduction  of  xxxi.  pp.).  He  represents  Calvin 
as  "  a  man,  above  all  others  who  lived  in  the  world,  ambitious,  impudent, 
arrogant,  cruel,  malicious,  vindictive,  and  ignorant"  (!)  (p.  12). 

Among  other  incredible  stories  lie  reports  that  Calvin  in  his  youth  was 
stigmatized  (Jieur-de-lijse',  branded  with  the  national  flower  of  France)  at 
Noyon  in  punishment  of  a  heinous  crime,  and  then  fled  from  France  in 
disgrace.  "Calvin,"  he  says  (p.  28  sq.),  "pourveu  d'une  cure  et  d'une  chapelle. 
Jilt  surprins  oii  (et}  convaincu  du  peche  de  Sodomie,  pour  lequel  il  fut  en  danger  de 
mort  par  feu,  comment  est  la  commune  peine  de  tel  peche':  mais  que  I'Evesque  de 
laditte  ville  \_Noyon']  par  compassion  feit  moderer  laditte  peine  en  une  marque  de 
Jieur  de  lys  cliaude  sur  I'espaule.  Iceluy  Calvin  confuz  de  telle  vergongne  et  vitupere, 
se  dejit  de  ses  deux  benefices  es  mains  du  cure  de  Noyon,  duquel  ayant  receu  quelque 
somme  d'argent  s'en  alia  vers  Allemaigne  et  Itallie  :  cherchant  son  adventure,  et  passa 
par  la  ville  de  Ferrare,  ou  il  receut  quelque  aumone  de  Madame  la  Duchesse." 
Bolsec  gives  a,s  his  authority  a  Mr.  Bertelier,  secretary  of  the  Council  of 
Geneva,  who,  he  says,  was  sent  to  Noyon  to  make  inquiries  about  the  early 
life  of  Calvin,  and  saw  the  document  of  his  disgrace.  But  nobody  else  has 
seen  such  a  document,  and  if  it  had  existed  at  all,  it  would  have  been  used 
against  him  by  his  enemies.  The  story  is  contradicted  by  all  that  is  authen- 
tically known  of  Calvin,  and  has  been  abundantly  refuted  by  Drelincourt,  and 
recently  again  by  Lefranc  (p.  48  sqq.,  176-182).  Kampschulte  (I.  224,  note  2) 
declares  it  unworthy  of  serious  refutation.  Nevertheless  it  has  been  often 
repeated  by  Roman  controversialists  down  to  Audin. 

The  story  is  either  a  malignant  slander,  or  it  arose  from  confounding  the 
Reformer  with  a  younger  person  of  the  same  name  (Jean  Cauvin'),a.nA  chaplain 
of  the  same  church  at  Noyon,  wlio  it  appears  was  punished  for  some  immorality 
of  a  different  kind  ("pour  avoir  retenue  en  sa  maison  une  femme  du  mauvais  gou- 
vernement")  in  the  year  1550,  that  is,  about  twenty  years  later,  and  who  was 
no  heretic,  but  died  a  "  bon  Catholic  "  (as  Le  Vasseur  reports  in  Annales  de 
Noyon,  p.  1170,  quoted  by  Lefranc,  p.  182).  B.  C.  Galiffe,  who  is  unfriendly 
to  Calvin,  adopts  the  latter  suggestion  (Quelques  pages  d'histoire  exacte,  p.  118). 

Several  other  myths  were  circulated  about  the  Reformer ;  e.g.,  that  he  was 
the  son  of  a  concubine  of  a  priest ;  that  he  was  an  intemperate  eater ;  that  he 
stole  a  silver  goblet  at  Orleans,  etc.     See  Lefranc,  pp.  52  sqq. 

Similar  perversions  and  inventions  attach  to  many  a  great  name.  The 
Sanhedrin  who  crucified  the  Lord  circulated  the  story  that  the  disciples  stole 
his  body  and  cheated  the  world.  The  heretical  Ebionites  derived  the  conver- 
sion of  Paul  from  disappointed  ambition  and  revenge  for  an  alleged  offence 
of  the  high-priest,  who  had  refused  to  give  him  his  daughter  in  marriage. 
The  long-forgotten  myth  of  Luther's  suicide  has  been  seriously  revived  in 
our  own  age  (1890)  by  Roman  Catholic  priests  (Majunke  and  Honef)  in  the 
interest  of  revived  Ultramontanism,  and  is  believed  by  thousands  in  spite  of 
repeated  refutation. 


304         THE   RErOK]\LA.T10N   LN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

§  70.    Calvin  as  a  Student  in  the  French   Universities. 
A.D.  1528-1533. 

The  letters  of  Calvin  from  1530  to  1532,  chiefly  addressed  to  his  fellow- 
student,  Francois  Daniel  of  Orleans,  edited  by  Jules  Bonnet,  in  the 
Edinburgh  ed.  of  Calvin's  Letters,  I.  3  sqq. ;  Herminjard,  II.  278  sqq. ; 
Opera,  X.  Part  II.  3  sqq.  His  first  letter  to  Daniel  is  dated  "  Melliani, 
8  Idus  Septembr."  and  is  put  by  Herminjard  and  Reuss  in  the  year  1530 
(not  1529).  Mellianum  is  Meillant,  south  of  Bourges  (and  not  to  be  con- 
founded with  Meaux,  as  is  done  in  the  Edinburgh  edition). 

Comp.  Beza-Colladon,  in  Op.  XXI.  54  sqq.,  121  sqq.  L.  Bonnet:  Etudes 
sur  Calvin,  in  the  "  Revue  Chretienne"  for  1855.  —  Kampschulte,  I.  226- 
240;  M'Crie,  12-28;  Lefranc,  72-108. 

Calvin  received  the  best  education  —  in  the  humanities, 
law,  philosophy,  and  theology  —  which  France  at  that  time 
could  give.  He  studied  successively  in  the  three  leading 
universities  of  Orleans,  Bourges,  and  Paris,  from  1528  to 
1533,  first  for  the  priesthood,  then,  at  the  wish  of  his  father, 
for  the  legal  profession,  which  promised  a  more  prosperous 
career.  After  his  father's  death,  he  turned  again  with  double 
zeal  to  the  study  of  the  humanities,  and  at  last  to  theology. 

He  made  such  progress  in  learning  that  he  occasionally 
supplied  the  place  of  the  professors.  He  was  considered  a 
doctor  rather  than  an  auditor.^  Years  afterwards,  the  mem- 
ory of  his  prolonged  night  studies  survived  in  Orleans  and 
Bourges.  By  his  excessive  industry  he  stored  his  memory 
with  valuable  information,  but  undermined  his  health,  and 
became  a  victim  to  headache,  dyspepsia,  and  insomnia,  of 
which  he  suffered  more  or  less  during  his  subsequent  life.^ 

While  he  avoided  the  noisy  excitements  and  dissipations 
of   student  life,   he  devoted  his  leisure   to  the  duties   and 

^  "  Doctor  potiiis  quam  auditor,"  says  Beza,  who  studied  in  the  same  univer- 
sities a  few  years  later,  and  lodged  at  Orleans  in  the  house  or  pension  of 
Duchemin,  a  friend  of  Calvin. 

2  Beza  (XXI.  122)  :  "  Quibus  continuatis  vigiliis  ille  quidem  solidam  eruditio- 
nem  et  excellentissiman  memoriam  est  consequutus,  sed  etiam  vicissim,  ut  verisimile 
est,ventriculi  imbecillitatem  contraxit,qucE  varies  ipsi  morbos  et  tandem  etiam  intem- 
pestivam  mortem  attulit." 


§  70.    CALVIN   AS    A   STUDENT.  305 

enjoyments  of  friendship  with  like-minded  fellow-students. 
Among  them  were  three  young  lawyers,  Duchemin,  Connan, 
and  Francois  Daniel,  who  felt  the  need  of  a  reformation 
and  favored  progress,  but  remained  in  the  old  Church.  His 
letters  from  that  period  are  brief  and  terse;  they  reveal  a 
love  of  order  and  punctuality,  and  a  conscientious  regard 
for  little  as  well  as  great  things,  but  not  a  trace  of  opposition 
to  the  traditional  faith. 

His  principal  teacher  in  Greek  and  Hebrew  was  Melchior 
Volmar  (Wolmar),  a  German  humanist  of  Rottweil,  a  pupil 
of  Lefevre,  and  successively  professor  in  the  universities  of 
Orleans  and  Bourges,  and,  at  last,  at  Tiibingen,  where  he 
died  in  1561.  He  openly  sympathized  with  the  Lutheran 
Reformation,  and  may  have  exerted  some  influence  upon  his 
pupil  in  this  direction,  but  we  have  no  authentic  information 
about  it.^  Calvin  was  very  intimate  with  him,  and  could 
hardly  avoid  discussing  with  him  the  religious  question 
which  w^as  then  shaking  all  Europe.  In  grateful  remem- 
brance of  his  services  he  dedicated  to  him  his  Commen- 
tary on  the  Second  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  (Aug.  1» 
1546). 2 

His  teachers  in  law  were  the  two  greatest  jurists  of  the 
age,  Pierre  d'Estoile  (Petrus  Stella)  at  Orleans,  who  was 
conservative,  and  became  President  of  the  Parliament  of 
Paris,  and  Andrea  Alciati  at  Bourges,  a  native  of  Milan, 
who  was  progressive  and  continued  his  academic  career  in 
Bologna  and  Padua.  Calvin  took  an  interest  in  the  con- 
troversy of  these  rivals,  and  wrote  a  little  preface   to  the 

^  Floriraond  de  Raemond  (who  shows  a  tendency  to  discredit  the  French 
Reformation  bj'  tracing  it  to  a  foreign,  German  source)  asserts  that  Volmar 
first  instilled  the  poison  of  heresy  into  the  mind  of  Calvin,  and  advised  him 
to  exchange  the  Code  of  Justinian  for  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  But  Calvin  and 
Beza  {Op.  XXI.  122),  while  speaking  highly  of  Volmar  as  a  teacher  and 
friend,  say  nothing  about  his  religious  influence. 

2  Opera,  XII.  no.  814.  He  apologizes  for  his  long  silence.  The  corre- 
spondence with  Volmar  is  lost,  but  may  yet  be  found. 


306  THE    EEFOEMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Antapologia  of  his  friend,  Nicholas  Duchemin,  in  favor  of 
d'Estoile.^  He  acquired  the  degree  of  Licentiate  or  Bachelor 
of  Laws  at  Orleans,  Feb.  14,  1531  (1532)  .2  On  leaving  the 
university  he  was  offered  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws 
without  the  usual  fees,  by  the  unanimous  consent  of  the 
professors.^  He  was  consulted  about  the  divorce  question 
of  Henry  VIII.,  when  it  was  proposed  to  the  universities 
and  scholars  of  the  Continent ;  and  he  gave  his  opinion 
against  the  lawfulness  of  marriage  with  a  brother's  widow.^ 

The  study  of  jurisprudence  sharpened  his  judgment,  en- 
larged his  knowledge  of  human  nature,  and  was  of  great 
practical  benefit  to  him  in  the  organization  and  administra- 
tion of  the  Church  in  Geneva,  but  may  have  also  increased 
his  legalism  and  over-estimate  of  logical  demonstration. 

In  the  summer  of  1531,  after  a  visit  to  Noyon,  where  he 
attended  his  father  in  his  last  sickness,  Calvin  removed  a 
second  time  to  Paris,  accompanied  by  his  younger  brother, 
Antoine.  He  found  there  several  of  his  fellow-students  of 
Orleans  and  Bourges ;  one  of  them  offered  him  the  home 
of  his  parents,  but  he  declined,  and  took  up  his  abode  in  the 
College  Fortet,  where  we  find  him  again  in  1533.  A  part  of 
the  year  he  spent  in  Orleans. 

Left  master  of  his  fortune,  he  now  turned  his  attention 
again  chiefly  to  classical  studies.     He  attended  the  lectures 


1  March  6,  1531.     Herminjard,  II.  314  sq.  no.  328;  Lefranc,  79  sq. 

2  In  Op.  XXI.  190,  the  degree  is  dated  from  the  year  1532.  "Dans  un  act 
de  se  jour  \_Febr.  14'\  est  nomine  maistre  Jean  Cauvin  licencie'  es  lois."  In  a 
document  relating  to  the  settlement  of  the  estate  of  the  deceased  Gerard 
Cauvin,  which  Lefranc  (p.  202)  quotes  from  Le  Vasseur  {Annal.,  p.  1169), 
and  assigns  to  Feb.  14,  1531,  Calvin  is  mentioned  as  '^  licentie'  es  loix." 

3  "Absque  ullo  precio,  summo  docentium  omnium  consensu,"  says  Beza  (_0p. 
XXI.  122).  CoUadon  (f.  54)  adds  that  Calvin  refused  the  offer  ("ce  que 
toutesfois  il  refusa  ")  ;  but  it  is  not  clear  whether  he  meant  the  gratuity  or  the 
degree  itself,  probably  the  former. 

*  Gerdes,  IV.  201 ;  M'Crie,  63 ;  Dyer,  Life  of  Calvin,  p.  8.  Burnet,  in  his 
Hist,  of  the  Bef  of  the  Ch.  of  England  (Part  I.  Bk.  II.),  refers  to  a  letter  of 
Calvin  on  the  subject,  which  I  cannot  find  in  Herminjard. 


§  70.     CALVIN    AS    A    STUDENT.  307 

of  Pierre  Danes,  a  Hellenist  and  encyclop8eclic  scholar  of 
great  reputation.^ 

He  showed  as  yet  no  trace  of  opposition  to  the  Catholic 
Church.  His  correspondence  refers  to  matters  of  friendship 
and  business,  but  avoids  religious  questions.  When  Daniel 
asked  him  to  introduce  his  sister  to  the  superior  of  a  nun- 
nery in  Paris  which  she  wished  to  enter,  he  complied  with 
the  request,  and  made  no  effort  to  change  her  purpose.  He 
only  admonished  her  not  to  confide  in  her  own  strength,  but 
to  put  her  whole  trust  in  God.  This  shows,  at  least,  that 
he  had  lost  faith  in  the  meritoriousness  of  vows  and  good 
works,  and  was  approaching  the  heart  of  the  evangelical 
system.2 

He  associated  much  with  a  rich  and  worthy  merchant, 
Estienne  de  la  Forge,  who  afterwards  was  burned  for  the 
sake  of  the  Gospel  (1535). 

He  seems  to  have  occasionally  suffered  in  Paris  of  pecu- 
niary embarrassment.  The  income  from  his  benefices  was 
irregular,  and  he  had  to  pay  for  the  printing  of  his  first 
book.  At  the  close  of  1531  he  borrowed  two  crowns  from 
his  friend,  Duchemin.  He  expressed  a  hope  soon  to  dis- 
charge his  debt,  but  would  none  the  less  remain  a  debtor  in 
gratitude  for  the  services  of  friendship. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  even  those  of  his  friends  who 
refused  to  follow  him  in  his  religious  change,  remained  true 
to  him.  This  is  an  effective  refutation  of  the  charge  of  cold- 
ness so  often  made  against  him.  Francois  Daniel  of  Orleans 
renewed  the  correspondence  in  1559,  and  entrusted  to  him 

1  Lefranc  (p.  89)  calls  him  "I'tin  de.s  esprits  les  plus  profonds  et  les  plus 
pidssants  de  cetie  Renaissance  qui  compta  tant  de  ge'nies  universels,"  and  quotes 

the  distich :  — 

"  Magnus  Sudceus,  major  Danesms  ille, 
Argivos  norat,  iste  etiam  reliqtios." 

2  "Nolui  earn  deducere  a  sententia  .  .  .  sed  paucis  admonui,  ne  stiis  se  viribus 
efferret,  ne  quid  sibi  de  se  temere  promitteret,  sed  omnia  reponeret  in  Dei  virtnte,  in 
quo  sumus  et  vivimus."     Herminjard,  II.  347. 


308         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    S\VITZE11LAND. 

the  education  of  his  son  Pierre,  who  afterwards  became  an 
advocate  and  bailiff  of  Saint-Benoit  near  Orleans.^ 

§  71.    Calvin  as  a  Humanist.      Commentary  on  Seneca. 

"  L.  Annei  Se  \  necce,  Romani  Senato  |  ris,  ac  philosophi  clarissi  j  mi,  libri  duo  de 
Cleiiientia,  ad  Ne  \  ronem  Casarem :  |  Joannis  Caluini  iVouioduncei  commen- 
tariis  iUustrati  ...  |  Parisiis.  .  .  .  1532."  4°.  Eeprinted  1576,  1597, 
1612,  and,  from  the  ed.  princeps,  in  Opera,  vol.  V.  (1866)  pp.  5-162.  The 
commentary  is  preceded  by  a  dedicatory  epistle,  a  sketch  of  the  life  of 
Seneca. 

H.  Lecoultre  :  Calvin  d'apres  son  commentaire  sur  le  "  De  Clementia"  de 
Seneqiie  (1532).     Lausanne,  1891  (pp.  29). 

In  April,  1532,  Calvin,  in  his  twenty-third  year,  ventured 
before  the  public  with  his  first  work,  which  was  printed  at 
his  own  expense,  and  gave  ample  proof  of  his  literary  taste 
and  culture.  It  is  a  commentary  on  Seneca's  book  On 
Mercy.  He  announced  its  appearance  to  Daniel  with  the 
words,  "  Tandem  jaeta  est  alea.^^  He  sent  a  copy  to  Erasmus, 
who  had  published  the  works  of  Seneca  in  1515  and  1529. 
He  calls  him  "the  honor  and  delight  of  the  world  of  le1> 
ters."2  It  is  dedicated  to  Claude  de  Hangest,  his  former 
schoolmate  of  the  Mommor  family,  at  that  time  abbot  of 
St.  Eloy  (Eligius)  at  Noyon. 

This  book  moves  in  the  circle  of  classical  philology  and 
moral  philosophy,  and  reveals  a  characteristic  love  for  the 
best  type  of  Stoicism,  great  familiarity  with  Greek  and 
Roman  literature,^  masterly  Latinity,  rare   exegetical   skill, 

1  See  the  last  three  letters  of  Calvin  to  Daniel  (1559  and  1560)  in  Opera, 
Tol.  XVII.  584,  680,  and  XVIII.  16.  Lefranc  says  (p.  77)  :  "  Bien  de  touchant 
comme  cette  correspondance  ou  le  grave  r€formateur  viontre  una  indulgence  et  une 
souriante  bonhomie  qui  ne  lui  sont  pas  habitueUes.  .  .  .  Get  e'change  de  lettres 
T^vele  veritablement  un  Calvin  affectueux  et  de'licat  qu'on  a  trop  souvent  m^connu, 
sur  la  J'oi  des  Solsec  et  des  Audin."  There  is  a  German  monograph  on  Pierre 
Daniel  d' Orleans  by  Hagen  of  Bern,  translated  into  French  by  Paul  de  Felice, 
Orleans,  1876. 

2  "  Litterarum  alterum  decus  ac  primce  delicicv."  In  his  dedicatory  letter  to 
Claude  de  Hangest,  April  4, 1532,  which  is  also  printed  in  Herminjard,  II.  p.  411. 

^  He  freely  quotes  Aristotle,  Plutarch,  Virgil,  Livy,  Ovid,  Horace,  Pliny, 


§  72.   calvin's  conversion.  o09 

clear  and  sound  judgment,  and  a  keen  insight  into  the  evils 
of  despotism  and  the  defects  of  the  courts  of  justice,  but 
makes  no  allusion  to  Christianity.  It  is  remarkable  that 
his  first  book  was  a  commentary  on  a  moral  philosopher  who 
came  nearer  to  the  apostle  Paul  than  any  heathen  writer. 

It  is  purely  the  work  of  a  humanist,  not  of  an  apologist 
or  a  reformer.  There  is  no  evidence  that  it  was  intended  to 
be  an  indirect  plea  for  toleration  and  clemency  in  behalf  of 
the  persecuted  Protestants.  It  is  not  addressed  to  the  king 
of  France,  and  the  implied  comparison  of  Francis  with  Nero 
in  the  incidental  reference  to  the  Neronian  persecution  would 
have  defeated  such  a  purpose.^ 

Calvin,  like  Melanchthon  and  Zwingli,  started  as  a  hu- 
manist, and,  like  them,  made  the  linguistic  and  literary 
culture  of  the  Renaissance  tributary  to  the  Reformation. 
They  all  admired  Erasmus  until  he  opposed  the  Reformation, 
for  which  he  had  done  so  much  to  prepare  the  way.  They 
went  boldly  forward,  when  he  timidly  retreated.  They  loved 
religion  more  than  letters.  They  admired  the  heathen  classics, 
but  they  followed  the  apostles  and  evangelists  as  guides  to 
the  higher  wisdom  of  God. 

§  72.    Calvin^s  Conversion.     1532. 

Preface  to  his  Commentary  on  the  Psahns  (^Opera,  XXXI.  21,  22,  Latin  and 
French  in  parallel  columns),  and  his  Reply  to  Sadolet  {Opera,  V.  389). 
See  above,  p.  296. 

Henry,  I.  ch.  II.   Stahelin,  1. 16-28.   Kampschulte,  I.  230.   Lefranc,  96  sqq. 

A  brilliant  career  —  as  a  humanist,  or  a  lawyer,  or  a  church- 
man —  opened  before  Calvin,  when  he  suddenly  embraced  the 

Quintilian,  Curtius,  Macrobius,  Terence,  Diogenes  Laertius,  and  especially 
his  favorite  Cicero,  whom  he  was  for  some  time  in  the  habit  of  reading 
through  once  a  year.  Lecoultre  gives  in  an  appendix  a  list  of  the  works 
quoted  by  Calvin.  He  thinks  that  he  was  already  then  at  heart  a  Protestant. 
1  "  Quum  Nero  diris  suppliciis  impotenter  sceviret  in  Christidnos."  Op.  V.  10. 
Henry,  Herzog,  Dorner,  and  Guizot  assume  an  apologetic  aim ;  while  Stahelin 
and  Kampschulte  deny  it. 


310        THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

cause  of  the  Reformation,  and  cast  in  his  lot  with  a  poor 
persecuted  sect. 

Reformation  was  in  the  air.  The  educated  classes  could 
not  escape  its  influence.  The  seed  sown  by  Lefevre  had 
sprung  up  in  France.  The  influence  from  Germany  and 
Switzerland  made  itself  felt  more  and  more.  The  clergy 
opposed  the  new  opinions,  the  men  of  letters  favored  them. 
Even  the  court  was  divided :  King  Francis  I.  persecuted  the 
Protestants ;  his  sister.  Marguerite  d'Angouleme,  queen  of 
Navarre,  protected  them.  How  could  a  young  scholar  of 
such  precocious  mind  and  intense  studiousness  as  Calvin 
be  indifferent  to  the  religious  question  which  agitated  the 
universities  of  Orleans,  Bourges,  and  Paris  ?  He  must  have 
searched  the  Scriptures  long  and  carefully  before  he  could 
acquire  such  familiarity  as  he  shows  already  in  his  first 
theological  writings. 

He  speaks  of  his  conversion  as  a  sudden  one  (suhita  con- 
versio'),  but  this  does  not  exclude  previous  preparation  any 
more  than  in  the  case  of  Paul.^  A  city  may  be  taken  by  a 
single  assault,  yet  after  a  long  siege.  Calvin  was  not  an 
unbeliever,  nor  an  immoral  youth ;  on  the  contrary,  he  was  a 
devout  Catholic  of  unblemished  character.  His  conversion, 
therefore,  was  a  change  from  Romanism  to  Protestantism, 
from  papal  superstition  to  evangelical  faith,  from  scholastic 
traditionalism  to  biblical  simplicity.  He  mentions  no  human 
agency,  not  even  Volmar  or  Olivetan  or  Lefdvre.  "  God 
himself,"  he  says,  "  produced  the  change.  He  instantly  sub- 
dued my  heart  to  obedience."  Absolute  obedience  of  his 
intellect  to  the  word  of  God,  and  obedience  of  his  will  to  the 
will  of  God:  this  was  the  soul  of  his  religion.  He  strove  in 
vain  to  attain  peace  of  conscience  by  the  mechanical  methods 

1  "  Quum  superstitionibiis  papains  magis  pertinaciter  addictus  essem,  quam  ut 
facile  esset  e  tarn  profnndo  Into  me  extrahi,  animum  meum,  qui  pro  (etate  nimis 
obduruerat,  subita  ronversione  (^par  une  conversion  subite)  ad  docilitatem  subegit." 
Opera,  XXXI.  21.     Lefranc  (p.  40)  weakens  the  sense  of  this  decisive  passage. 


r 


§  72.    CALVIN'S    CONVERSION.  311 

of  Romanism,  and  was  driven  to  a  deeper  sense  of  sin  and 
guilt.  "Only  one  haven  of  salvation,"  he  says,  "is  left  open 
for  our  souls,  and  that  is  the  mercy  of  God  in  Christ.  We 
are  saved  by  grace  —  not  by  our  merits,  not  by  our  works." 
Reverence  for  the  Church  kept  him  back  for  some  time  till 
he  learned  to  distinguish  the  true,  invisible,  divine  essence  of 
the  Church  from  its  outward,  human  form  and  organization. 
Then  the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  like  a  bright  light  from 
heaven,  burst  upon  his  mind  with  such  force,  that  there  was 
nothing  left  for  him  but  to  obey  the  voice  from  heaven.  He 
consulted  not  with  flesh  and  blood,  and  burned  the  bridge 
behind  him. 

The  precise  time  and  place  and  circumstances  of  this  great 
change  are  not  accurately  known.  He  was  very  reticent 
about  himself.  It  probably  occurred  at  Orleans  or  Paris  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  year  1532.^  In  a  letter  of  October, 
1533,  to  Francis  Daniel,  he  first  speaks  of  the  Reformation 
in  Paris,  the  rage  of  the  Sorbonne,  and  the  satirical  comedy 
against  the  queen  of  Navarre.^  In  November  of  the  same 
year  he  publicly  attacked  the  Sorbonne.  In  a  familiar  letter 
to  Bucer  in  Strassburg,  which  is  dated  from  Noyon,  Sept.  4 
(probably  in  1534),  he  recommends  a  French  refugee,  falsely 
accused  of  holding  the  opinions  of  the  Anabaptists,  and  says, 
"  I  entreat  of  you,  master  Bucer,  if  my  prayers,  if  my  tears 
are  of  any  avail,  that  you  would  compassionate  and  help  him 
in  his  wretchedness.  The  poor  are  left  in  a  special  manner 
to  your  care ;  you  are  the  helper  of  the  orphan.  .  .  .  Most 
learned  Sir,  farewell ;  thine  from  my  heart."  ^ 

1  So  Kampschulte  (I.  242),  Lefranc  (p.  98,  "dmis  la  seconde  moiti^  de 
Vann€e  1532"),  and,  apparently,  also  the  Strassburg  editors,  vol.  XXI.  191. 
Beza  seems  to  date  the  conversion  further  back  (to  1528  or  1527)  and  traces 
it  to  the  influence  of  Olivetan,  and  so  also  Henry  and  Merle  d'Aubigne  (I.  535). 
Stahelin  (I.  21)  puts  it  forward  to  the  beginning  of  1533.  Calvin  spent  the 
greater  part  of  the  year  1532  to  1533  at  Orleans.    Op.  XXI.  191. 

2  Ep.  19  in  Op.  X.  Part  II.  27.  Bonnet,  I.  12.  Herniinjard,  III.  106. 
Lefranc,  109  sqq. 

3  "Tuns  ex  animo."  Op.  X.  Part  II.  24.     Bonnet,  Letters,  I.  9-11.     Hermin- 


312         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

There  never  was  a  change  of  conviction  purer  in  motive, 
more  radical  in  character,  more  fruitful  and  permanent  in 
result.  It  bears  a  striking  resemblance  to  that  still  greater 
event  near  Damascus,  which  transformed  a  fanatical  Pharisee 
into  an  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ.  And,  indeed,  Calvin  was 
not  unlike  St.  Paul  in  his  intellectual  and  moral  constitu- 
tion ;  and  the  apostle  of  sovereign  grace  and  evangelical 
freedom  had  not  a  more  sympathetic  expounder  than  Luther 
and  Calvin. 1 

Without  any  intention  or  effort  on  his  part,  Calvin  became 
the  head  of  the  evangelical  party  in  less  than  a  year  after 
his  conversion.  Seekers  of  the  truth  came  to  him  from  all 
directions.  He  tried  in  vain  to  escape  them.  Every  quiet 
retreat  was  turned  into  a  school.  He  comforted  and  strength- 
ened the  timid  brethren  in  their  secret  meetings  of  devotion. 
He  avoided  all  show  of  learning,  but,  as  the  old  Chronicle  of 
the  French  Reformed  Church  reports,  he  showed  such  depth 
of  knowledge  and  such  earnestness  of  speech  that  no  one 
could  hear  him  without  being  forcibly  impressed.  He  usually 
began  and  closed  his  exhortations  with  the  word  of  Paul, 
"If  God  is  for  us,  who  can  be  against  us?"  This  is  the 
keynote  of  his  theology  and  piety. 

He  remained  for  the  present  in  the  Catholic  Church.  His 
aim  was  to  reform  it  from  within  rather  than  from  without, 
until  circumstances  compelled  him  to  leave. 

jard,  III.  201,  locates  this  letter  in  1534,  which  is  more  likely  than  1532.  The 
letter  presupposes  a  previous  acquaintance  with  Bucer.  This  miglit  be  dated 
back  with  Kampschulte  (I.  231)  to  the  year  1528,  if  Calvin  were  that  un- 
named "  Noviodiinensis  juvenis  "  whom  Bucer,  in  a  letter  to  Farel,  dated  May  1, 
1528,  mentions  as  having  fled  from  persecution  at  Orleans  to  Strassburg  to 
study  Greek  and  Hebrew ;  but  Bucer  probably  referred  to  Pierre  Robert 
Olivetan,  who  was  likewise  from  Noyon,  and  a  relative  and  friend  of  Calvin, 
and  perhaps  brought  Calvin  into  contact  with  Bucer.  Herminjard,  II.  132 
(note  5),  conjectures  that  the  young  man  was  Froment.  But  Froment  was  a 
native  of  Dauphine,  not  of  Noyon.     Comp.  Op.  X.  Part  II.  1 ;  XXI.  191. 

1  Audin,  following  in  the  track  of  Bolsec,  traces  Calvin's  conversion  to 
wounded  ambition,  and  thereby  exposes,  as  Kampschulte  justly  observes 
(I.  242),  his  utter  ignorance  and  misconception  of  Calvin's  character,  whose 
only  ambition  was  to  serve  God. 


§  73.     CALVIN'S    CALL.  313 

§  73.    Calviris  Call. 

As  in  the  case  of  Paul,  Calvin's  call  to  his  life-work  coin- 
cided with  his  conversion,  and  he  proved  it  by  his  labors. 
''  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them." 

We  must  distinguish  between  an  ordinary  and  an  extraor- 
dinary call,  or  the  call  to  the  ministry  of  the  gospel,  and  the 
call  to  reform  the  Church.  The  ordinary  ministry  is  neces- 
sary for  the  being,  the  extraordinary  for  the  well-being,  of 
the  Church.  The  former  corresponds  to  the  priesthood  in 
the  Jewish  dispensation,  and  continues  in  unbroken  succes- 
sion ;  the  latter  resembles  the  mission  of  the  prophets,  and 
appears  sporadically  in  great  emergencies.  The  office  of  a 
reformer  comes  nearest  the  office  of  an  apostle.  There  are 
founders  of  the  Church  universal,  as  Peter  and  Paul ;  so 
there  are  founders  of  particular  churches,  as  Luther,  Zwingli, 
Calvin,  Knox,  Zinzendorf,  Wesley;  but  none  of  the  Reform- 
ers was  infallible. 

1.  All  the  Reformers  were  born,  baptized,  confirmed,  and 
educated  in  the  historic  Catholic  Church,  which  cast  them 
out;  as  the  Apostles  were  circumcised  and  trained  in  the 
Synagogue,  which  cast  them  out.  They  never  doubted  the 
validity  of  the  Catholic  ordinances,  and  rejected  the  idea  of 
re-baptism.  Distinguishing  between  the  divine  substance  and 
the  human  addition,  Calvin  said  of  his  baptism,  "  I  renounce 
the  chrism,  but  retain  the  baptism."  ^ 

The  Reformers  were  also  ordained  priests  in  the  Roman 
Church,  except  Melanchthon  and  Calvin,  —  the  greatest  theo- 
logians among  them.  A  remarkable  exception.  Melanchthon 
remained  a  layman  all  his  life ;  yet  his  authority  to  teach  is 
undoubted.     Calvin  became  a  regular  minister  ;  but  how  ? 

He  was,  as  we  have  seen,  intended  and  educated  for  the 
Roman  priesthood,  and  early  received  the  clerical  tonsure.^ 

1  "Je  renonce  le  cresme,  et  retient  jiion  Baptesme."    Colladon,  in  Op.  XXI.  53. 

2  The  value  of  the  tonsure  was  differently  estimated,  but  it  was  generally 


314         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

He  also  held  two  benefices,  and  preached  sometimes  in  Pont 
I'Eveque,  and  also  in  Lignieres,  a  little  town  near  Bourges, 
where  he  made  the  impression  that  "  he  preached  better  than 
the  monks."  ^ 

But  he  never  read  mass,  and  never  entered  the  higher 
orders,  properly  so  called. 

After  he  left  the  Roman  Church,  there  was  no  Evangelical 
bishop  in  France  to  ordain  him;  the  bishops,  so  far,  all  re- 
mained in  the  old  Church,  except  two  or  three  in  East  Prussia 
and  Sweden.  If  the  validity  of  the  Christian  ministry  de- 
pended on  an  unbroken  succession  of  diocesan  bishops,  which 
again  depends  on  historical  proof,  it  would  be  difficult  to 
defend  the  Reformation  and  to  resist  the  claims  of  Rome. 
But  the  Reformers  planted  themselves  on  the  promise  of 
Christ,  the  ever-present  head  of  the  Church,  who  is  equally 
near  to  his  people  in  any  age.  They  rejected  the  Roman 
Catholic  idea  of  ordination  as  a  divinely  instituted  sacra- 
ment, which  can  only  be  performed  by  bishops,  and  which 
confers  priestly  powers  of  offering  sacrifice  and  dispensing 
absolution.  They  taught  the  general  priesthood  of  believ- 
ers, and  fell  back  upon  the  internal  call  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
and  the  external  call  of  the  Christian  people.  Luther,  in 
his  earlier  writings,  lodged  the  power  of  the  keys  in  the  con- 
excluded  from  the  lower  orders.  Calvin  says  (Inst.  IV.  eh.  19,  §  22)  :  "  Some 
represent  the  clerical  tonsure  to  be  the  first  order  of  all,  and  episcopacy  the 
last;  others  exclude  the  tonsure,  and  place  the  archiepiscopal  office  among 
the  orders."  Pieter  the  Lombard  distinguishes  seven  orders,  corresponding  to 
the  seven  gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit  (Isa.  11  : 2,  3),  — beadles,  readers,  exorcists, 
acolytes,  subdeacons,  deacons,  priests.  He  regards  the  episcopate,  not  as  a 
separate  ordo,  but  only  as  a  dignity  with  four  grades,  —  patriarch,  archbishop, 
metropolitan,  bishop.  Several  schoolmen  and  canonists  reckon  eight  or  nine 
ordines,  including  bishops  and  archbishops.  The  Council  of  Trent  defined  the 
three  ordines  majores, — bishops,  priests  (presbyters),  and  deacons. 

1  CoUadon,  Op.  XXI.  55 :  "  II  prescha  (while  he  studied  at  Bourges)  quelque- 
fois  en  une  petite  ville  du  pays  de  Berry,  nomme'e  Lignieres,  et  eut  entree  en  la  maison 
du  seiqneur  du  lieu  qui  estoit  pour  tors:  lequel  .  .  .  disait  .  .  .  qu'il  lui  semhlait  que 
M.  Jean  Calvin  preshoit  mieux  que  les  moines."  His  preaching  at  Pont  I'Eveque 
is  mentioned  by  Colladon,  ibid.  fol.  54,  and  by  Beza,  fol.  121.    See  above,  p.  301. 


§  73.   Calvin's  call.  315 

gregation,  and  identified  ordination  with  vocation.  "Who- 
ever is  called,"  he  says,  "  is  ordained,  and  must  preach :  this 
is  our  Lord's  consecration  and  true  chrism."  He  even  con- 
secrated, by  a  bold  irregularity,  his  friend  Amsdorf  as  super- 
intendent of  Naumburg,  to  show  that  he  could  make  a  bishop 
as  well  as  the  pope,  and  could  do  it  without  the  use  of  con- 
secrated oil. 

Calvin  was  regularly  elected  pastor  and  teacher  of  theol- 
ogy at  Geneva  in  1536  by  the  presbyters  and  the  council, 
with  the  consent  of  the  whole  people.^ 

This  popular  election  \vas  a  revival  of  the  primitive  cus- 
tom. The  greatest  bishops  of  the  early  Church  —  such  as 
Cyprian,  Ambrose,  and  Augustin  —  were  elected  by  the  voice 
of  the  people,  which  they  obeyed  as  the  voice  of  God. 

We  are  not  informed  whether  Calvin  was  solemnly  intro- 
duced into  his  office  by  prayer  and  the  laying  on  of  the 
hands  of  presbyters  (such  as  Farel  and  Viret),  after  the 
apostolic  custom  (1  Tim.  4 :  14),  which  is  observed  in  the 
Reformed  Churches.  He  did  not  regard  ordination  as  abso- 
lutely indispensable,  but  as  a  venerable  rite  sanctioned  by 
the  practice  of  the  Apostles  which  has  the  force  of  a  pre- 
cept.^ He  even  ascribed  to  it  a  semi-sacramental  character. 
"  The  imposition  of  hands,"  he  says,  "  which  is  used  at  the 
introduction  of  the  true  presbyters  and  ministers  of  the 
Church  into  their  office,  I  have  no  objection  to  consider  as  a 
sacrament ;  for,  in  the  first  place,  that  sacrament  is  taken 
from  the  Scripture,  and,  in  the  next  place,  it  is  declared  by 
Paul  to  be  not  unnecessary  or  useless,  but  a  faithful  symbol 
of  spiritual  grace  (1  Tim.  4 :  14).  I  have  not  enumerated  it 
as  a  third  among  the  sacraments,  because  it  is  not  ordinary 

^  Beza,  Vita  C.  (XXI.  125  sq.)  :  "  Suffragiis  presbyter ii  et  magistratus,  acce- 
dente  plebis  consensu,  delectus  non  concionator  tantum  (hoc  autem  primum  recuse- 
rat),  sed  etiam  sacrarum  literarum  doctor,  quod  unum  admittehat,  est  designatus 
anno  Domini  MDXXXVI  mense  Augusta."  Comp.  CoUadon,  ibid.  fol.  58  sq. : 
"declare  Pasteur  et  Docteur  en  ceste  Eglise  \_de  Geneve']  avec  legitime  election  et 
approbation."  -  Inst.  IV.  ch.  III.  §  16. 


316         THE   REFOEMATION    IN    FKENCH    SWITZEKLAND. 

or  common  to  all  the  faithful,  but  a  special  rite  for  a  particu- 
lar office.  The  ascription  of  this  honor  to  the  Christian 
ministry,  however,  furnishes  no  reason  of  pride  in  Roman 
priests ;  for  Christ  has  commanded  the  ordination  of  minis- 
ters to  dispense  his  Gospel  and  his  mysteries,  not  the  inaugu- 
ration of  priests  to  offer  sacrifices.  He  has  commissioned 
them  to  preach  the  Gospel  and  to  feed  his  flock,  and  not  to 
immolate  victims."  ^ 

The  evangelical  ministry  in  the  non-episcopal  Churches 
was  of  necessity  presbyterial,  that  is,  descended  from  the 
presbyterate,  which  was  originally  identical  with  the  episco- 
pate. Even  the  Church  of  England,  during  her  formative 
period  under  the  reigns  of  Edward  VI.  and  Elizabeth,  recog- 
nized the  validity  of  presbyterial  ordination,  not  only  in  the 
Lutheran  and  Reformed  Churches  of  the  Continent,  but 
within  her  own  jurisdiction,  as  in  the  cases  of  Peter  Martyr, 
professor  of  theology  at  Oxford ;  Bucer,  Fagius,  and  Cart- 
wright,  professors  at  Cambridge  ;  John  a  Lasco,  pastor  in 
London ;  Dean  Whittingham  of  Durham,  and  many  others.^ 

2.  But  whence  did  Calvin  and  the  other  Reformers  derive 
their  authority  to  reform  the  old  Catholic  Church  and  to 
found  new  Churches  ?  Here  we  must  resort  to  a  special 
divine  call  and  outfit.  The  Reformers  belong  not  to  the 
regular  order  of  priests,  but  to  the  irregular  order  of  proph- 
ets whom  God  calls  directly  by  his  Spirit  from  the  plough 
or  the  shepherd's  staff  or  the  workshop  or  the  study.  So  he 
raises  and  endows  men  with  rare  genius  for  poetry  or  art  or 
science  or  invention  or  discovery.  All  good  gifts  come  from 
God;  but  the  gift  of  genius  is  exceptional,  and  cannot  be 
derived  or  propagated  by  ordinary  descent.  There  are  divine 
irregularities  as  well  as  divine  regularities.     God  writes  on  a 

1  Institutes,  IV.  oh.  XIX.  §  28.     (In  Tholuck's  ed.  II.  470.) 
■•^  Keble  says  in  his  Introduction  to  Hooker's  Ecclesiastical  Polity :  "  Nearly 
up  to  the  time  when  Hooker  wrote  (1594),  numbers  had  been  admitted  to  the 
ministry  of  the  Church  of  England  with  no  better  than  presbyterial  ordination." 


§  74.    THE   OPEN    RUPTURE.  317 

crooked  as  well  as  on  a  straight  line.  Even  Paul  was  called 
out  of  due  time,  and  did  not  seek  ordination  from  Peter  or  any 
other  apostle,  but  derived  his  authority  directly  from  Christ, 
and  proved  his  ministry  by  the  abundance  of  his  labors. 

In  the  apostolic  age  there  were  apostles,  prophets,  and 
evangelists  for  the  Church  at  large,  and  presbyter-bishops 
and  deacons  for  particular  congregations.  The  former  are 
considered  extraordinary  officers.  But  their  race  is  not  yet 
extinct,  any  more  than  the  race  of  men  of  genius  in  any  other 
sphere  of  life.  They  arise  whenever  and  wherever  they  are 
needed. 

We  are  bound  to  the  ordinary  means  of  grace,  but  God 
is  free,  and  his  Spirit  works  when,  where,  and  how  he 
pleases.  God  calls  ordinary  men  for  ordinary  work  in  the 
ordinary  way ;  and  he  calls  extraordinary  men  for  extraordi- 
nary work  in  an  extraordinary  way.  He  has  done  so  in  times 
past,  and  will  do  so  to  the  end  of  time.^ 

Hooker,  the  most  "  judicious  "  of  Anglican  divines,  says  : 
"  Though  thousands  were  debtors  to  Calvin,  as  touching 
divine  knowledge,  yet  he  was  to  none,  only  to  God." 

§  74.    The  Open  Rupture.     An  Academic  Oration.     1533. 

Calv.   opera,  X.  P.  I.  30 ;  XXI.  123,  129,  192.     A  very  graphic  account  by- 
Merle  d'Aubigne',  Bk.  II.  ch.  xxx.  (vol.  II.  264-284). 

For  a  little  while  matters  seemed  to  take  a  favorable  turn 
at  the  court  for  reform.  The  reactionary  conduct  of  the 
Sorbonne  and  the  insult  offered  to  Queen  Marguerite  by  the 
condemnation  of  her  "Mirror  of  a  Sinful  Soul," — a  tender 
and  monotonous  mystic  reverie,^  —  offended  her  brother  and 

1  Our  own  age  is  witness  to  this  fact.  I  may  refer  to  Dwight  Lyman 
Moody,  who  is  a  plain,  unordained  layman,  but  a  genuine,  God-taught  evan- 
gelist. He  has  probably  converted  more  people  to  a  Christian  life  than  any 
clergyman  or  learned  professor  of  theology  of  this  age,  and  has  made  his  home 
at  Northfield  a  Jerusalem  for  Bible  students  from  all  parts  of  the  country, 
and  even  from  across  the  sea. 

2  Le  miroir  de  Vdme  p^cheresse  (1533).     The  book  was  condemned  on  purely 


318         THE   KEFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

the  liberal  members  of  the  University.  Several  preachers 
who  sympathized  with  a  moderate  reformation,  Gerard  Rous- 
sel,  and  the  Augustinians,  Bertault  and  Courault,  were  per- 
mitted to  ascend  the  pulpit  in  Paris. ^  The  king  himself,  by 
his  opposition  to  the  German  emperor,  and  his  friendship  with 
Henry  VIII.,  incurred  the  suspicion  of  aiding  the  cause  of 
heresy  and  schism.  He  tried,  from  political  motives  and 
regard  for  his  sister,  to  conciliate  between  the  conservative 
and  progressive  parties.  He  even  authorized  the  invitation 
of  Melanchthon  to  Paris  as  counsellor,  but  Melanchthon 
Avisely  declined. 

Nicolas  Cop,  the  son  of  a  distinguished  royal  physician 
(William  Cop  of  Basel),  and  a  friend  of  Calvin,  was  elected 
Rector  of  the  University,  Oct.  10,  1533,  and  delivered  the 
usual  inaugural  oration  on  All  Saint's  Day,  Nov.  1,  before  a 
large  assembly  in  the  Church  of  the  Mathurins.^ 

This  oration,  at  the  request  of  the  new  Rector,  had  been 
prepared  by  Calvin.  It  was  a  plea  for  a  reformation  on  the 
basis  of  the  New  Testament,  and  a  bold  attack  on  the  schol- 
astic theologians  of  the  day,  who  were  represented  as  a  set  of 
sophists,  ignorant  of  the  Gospel.  "  They  teach  nothing," 
says  Calvin,  "  of  faith,  nothing  of  the  love  of  God,  nothing  of 
the  remission  of  sins,  nothing  of  grace,  nothing  of  justifica- 
tion ;  or  if  they  do  so,  they  pervert  and  undermine  it  all  by 
their  laws  and  sophistries.  I  beg  you,  who  are  here  present, 
not  to  tolerate  any  longer  these  heresies  and  abuses."  ^ 

negative  evidence.  The  silence  about  purgatory  and  the  intercession  of  saints 
was  construed  as  a  denial. 

1  Elie  Courault  (Coraud,  Couraud,  Coraldus)  afterwards  fled  to  Basel  in 
1534,  and  became  a  colleague  of  Farel  and  Calvin  at  Geneva  in  1536.  See 
Herminjard,  IV.  114,  note  9. 

2  Bulasus,  Historia  Universitatis  Parisiensis,  VI.  238,  and  in  the  "  Catalogus 
illustrium  Academicorum  Univ.  Parisiensis  "  at  the  end  of  the  same  volume.  A 
notice  of  Cop  in  Herminjard,  III.  129  sq.  note  3. 

3  The  incomplete  draft  of  this  address  has  been  discovered  by  J.  Bonnet 
among  the  MSS.  of  the  Geneva  Library,  and  the  whole  of  it  by  Reuss  and 
Cunitz  in  the  library  of  St.  Thomas  in  Strassburg.     It  is  printed  in  Opera, 


§  75.     PERSECUTION   OF   THE   PROTESTANTS   IN   PARIS.      319 

The  Sorbonne  and  the  Parliament  regarded  this  academic 
oration  as  a  manifesto  of  war  upon  the  Catholic  Church,  and 
condemned  it  to  the  flames.  Cop  was  warned  and  fled  to  his 
relatives  in  Basel. ^  Calvin,  the  real  author  of  the  mischief, 
is  said  to  have  descended  from  a  window  by  means  of  sheets, 
and  escaped  from  Paris  in  the  garb  of  a  vine-dresser  with  a 
hoe  upon  his  shoulder.  His  rooms  were  searched  and  his 
books  and  papers  were  seized  by  the  police.^ 

§  75.    Persecution  of  the  Protestants  in  Paris.     1534. 

Beza  in  Vita  Calv.,  vol.  XXI.  124.  —  Jean  Crespin:  Livi-e  des  Martyrs,  Geneve, 
1570.  —  The  report  of  the  Bourgeois  de  Paris.  —  Gerdesius,  IV.  Mon.  11. — 
Henry,  I.  74;  II.  333.  — Dyer,  I.  29.  — Polenz,  I.  282.  — Kampschdlte, 
I.  243.  — "Bulletin  de  la  Soc.  de  I'hist.  du  Prot.  fran9.,"  X.  34;  XI.  253. 

This  storm  might  have  blown  over  without  doing  much 
harm.  But  in  the  following  year  the  reaction  was  greatly 
strengthened  by  the  famous  placards,  which  gave  it  the  name 
of  "  the  year  of  placards."  An  over-zealous,  fanatical  Protes- 
tant by  the  name  of  Feret,  a  servant  of  the  king's  apothecary, 
placarded  a  tract  "  on  the  horrible,  great,  intolerable  abuses 
of  the  popish  mass,"  throughout  Paris  and  even  at  the  door 
of  the  royal  chamber  at  Fontainebleau,  where  the  king  was 
then  residing,  in  the  night  of  Oct.  18,  1534.  In  this  placard 
the  mass  is  described  as  a  blasphemous  denial  of  the  one  and 
all-sufficient  sacrifice  of  Christ;  while  the  pope,  with  all  his 
brood  (toute   sa  vermine^  of  cardinals,  bishops,  priests,  and 

X.  Pars  II.  30-36  (and  the  shorter  draft,  IX.  873-876).  Comp.  Herminjard, 
III.  117,  note,  and  418  sqq. 

1  Three  hundred  crowns  were  offered  for  his  capture  dead  or  alive.  So 
Bucer  wrote  to  Blaurer,  Jan.  13,  1534,  in  Herminjard,  III.  130.  Cop  informed 
Bucer,  April  5,  1534,  that  a  German  was  burned  in  Paris,  for  denying  transub- 
stantiation.     Ibid.  III.  159. 

'  According  to  Beza  (XXI.  123),  Queen  Marguerite  protected  Calvin  and 
honorably  received  him  at  the  court ;  but  he  certainly  left  Paris  very  soon. 
CoUadon  says  nothing  of  an  interference  of  Marguerite.  The  story  of  the 
escape  of  Calvin  is  told  by  Papyrius  Masson,  and  Desmay.  See  M'Crie,  p. 
100,  note  59.    It  has  been  compared  to  Paul's  escape  at  Damascus,  Acts  9:25. 


320         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

monks,  are  denounced  as  hypocrites  and  servants  of  Anti- 
christ.i 

All  moderate  Protestants  deplored  this  untimely  outburst 
of  radicalism.  It  retarded  and  almost  ruined  the  prospects 
of  the  Reformation  in  France.  The  best  cause  may  be 
undone  by  being  overdone. 

The  king  was  highly  and  justly  incensed,  and  ordered  the 
imprisonment  of  all  suspected  persons.  The  prisons  were 
soon  filled.  To  purge  the  city  from  the  defilement  caused  by 
this  insult  to  the  holy  mass  and  the  hierarchy,  a  most  impos- 
ing procession  was  held  from  the  Louvre  to  Notre  Dame,  on 
Jan.  29,  1535.  The  image  of  St.  Genevieve,  the  patroness  of 
Paris,  was  carried  through  the  streets :  the  archbishop,  with 
the  host  under  a  magnificent  dais,  and  the  king  with  his  three 
sons,  bare-headed,  on  foot,  a  burning  taper  in  their  hands, 
headed  the  procession,  and  were  followed  by  the  princes,  car- 
dinals, bishops,  priests,  ambassadors,  and  the  great  officers 
of  the  State  and  of  the  University,  walking  two  and  two 
abreast,  in  profound  silence,  with  lighted  torches.  Solemn 
mass  was  performed  in  the  cathedral.  Then  the  king  dined 
with  the  prelates  and  dignitaries,  and  declared  that  he  would 
not  hesitate  to  behead  any  one  of  his  own  children  if  found 
guilty  of  these  new,  accursed  heresies,  and  to  offer  them  as  a 
sacrifice  to  divine  justice. 

The  gorgeous  solemnities  of  the  day  wound  up  with  a  hor- 
rible autodafe  of  six  Protestants :  they  were  suspended  by  a 
rope  to  a  machine,  let  down  into  burning  flames,  again  drawn 
up,  and  at  last  precipitated  into  the  fire.      Thej'^  died  like 

1  They  are  indiscriminately  called  "faux  prophetes,  damnables  trompeurs, 
apostats,  loups,faux  pasteurs,  menteurs,  blasphe'mateurs,  meurtriers  des  arnes,  renon- 
ceurs  de  Jesus  Chi-ist,  ravisseurs  de  I'honneur  de  Dieu,  et  plus  de'testables  que  les 
diables."  Farel,  then  in  Switzerland,  was  suspected  of  having  some  share  in 
this  incendiary  publication,  but  witliout  any  evidence.  Courault,  who  was 
then  in  confinement,  advised  not  to  publish  the  paper,  "as  it  would  excite 
great  commotion  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  and  bring  odium  on  the  whole 
body  of  the  faithful."     Hist.  Martyr.,  fol.  64,  quoted  by  M'Crie,  p.  102. 


§  75.     PERSECUTION   OF   THE   PEOTESTANTS   IN   PARIS.      321 

heroes.  The  more  educated  among  them  had  their  tongues 
slit.  Twenty-four  innocent  Protestants  were  burned  alive  in 
public  places  of  the  city  from  Nov.  10, 1534,  till  May  5,  1536. 
Among  them  was  Etienne  de  la  Forge  (Stephanus  Forgeus), 
an  intimate  friend  of  Calvin.  Many  more  were  fined,  impris- 
oned, and  tortured,  and  a  considerable  number,  among  them 
Calvin  and  Du  Tillet,  fled  to  Strassburg.i 

These  cruelties  were  justified  or  excused  by  charges  of 
heresy,  immorality,  and  disloyalty,  and  by  a  reference  to  the 
excesses  of  a  fanatical  wing  of  the  Anabaptists  in  Miinster, 
which  took  place  in  the  same  year.^  But  the  Huguenots 
were  then,  as  their  descendants  have  always  been,  and  are 
now,  among  the  most  intelligent,  moral,  and  orderly  citizens 
of  France.^ 

The  Sorbonne  urged  the  king  to  put  a  stop  to  the  printing- 
press  (Jan.  13, 1535).  He  agreed  to  a  temporary  suspension 
(Feb.  26).  Afterwards  censors  were  appointed,  first  by  Par- 
liament, then  b}^  the  clerg}^  (1542).  The  press  stimulated 
free  thought  and  was  stimulated  by  it  in  turn.  Before  1500, 
four  millions  of  volumes  (mostly  in  folio)  were  printed ;  from 
1500  to  1536,  seventeen  millions ;  after  that  time  the  number 

1  Beza  (XXI.  124)  gives  a  brief  account  of  the  persecution :  "  Eousque 
injiammata  fascinati  Francisci  Regis  ira  oh  schedas  quasdam  adversus  viissam  per 
urhem  sparsas  ipsiusque  regii  cubiculi  foribus  adjixas,  ut  puhlica  decreta  supplica- 
tione,  cui  una  cum  liberis  sids  tribus  nudo  capite  ardentem  facem  quasi  erpiationis 
causa  gestans  interfuit,  quatuor  urbis  celebrioribus  locis  octonos  martijres  vivos  ustu- 
lari  juberet,  atque  adeo  solemni  jure  jurando  testaretur,  se  ne  liberis  quidem  suis 
parsurum,  si  forte  teterrimis  illis,  ut  vocabat,  hveresibus  essent  infecti."  The  Prot- 
estant reports  are  verified  by  that  of  a  Roman  Catholic,  "Bourgeois  de  Paris," 
who  witnessed  the  burnings  with  satisfaction,  as  a  spectacle  well  pleasing  to 
God,  and  mentions  the  dates  and  places  of  execution  (namely,  Nov.  10,  1534, 
Nov.  18,  Nov.  19,  Dec.  4 ;  Jan.  21,  1535,  Jan.  22,  Feb.  16,  19,  26,  March  3, 
May  5),  as  well  as  the  occupations  of  the  victims,  most  of  whom  were  work- 
ingmen,  one  a  rich  merchant.  This  report  was  published  in  1854  and  is 
reprinted  in  Michelet's  Histoire  de  France  (vol.  X.  340  sq.). 

-  "  Pour  excuser  envers  les  princes  proteslants  les  persecutions  qiC on  faisait  contre 
I'Evangile."   Colladon  (XXI.  57). 

^  Michelet  (X.  339)  says  :  "  Rien  de  plus  saint,  de  phis  pur,  que  les  origines  du 
protestantisme  fran^ais.     Rien  de  plus  doign€  de  la  sanglante  orgie  de  Munster." 


322         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

is  beyond  calculation.^  The  printing-press  is  as  necessary  for 
liberty  as  respiration  for  health.  Some  air  is  good,  some  bad ; 
but  whether  good  or  bad,  it  is  the  condition  of  life. 

This  persecution  was  the  immediate  occasion  of  Calvin's 
Institutes^  and  the  forerunner  of  a  series  of  persecutions  which 
culminated  under  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.,  and  have  made 
the  Reformed  Church  of  France  a  Church  of  martyrs. 

§  76.    Calvin  as  a  Wandering  Evangelist.     1533-1536. 

For  nearly  three  years  Calvin  wandered  as  a  fugitive  evan- 
gelist under  assumed  names  ^  from  place  to  place  in  Southern 
France,  Switzerland,  Italy,  till  he  reached  Geneva  as  his  final 
destination.  It  is  impossible  accurately  to  determine  all  the 
facts  and  dates  in  this  period. 

He  resigned  his  ecclesiastical  benefices  at  Noyon  and  Pont 
I'Eveque,  May  4,  1534,  and  thus  closed  all  connection  with 
the  Roman  Church.^  That  year  was  remarkable  for  the 
founding  of  the  order  of  the  Jesuits  at  Montmartre  (Aug. 
15),  which  took  the  lead  in  the  Counter-Reformation ;  by  the 
■election  of  Pope  Paul  III.  (Alexander  Farnese,  Oct.  13), 
v*rho  confirmed  the  order,  excommunicated  Henry  VIII.,  and 
established  the  Inquisition  in  Italy ;  and  by  the  bloody  perse- 
cution of  the  Protestants  in  Paris,  which  has  been  described 
in  the  preceding  section.^ 

The  Roman  Counter-Reformation  now  began  in  earnest, 
and  called  for  a  consolidation  of  the  Protestant  forces. 

Calvin  spent  the  greater  part  of  the  year  1533  to  1534, 
under  the  protection  of  Queen  Marguerite  of  Navarre,  in  her 

1  Michelet,  I.e.  342  sq. 

2  Such  as  Charles  d'Espeville,  Martianus  Lucanius,  Carolus  Passelius, 
Alcuin,  Deper^an,  Calpurnius.  There  is  a  monograph  on  these  assumed 
names,  Diatribe  de  Pseudonymia  Calvini,  bj  Liebe,  Amsterdam,  1723,  which 
includes  several  letters  of  importance.     So  says  Kampschulte,  I.  245. 

3  Le  Vasseur,  1161.     Herminjard,  V.  104.     Op.  XXI.  193. 

*  Beza  calls  the  year  1534  "korrenda  in  multos  pios  scevitia  insignis"  (Calv. 
X)p.  XXI.  124). 


§  76.     CALVIN   AS   A    WANDERING   EVANGELIST.      323 

native  city  of  Angouleme.  This  highly  gifted  lady  (1492- 
1549),  the  sister  of  Kiug  Francis  I.,  grandmother  of  Henry 
IV.,  and  a  voluminous  writer  in  verse  and  prose,  was  a  strange 
mixture  of  piety  and  liberalism,  of  idealism  and  sensualism. 
She  patronized  both  the  Reformation  and  the  Renaissance, 
Calvin  and  Rabelais ;  she  wrote  the  Mirror  of  a  Sinful  Soul, 
and  also  the  Heptameron  in  professed  imitation  of  Boccaccio's 
Decamerone  ;  yet  she  was  pure,  and  began  and  closed  the  day 
with  religious  meditation  and  devotion.  After  the  death  of 
her  royal  brother  (1547),  she  retired  to  a  convent  as  abbess, 
and  declared  on  her  death-bed  that,  after  receiving  extreme 
unction,  she  had  protected  the  Reformers  out  of  pure  com- 
passion, and  not  from  any  wish  to  depart  from  the  faith  of 
her  ancestors.^ 

Calvin  lived  at  Angouleme  with  a  wealthy  friend,  Louis  du 
Tillet,  who  was  canon  of  the  cathedral  and  cur^  of  Claix,  and 
had  acquired  on  his  journeys  a  rare  library  of  three  or  four 
thousand  volumes.^  He  taught  him  Greek,  and  prosecuted 
his  theological  studies.  He  associated  wdth  honorable  men 
of  letters,  and  was  highly  esteemed  by  them.^  He  began 
there  the  preparation  of  his  Institutes.^  He  also  aided  Olive- 
tan  in  the  revision  and  completion  of  the  French  translation 
of  the  Bible,  which  appeared  at  Neuchatel  in  June,  1535, 
with  a  preface  of  Calvin.^ 

1  Dyer  {Life  of  Calvin,  p.  18)  says  of  her .  "  Plato's  divine  and  earthly.love 
never  met  more  conspicuously  in  a  human  being,"  and  quotes  the  remark  of  M. 
Genin,  the  editor  of  her  correspondence  :  "  Le  trait  saiUant  du  caractere  de  Mar- 
guerite c'est  d' avoir  allietoute  sa  vie  les  ide'es  religieuses  et  les  id^es  d'amour  mondain." 

2  Ep.  20,  Op.  X.  Pt.  I.  37.  Florimond  de  Rsemond  (p.  883)  extends  Calvin's 
sojourn  at  Angouleme  to  three  years,  which  is  evidently  an  error. 

3  Florimond  de  Efemond  :  "  //  estoit  en  bonne  estime'  et  re'putation,  aim€  de  tons 
ceux  qui  aimoient  les  lettres." 

*  According  to  the  same  Roman  Catholic  historian. 

5  Ep.  29  in  Op.  X.  Pars  I.  51 ;  the  preface  in  vol.  IX.  787-790.  Beza  (fol- 
lowed by  Stahelin,  t.  88)  makes  him  take  part  also  in  the  first  edition,  which 
appeared  in  1534,  and  contained  only  the  New  Testamenc.  But  this  seems  to 
be  an  error.  See  Reuss,  "  Revue  de  Theologie,"  1866,  No.  III.  318,  and  Kamp- 
schulte,  I.  247 ;  also  Herminjard,  III.  349,  note  8. 


324         THE   REFORMATION   IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

From  Angouleme  Calvin  made  excursions  to  Nerac,  Poi- 
tiers, Orleans,  and  Paris.  At  N^rac  in  Beam,  the  little  capi- 
tal of  Queen  Marguerite,  he  became  personally  acquainted 
with  Le  Fevre  d'Etaples  (Faber  Stapulensis),  the  octogena- 
rian patriarch  of  French  Humanism  and  Protestantism.  Le 
F^vre,  with  prophetic  vision,  recognized  in  the  young  scholar 
the  future  restorer  of  the  Church  of  France.^  Perhaps  he 
also  suggested  to  him  to  take  Melanchthon  for  his  model.^ 
Roussel,  the  chaplain  and  confessor  of  Marguerite,  advised 
him  to  purify  the  house  of  God,  but  not  to  destroy  it. 

At  Poitiers,  Calvin  gained  several  eminent  persons  for  the 
Reformation.  According  to  an  uncertain  tradition  he  cele- 
brated with  a  few  friends,  for  the  first  time,  the  Lord's  Supper 
after  the  Reformed  fashion,  in  a  cave  (^grotte  de  Croutelles) 
near  the  town,  which  long  afterwards  was  called  "  Calvin's 
Cave."  3 

Towards  the  close  of  the  year  1534,  he  ventured  on  a  visit 
to  Paris.  There  he  met,  for  the  first  time,  the  vSpanish  physi- 
cian, Michael  Servetus,  who  had  recently  published  his  hereti- 
cal book  On  the  Errors  of  the  Trinity^  and  challenged  him  to 
a  disputation.  Calvin  accepted  the  challenge  at  the  risk  of 
his  safety,  and  waited  for  him  in  a  house  in  the  Rue  Saint 
Antoine ;  but  Servetus  did  not  appear.  Twenty  years  after- 
wards he  reminded  Servetus  of  this  interview :  "  You  know 
that  at  that  time  I  was  ready  to  do  everything  for  you,  and 
did  not  even  count  my  life  too  dear  that  I  might  convert  you 
from  your  errors."  Would  that  he  had  succeeded  at  that 
time,  or  never  seen  the  unfortunate  heretic  again. 

^  Beza  (XXI.  123)  :  "  Excepit  juvenem  [ Calvinum']  bonus  senex  et  libenter  vidit, 
futurum  augurans  insigne  coclestis  in  Gallia  instaurandi  regni  instriimentum." 

2  According  to  Florimond  de  Ksemond. 

8  Bayle,  Art.  Calvin  and  La  Place.  Crottet,  Petite  Chronique  Protestants 
de  France,  96  sqq.    Stahelin,  1. 32.    Lefranc,  120.    Herminjard,  III.  202,  note  4. 


§  78.    CALVIN    AT    BASEL.  3-25 

§  77.    The  Sleep  of  the  Soul.     1534. 

Psychopannychia.  Aureliie,  1534 ;  2d  and  revised  ed.  Basel,  1536 ;  3d  ed.  Strass- 
burg,  1542;  French  trans.  Paris,  1558;  republished  in  Opera,  vol.  V.  165- 
232.  —  Conip.  the  analysis  of  Stahelin,  L  36-40,  and  La  Fiance  Prot.  III. 
549.     English  translation  in  Calvin's  Tracts,  III.  413-490. 

Before  Calvin  left  France,  he  wrote,  at  Orleans,  1534,  his 
first  theological  book,  entitled  Psychopannychia,  or  the  Sleep 
of  the  Soul.  He  refutes  in  it  the  hypothesis  entertained  by 
some  Anabaptists,  of  the  sleep  of  the  soul  between  death  and 
resurrection,  and  proves  the  unbroken  and  conscious  com- 
munion of  believers  with  Christ,  their  living  Head.  He 
appeals  no  more  to  philosophy  and  the  classics,  as  in  his  ear- 
lier book  on  Seneca,  but  solely  to  the  Scriptures,  as  the  only 
rule  of  faith.  Reason  can  give  us  no  light  on  the  future 
world,  which  lies  beyond  our  experience. 

He  wished  to  protect,  by  this  book,  the  evangelical  Protes- 
tants against  the  charge  of  heresy  and  vagary.  They  were 
often  confounded  with  the  Anabaptists  who  roused  in  the 
same  year  the  wrath  of  all  the  German  princes  by  the  excesses 
of  a  radical  and  fanatical  faction  at  Miinster. 

§  78.    Calvin  at  Basel.     1535  to  1536. 

The  outbreak  of  the  bloody  persecution,  in  October,  1534, 
induced  Calvin  to  leave  his  native  land  and  to  seek  safety  in 
free  Switzerland.  He  was  accompanied  by  his  friend  and 
pupil,  Louis  du  Tillet,  who  followed  him  as  far  as  Geneva, 
and  remained  with  him  till  the  end  of  August,  1537,  when 
he  returned  to  France  and  to  the  Roman  Church.^ 

The  travellers  passed  through  Lorraine.  On  the  frontier 
of  Germany,  near  Metz,  they  were  robbed  by  an  unfaithful 
servant.  They  arrived  utterly  destitute  at  Strassburg,  then 
a  city  of  refuge  for  French  Protestants.  They  were  kindly 
received  and  aided  by  Bucer. 

1  M.  Crottet,  Correspondance  de  Calvin  avec  L.  du  Tillet,  1850. 


326         THE   KEFORMATIOX   IN   FREXCH    SWITZERLAND. 

After  a  few  days'  rest  they  proceeded  to  Basel,  their 
proper  destination.  There  Farel  had  found  a  hospitable 
home  in  1524,  and  Cop  and  Courault  ten  years  later.  Calvin 
wished  a  quiet  place  for  study  where  he  could  promote  the 
cause  of  the  Gospel  by  his  pen.  He  lodged  vriih  his  friend  in 
the  house  of  Catharina  Klein  (Petita),  who  thirty  years  after- 
wards was  the  hostess  of  another  famous  refugee,  the  philoso- 
pher, Petrus  Ramus,  and  spoke  to  him  with  enthusiasm  of 
the  young  Calvin,  "the  light  of  France."  ^ 

He  was  kindly  welcomed  by  Simon  Grynaeus  and  Wolf- 
gang Capito,  the  heads  of  the  university.  He  prosecuted 
with  Grynseus  his  study  of  the  Hebrew.  He  dedicated 
to  him  in  gratitude  his  commentary  on  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans  (1539).  He  became  acquainted  also  with  BuUinger 
of  Ziirich,  who  attended  the  conference  of  Reformed  Swiss 
divines  for  the  preparation  of  the  first  Helvetic  Confession 
(1536). 2 

According  to  a  Roman  Catholic  report,  Calvin,  in  company 
with  Bucer,  had  a  personal  interview  with  Erasmus,  to  whom 
three  years  before  he  had  sent  a  copy  of  his  commentary  on 
Seneca  with  a  high  compliment  to  his  scholarship.  The  vet- 
eran scholar  is  reported  to  have  said  to  Bucer  on  that  occasion 
that  "a  great  pestilence  was  arising  in  the  Church  against 
the  Church."  ^  But  Erasmus  was  too  polite,  thus  to  insult 
a  stranger.  Moreover,  he  was  then  li^^ng  at  Freiburg  in 
Germany  and  had  broken  off  all  intercourse  with  Protestants. 
When  he  returned  to  Basel  in  Jul}-,  1536,  on  his  wa}^  to  the 
Netherlands,  he  took  sick  and  died ;  and  at  that  time  Calvin 
was  in  Italy.     The  report  therefore  is  an  idle  fiction.* 

1  "Lumen  Gallic^."  See  the  Eeminiscences  of  Basel,  by  Petrus  Ramus  (1572), 
quoted  in  Op.  XXI.  194.  Ch.  Waddington,  Hamus,  sa  vie,  ses  ecrits  et  ses 
opinions,  Paris,  1855.     Stahelin,  I.  41  sqq.     Kampschulte,  I.  250. 

2  See  above,  p.  219.     Ep.  2634,  referred  to  in  Op.  XXI.  196. 

3  "Video  magnam  pestem  oriri  in  Ecclesia  contra  Ecclesiam.^' 

*  It  rests  on  the  sole  authority  of  Florimond  de  Rfemond,  p.  890.  He  put8 
the  visit  in  the  year  1534,  when  Calvin  was  yet  in  France,  and  could  not 


§  79.  calvin's  institutes  of  christian  religion.      327 

Calvin  avoided  publicity  and  lived  in  scholarly  seclusion. 
He  spent  in  Basel  a  year  and  a  few  months,  from  January, 
1535,  till  about  March,  1536. 


§  79.    Calvin  s  Institutes  of  the  Christian  Religion. 

1.  The  full  title  of  the  first  edition  is  "Cukistia  |  nae  Religionis  Insti  | 

tutio  totam  fere  pietatis  summam  et  quic  \  quid  est  in  doctrina  salutis  cognitu 
ne-  I  cessarium,  complectens  :  omnibus  pie  \  talis  studiosis  lectu  dignissi  \  mum 
opus,  ac  re-  |  cens  edi-  |  turn.  |  Pr.efatio  |  ad  Chri  |  stianissimum  Regem 
Franc i.E,  qua  \  hie  ei  liber  pro  con/essione  Jidei  \  offertur.  \  Joanne  Cal- 
ving I  Nouiodunensi  authore.  \  Basile.e,  |  M.D.  XXXV^I."  The  dedica- 
tory Preface  is  dated  '■  X.  Calendas  Septembres  '  (^i.e.  August  23),  witliout 
the  year;  but  at  the  close  of  the  book  the  month  of  March,  1530,  is  given 
as  the  date  of  publication.  The  first  two  French  editions  (154i  and  1545) 
supplement  the  date  of  the  Preface  correctly  :  "De  Basle  le  vingt-troysiesme 
d'Aoust  mil  cinq  cent  trente  cinq."  The  manuscript,  then,  was  completed 
in  August,  1535,  but  it  took  nearly  a  year  to  print  it. 

2.  The  last  improved  edition  from  the  pen  of  the  author  (the  fifth  Latin)  is 

a  thorough  reconstruction,  and  bears  the  title  :  "  Institutio  Chri  |  stian.e 
Religionis,  in  libros  qua  \  tuor  nunc  priinum  digesta,  certisque  distincta  cap- 
itibus,  ad  aptissimam  |  methodum  :  aiicta  etiam  tarn  magna  accessione  ut  pro- 
pemodum  opus  |  novum  hnberi  possit.  \  Joanne  Calvino  authore.  |  Oliva 
RoBERTi  Stephani.  |  Getievce.  |  M.D.  LIX."  The  subsequent  Latin  edi- 
tions are  reprints  of  the  ed.  of  1559,  with  an  index  by  Nic.  CoUadon, 
another  by  Marlorat.  The  Elzevir  ed.  Leyden,  1654,  fol.,  was  especially 
esteemed  for  its  beauty  and  accuracy.  A  convenient  modern  ed.  by 
Tholuck  (Berlin,  1834,  2d  ed.  1846). 

3.  The  first  French  edition  appeared  without  the  name  and  place  of  the  printer 

(probably  Michel  du  Bois  at  Geneva),  under  the  title:  "Institution  de  la 
religion  chrestienne  en  laquelle  est  comprinse  une  somme  de  pie't^.  .  .  .  compose'e 
en  latin  par  J.  Calvin  et  translatee  par  lug  niesme,  Avec  la  preface  addressee 
au  tres  chrestien  Hog  de  France,  Francois  premier  de  ce  nom  :  par  laquelle  ce 
present  livre  lug  est  offert  pour  confession  de  Fog.  M.D.  XLI."  822  pp.  8°,  2d 
ed.  Geneve,  Jean  Girard,  1545;  3d  ed.  1551;  4th  ed.  1558;  6th  ed.  1554; 
6th  ed.  1557;  7th  ed.  1560,  in  fol.;  8th  ed.  1561,  in  8°;  9th  ed.  1561,  in 
4°;  10th  ed.  1562,  etc. ;  15th  ed.  Geneva,  1564.    Elzevir  ed.  Leyden,  1654. 

4.  The  Strassburg  editors  devote  the  first  four  volumes  to  the  different  editions 

of  the  Institutes  in  both,  languages.  Vol.  I.  contains  the  editio  princeps 
Latina  of  Basel,  1536  (pp.  10-247),  and  the  variations  of  six  editions  inter- 
accompany  Bucer.  Beza  and  Colladon  know  nothing  of  such  an  interview. 
Bayle  doubted  it.  Merle  d'Aubigne,  III.  203-204  (Engl,  trans.  III.  183-185), 
however,  accepts  and  embellishes  it  as  if  he  had  been  present  and  heard  the 
colloquy  of  the  three  scholars. 


328         THE   EEFOKMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

vening  between  the  first  and  the  last,  viz.,  the  Strassburg  editions  of  1539, 
1543,  1545,  and  the  Geneva  editions  of  1550,  1553,  1554  (pp.  253-1152)  ; 
vol.  II.,  the  editio  postrema  of  1559  (pp.  1-1118)  ;  vols.  III.  and  IV'.,  the 
last  edition  of  the  French  translation,  or  free  reproduction  rather  (1560), 
with  the  variations  of  former  editions. 

5.  The  question  of  the  priority  of  the  Latin  or  French  text  is  now  settled  in 

favor  of  the  former.  See  Jules  Bovnet,  in  the  Bulletin  de  la  Socie'te  de 
Vhistoire  du  protestantisme  fran^ais  for  1858,  vol.  VI.  p.  137  sqq.,  Stahelin, 
vol.  I.  p.  55,  and  the  Strassburg  editors  of  the  Opera,  in  the  ample  Prolegom- 
ena to  vols.  I.  and  III.  Calvin  himself  says  expressly  (in  the  Preface  to 
his  French  ed.  1541),  that  he  first  wrote  the  Institutes  in  Latin  (" premiere- 
ment  I'ay  mis  en  latin  "),  for  readers  of  all  nations,  and  that  he  translated 
or  reproduced  them  afterwards  for  the  special  benefit  of  Frenclimen  ("  I'ay 
aussi  translate'  en  notre  langage  ").  In  a  letter  to  his  friend,  Francois 
Daniel,  dated  Lausanne,  Oct.  1-3, 1536,  he  writes  that  he  began  the  French 
translation  soon  after  the  publication  of  the  Latin  (Letters,  ed.  Bonnet, 
vol.  I.  p.  21),  but  it  did  not  appear  till  1541,  under  the  title  given  above. 
The  erroneous  assertion  of  a  French  original,  so  often  repeated  (by  Bayle, 
Maimbourg,  Basnage,  and  more  recently  by  Henry,  vol.  I.  p.  104;  III.  p. 
177  ;  Dorner,  Gesch.  der  protest.  Theol.  p.  375 ;  also  by  Guizot,  H.  B.  Smith, 
and  Dyer),  arose  from  confounding  the  date  of  the  Preface  as  given  in 
the  French  editions  (23  Aug.,  1535),  with  the  later  date  of  publication 
(March,  1536).  It  is  quite  possible,  however,  that  the  dedication  to 
Francis  I.  was  first  written  in  French,  and  this  would  most  naturally 
account  for  the  earlier  date  in  the  French  editions. 

6.  On  the  differences  of  the  several  editions,  comp.  J.  Thomas:  Histoire  de 

Vinstit.  chretienne  deJ.  Culv.  Strasbourg,  1859.  Alex.  Schweizer:  Central- 
dogmen,  1. 150  sqq.  (Zurich,  1854).  Kostlin  :  Calvin'' s  Institutio  nach  Form 
und  Inhalt,  in  the  "  Studien  und  Kritiken  "  for  1868. 

7.  On  the  numerous  translations,  see  above,  pp.  225,  265;  Henry,  vol.  III. 

Beilagen,  178-189;  and  La  France  Prot.  III.  553. 

In  the  ancient  and  venerable  city  of  Basel,  on  the  borders 
of  Switzerland,  France,  and  Germany  —  the  residence  of  Eras- 
mus and  Q^^colampadius,  the  place  where  a  reformatory  council 
had  met  in  1430,  and  where  the  first  Greek  Testament  was 
printed  in  1516  from  manuscripts  of  the  university  library  — 
John  Calvin,  then  a  mere  youth  of  twenty-six  years,  and  an 
exile  from  his  native  land,  finished  and  published,  twenty 
years  after  the  first  print  of  the  Greek  Testament,  his  Insti- 
tutes of  the  Ohristimi  Religion.,  by  which  he  astonished  the 
world  and  took  at  once  the  front  rank  among  the  literary 
champions  of  the  evangelical  faith. 


§  79.     CALVIN'S    INSTITUTES    OF    CHRISTIAN    RELIGION.        329 

This  book  is  the  masterpiece  of  a  precocious  genius  of  com- 
manding intellectual  and  spiritual  depth  and  power.  It  is 
one  of  the  few  truly  classical  productions  in  the  history  of 
theology,  and  has  given  its  author  the  double  title  of  the 
Aristotle  and  Thomas  Aquinas  of  the  Reformed  Church.^ 

The  Roman  Catholics  at  once  perceived  the  significance  of 
the  Institution  and  called  it  the  Koran  and  Talmud  of  heresy  .^ 
It  was  burned  by  order  of  the  Sorbonne  at  Paris  and  other 
places,  and  more  fiercely  and  persistently  persecuted  than  any 
book  of  the  sixteenth  century ;  but,  we  must  add,  it  has  found 
also  great  admirers  among  Catholics  who,  while  totally  dis- 
senting from  its  theological  system  and  antipopish  temper, 
freely  admit  its  great  merits  in  the  non-polemical  parts.-^ 

The  Evangelicals  greeted  the  Institutio  at  once  with  enthus- 
iastic praise  as  the  clearest,  strongest,  most  logical,  and  most 
convincing  defence  of  Christian  doctrines  since  the  days  of 
the  apostles.  A  few  weeks  after  its  publication  Bucer  wrote 
to  the  author :  "  It  is  evident  that  the  Lord  has  elected  you 
as  his  organ  for  the  bestowment  of  the  richest  fulness  of 
blessing  to  his  Church."  ■* 

Nor  is  this  admiration  confined  to  orthodox  Protestants. 
Dr.  Baur,  the  founder  of  the  Tiibingen  school  of  historical 
critics,  declares  this  book  of  Calvin  to  be  "  in  every  respect 
a  truly  classical  work,  distinguished  in  a  high  degree  by  origi- 
nality and  acuteness  of  conception,  systematic  consistency, 
and  clear,  luminous  method."  ^  And  Dr.  Hase  pointedly 
calls  it  "the  grandest  scientific  justification  of  Augustinian- 

1  Kampschulte,  a  Roman  Catholic  historian,  and  others,  call  him  "the 
Aristotle;"  Martin,  a  liberal  French  historian,  and  others,  call  him  —  more 
appropriately  —  "the  Thomas  Aquinas,"  of  Protestantism. 

2  Florimond  de  Rsemond :   "V Alcoran  oh  plutSt  le  Talmud  de  I'he'resie." 

3  See  the  testimonies  of  Bossuet,  and  especially  of  Kampschulte,  quoted  in 
§  68,  p.  285  sq. 

*  "Videmur  nobis  afjnoscere,  Dominum  instituisse  tui  nsum  ecclesiis  suis  uber- 
rimum  concedere,  eisque  tuo  ministerio  latissime  commodare."  Herminjard,  IV. 
118. 

^  Dogmengeschichte,  vol.  III.  27. 


330         THE    REFORMATIOX    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

ism,  full  of  religiovis  depth  with  inexorable  consistency  of 
thought."  ^ 

The  Institutio  is  not  a  book  for  the  people,  and  has  not 
the  rousing  power  which  Luther's  Appeal  to  the  German 
Nobility,  and  his  tract  on  Christian  Freedom  exerted  upon 
the  Germans ;  but  it  is  a  book  for  scholars  of  all  nations,  and 
had  a  deeper  and  more  lasting  effect  upon  them  than  any 
work  of  the  Reformers.  Edition  followed  edition,  and  trans- 
lations were  made  into  nearly  all  the  languages  of  Europe.^ 

Calvin  gives  a  systematic  exposition  of  the  Christian  relig- 
ion in  general,  and  a  vindication  of  the  evangelical  faith  in 
particular,  with  the  apologetic  and  practical  aim  of  defending 
the  Protestant  believers  against  calumny  and  persecution  to 
which  they  were  then  exposed,  especially  in  France.  He 
writes  under  the  inspiration  of  a  heroic  faith  that  is  ready  for 
the  stake,  and  with  a  glowing  enthusiasm  for  the  pure  Gospel 
of  Christ,  which  had  been  obscured  and  deprived  of  its  effect 
by  human  traditions,  but  had  now  risen  from  this  rubbish  to 
new  life  and  poAver.  He  combines  dogmatics  and  ethics  in 
organic  unity. 

He  plants  himself  firmly  on  the  immovable  rock  of  the 
Word  of  God,  as  the  only  safe  guide  in  matters  of  faith  and 
duty.  He  exhibits  on  every  page  a  thorough,  well-digested 
knowledge  of  Scripture  which  is  truly  astonishing.  He  does 
not  simply  quote  from  it  as  a  body  of  proof  texts,  in  a  mechan- 
ical way,  like  the  scholastic  dogmaticians  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  but  he  views  it  as  an  organic  whole,  and  weaves  it 
into  his  system.  He  bases  the  authority  of  Scripture  on  its 
intrinsic  excellency  and  the  testimony  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
speaking  through  it  to  the  believer.  He  makes  also  judicious 
and  discriminating  use  of  the  fathers,  especially  St.  Augustin, 

1  Kirchengeschichte,  p.  405  (11th  edition). 

2  Many  editors  print,  as  a  motto,  the  distich  of  the  Hungarian,  Paul  Thur- 
ius  : 

"  Pr(eter  apostolicas  post  Christi  tempora  chartas, 
JJuic  peperere  libro  scecula  nulla  parem." 


§  79.   calvin's  institutes  of  christian  religion.     331 

not  as  judges  but  as  witnesses  of  the  truth,  and  abstains  from 
those  depreciatory  remarks  in  which  Luther  occasionally 
indulged  when,  instead  of  his  favorite  dogma  of  justification 
by  faith,  he  found  in  them  much  ascetic  monkery  and  exalta- 
tion of  human  merit.  "  They  overwhelm  us,"  says  Calvin, 
in  the  dedicatory  Preface,  "  with  senseless  clamors,  as  despisers 
and  enemies  of  the  fathers.  But  if  it  were  consistent  with 
my  present  design,  I  could  easily  support  by  their  suffrages 
most  of  the  sentiments  that  we  now  maintain.  Yet  while 
we  make  use  of  their  writings,  we  always  remember  that  '  all 
things  are  ours,'  to  serve  us,  not  to  have  dominion  over  us, 
and  that  'we  are  Christ's  alone'  (1  Cor.  3  :  21-23),  and  owe 
him  universal  obedience.  He  who  neglects  this  distinction 
will  have  nothing  certain  in  religion;  since  those  holy  men 
were  ignorant  of  many  things,  frequently  at  variance  with 
each  other,  and  sometimes  even  inconsistent  with  them- 
selves." He  also  fully  recognizes  the  indispensable  use  of 
reason  in  the  apprehension  and  defence  of  truth  and  the  refu- 
tation of  error,  and  excels  in  the  power  of  severe  logical  argu- 
mentation ;  while  he  is  free  from  scholastic  dryness  and 
pedantry.  But  he  subordinates  reason  and  tradition  to  the 
supreme  authority  of  Scripture  as  he  understands  it. 

The  style  is  luminous  and  forcible.  Calvin  had  full  com- 
mand of  the  majesty,  dignity,  and  elegance  of  the  Latin  lan- 
guage. The  discussion  flows  on  continuously  and  melodi- 
ously like  a  river  of  fresh  water  through  green  meadows  and 
sublime  mountain  scenery.  The  whole  work  is  well  propor- 
tioned. It  is  pervaded  by  intense  earnestness  and  fearless 
consistency  which  commands  respect  even  where  his  argu- 
ments fail  to  carry  conviction,  or  where  we  feel  offended  by 
the  contemptuous  tone  of  his  polemics,  or  feel  a  shudder  at 
his  decretum  horrihile. 

Calvin's  system  of  doctrine  agrees  with  the  oecumenical 
creeds  in  theology  and  Christology  ;  with  Augustinianism  in 
anthropology  and  soteriology,  but  dissents  from  the  mediaeval 


332  THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

tradition  in  ecclesiology,  sacramentology,  and  eschatology. 
We  shall  discuss  the  prominent  features  of  this  system  in  the 
chapter  on  Calvin's  Theology. 

The  Institutio  was  dedicated  to  King  Francis  I.  of  France 
(1494-1547),  who  at  that  time  cruelly  persecuted  his  Prot- 
estant subjects.  As  Justin  Martyr  and  other  early  Apolo- 
gists addressed  the  Roman  emperors  in  behalf  of  the  despised 
and  persecuted  sect  of  the  Christians,  vindicating  them 
against  the  foul  charges  of  atheism,  immorality,  and  hos- 
tility to  Caesar,  and  pleading  for  toleration,  so  Calvin  appealed 
to  the  French  monarch  in  defence  of  his  Protestant  country- 
men, then  a  small  sect,  as  much  despised,  calumniated,  and 
persecuted,  and  as  moral  and  innocent  as  the  Christians  in 
the  old  Roman  empire,  with  a  manly  dignity,  frankness,  and 
pathos  never  surpassed  before  or  since.  He  followed  the 
example  set  by  Zwingli  who  addressed  his  dying  confession 
of  faith  to  the  same  sovereign  (1531).  These  appeals,  like 
the  apologies  of  the  ante-Nicene  age,  failed  to  reach  or  to 
affect  the  throne,  but  they  moulded  public  opinion  which  is 
mightier  than  thrones,  and  they  are  a  living  force  to-day. 

The  preface  to  the  Institutio  is  reckoned  among  the  three 
immortal  prefaces  in  literature.  The  other  two  are  President 
De  Thou's  jDreface  to  his  History  of  France,  and  Casaubon's 
preface  to  Polyhius.  Calvin's  preface  is  superior  to  them  in 
importance  and  interest.  Take  the  beginning  and  the  close 
as  specimens.^ 

"  When  I  began  this  work,  Sire,  nothing  was  farther  from  my  thoughts 
than  writing  a  book  which  would  afterwards  be  presented  to  your  Majesty. 
My  intention  was  only  to  lay  down  some  elementary  principles,  by  which 
inquirers  on  the  subject  of  religion  might  be  instructed  in  the  nature  of  true 
piety.  And  this  labor  I  undertook  cliiefly  for  my  countrymen,  the  French,  of 
whom  I  apprehend  multitudes  to  be  hungering  and  thirsting  after  Christ,  but 
saw  very  few  possessing  any  real  knowledge  of  him.  That  this  was  my  design 
the  book  itself  proves  by  its  simple  method  and  unadorned  composition.     But 

1  I  have  made  use  of  the  faithful  translation  of  John  Allen,  compared  with 
the  Latin  original. 


§  79.    CALVIN'S   INSTITUTES   OF   CHRISTIAN   RELIGION.      333 

when  I  perceived  that  the  fury  of  certain  wicked  men  in  your  kingdom  had 
grown  to  such  a  height,  as  to  liave  no  room  in  the  land  for  sound  doctrine,  I 
thought  I  should  be  usefully  employed,  if  in  the  same  work  I  delivered  my 
instructions  to  tlieni,  and  exhibited  my  confession  to  you,  that  you  may  know 
the  nature  of  that  doctrine,  which  is  the  object  of  such  unbounded  rage  to 
those  madmen  wiio  are  now  disturbing  the  country  with  fire  and  sword.  For 
1  shall  not  be  afraid  to  acknowledge,  that  this  treatise  contains  a  summary  of 
that  very  doctrine,  which,  according  to  their  clamors,  deserves  to  be  punished 
with  imprisonment,  banishment,  proscription,  and  flames,  and  to  be  extermi- 
nated from  the  face  of  the  earth.  I  well  know  with  what  atrocious  insinua- 
tions your  ears  have  been  filled  by  them,  in  order  to  render  our  cause  most 
odious  in  your  esteem  ;  but  your  clemency  sliould  lead  you  to  consider  tliat  if 
accusation  be  accounted  a  sufficient  evidence  of  guilt,  there  will  be  an  end  of 
all  innocence  in  words  and  actions." 

********* 

"But  I  return  to  you,  Sire.  Let  not  your  Majesty  be  at  all  moved  by 
those  groundless  accusations  with  which  our  adversaries  endeavor  to  terrify 
you;  as  that  the  sole  tendency  and  design  of  this  new  gospel,  for  so  they  call 
it,  is  to  furnish  a  pretext  for  seditions,  and  to  gain  impunity  for  all  crimes. 
'For  God  is  not  the  author  of  confusion,  but  of  peace;'  nor  is  'the  Son  of 
God,'  who  came  to  destroy  'the  works  of  the  devil,  the  minister  of  sin.'  And 
it  is  unjust  to  charge  us  with  such  motives  and  designs  of  which  we  have 
never  given  cause  for  the  least  suspicion.  Is  it  probable  that  we  are  medita- 
ting the  subversion  of  kingdoms  ?  We,  who  were  never  heard  to  utter  a  fac- 
tious word,  whose  lives  were  ever  known  to  be  peaceable  and  honest  while 
we  lived  under  your  government,  and  who,  even  now  in  our  exile,  cease  not  to 
pray  for  all  prosperity  to  attend  yourself  and  your  kingdom  !  Is  it  probable 
that  we  are  seeking  an  unlimited  license  to  commit  crimes  with  impunity,  in 
whose  conduct,  though  many  things  may  be  blamed,  yet  there  is  nothing 
worthy  of  such  severe  reproach  ?  Nor  have  we,  hy  divine  grace,  profited  so 
little  in  the  gospel,  but  that  our  life  may  be  to  our  detractors  an  example  of 
chastity,  liberality,  mercy,  temperance,  patience,  modesty,  and  every  other 
virtue.  It  is  an  undeniable  fact,  that  we  sincerely  fear  and  worship  God, 
whose  name  we  desire  to  be  sanctified  both  by  our  life  and  by  our  deatli;  and 
envy  itself  is  constrained  to  bear  testimony  to  the  innocence  and  civil  integrity 
of  some  of  us,  who  have  suffered  the  punishment  of  death,  for  that  very  thing 
which  ought  to  be  accounted  their  highest  praise.  But  if  the  gospel  be  made 
a  pretext  for  tumults,  which  has  not  yet  happened  in  your  kingdom ;  if  any 
persons  make  the  liberty  of  divine  grace  an  excuse  for  the  licentiousness  of 
their  vices,  of  whom  I  have  known  many;  there  are  laws  and  legal  penalties, 
by  which  they  may  be  punished  according  to  their  deserts :  only  let  not  the 
gospel  of  God  be  reproached  for  the  crimes  of  wicked  men.  You  have  now, 
Sire,  the  virulent  iniquity  of  our  calumniators  laid  before  you  in  a  sufficient 
number  of  instances,  that  you  may  not  receive  their  accusations  with  too 
credulous  an  ear. 

"  I  fear  I  have  gone  too  much  into  the  detail,  as  this  preface  already 
approaches  the  size  of  a  full  apology ;  whereas,  I  intended  it  not  to  contain 


334         THE   KEFOKMATION   IN   FKENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

our  defence,  but  only  to  prepare  your  mind  to  attend  to  the  pleading  of  our 
cause  ;  for  though  you  are  now  averse  and  alienated  from  us,  and  even  inflamed 
against  us,  we  despair  not  of  regaining  your  favor,  if  you  will  only  once  read 
with  calmness  and  composure  this  our  confession,  which  we  intend  as  our 
defence  before  your  Majesty.  But,  on  the  contrary,  if  your  ears  are  so  pre- 
occupied with  the  whispers  of  the  malevolent,  as  to  leave  no  opportunity  for 
the  accused  to  speak  for  themselves,  and  if  those  outrageous  furies,  with  your 
connivance,  continue  to  persecute  with  imprisonments,  scourges,  tortures,  con- 
fiscations, and  flames,  we  shall  indeed,  like  sheep  destined  to  the  slaughter, 
be  reduced  to  the  greatest  extremities.  Yet  shall  we  in  patience  possess  our 
souls,  and  wait  for  the  mighty  hand  of  the  Lord,  which  undoubtedly  will  in 
time  appear,  and  show  itself  armed  for  the  deliverance  of  the  poor  from  their 
affliction,  and  for  the  punishment  of  their  despisers,  who  now  exult  in  such 
perfect  security. 

"  May  the  Lord,  the  King  of  kings,  establish  3'our  throne  in  righteousness, 
and  your  kingdom  with  equity." 

The  first  edition  of  the  Institutes  was  a  brief  manual  contain- 
ing, in  six  chapters,  an  exposition  1)  of  the  Decalogue ;  2)  of 
the  Apostles'  Creed ;  3)  of  the  Lord's  Prayer ;  4)  of  baptism 
and  the  Lord's  Supper ;  5)  of  the  other  so-called  Sacraments  ; 
6)  of  Christian  liberty,  Church  government,  and  discipline. 
The  second  edition  has  seventeen,  the  third,  twenty-one  chap- 
ters. In  the  author's  last  edition  of  1559,  it  grew  to  four  or 
five  times  its  original  size,  and  was  divided  into  four  books, 
each  book  into  a  number  of  chapters  (from  seventeen  to 
twenty-five),  and  each  chapter  into  sections.  It  follows  in  the 
main,  like  every  good  catechism,  the  order  of  the  Apostles' 
Creed,  which  is  the  order  of  God's  revelation  as  Father,  Son, 
and  Holy  Spirit.  The  first  book  discusses  the  knowledge  of 
God  the  Creator  (theology  proper)  ;  the  second,  the  knowl- 
edge of  God  the  Redeemer  (Christology) ;  the  third,  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  and  the  application  of  the  saving  work  of  Christ 
(soteriology)  ;  the  fourth,  the  means  of  grace,  namely,  the 
Church  and  the  sacraments.^ 

1  He  himself  gives  in  the  preface  to  the  last  edition  the  following  account 
of  the  successive  improvements  of  the  work :  "  In  the  first  edition  of  this  work, 
not  expecting  that  success  which  the  Lord  in  his  infinite  goodness  hath  given, 
I  handled  the  subject  for  the  most  part  in  a  superficial  manner,  as  is  usual  in 
small  treatises.     But  when  I  understood  that  it  had  obtained  from  almost  all 


§  79.    Calvin's  institutes  of  christian  kelkjion.     335 

Although  the  work  has  been  vastly  improved  under  the 
revising  hand  of  the  author,  in  size  and  fulness  of  statement, 
the  first  edition  contains  all  the  essential  features  of  his  sys- 
tem. '■''Ex  ungue  leonem.''''  His  doctrine  of  predestination, 
however,  is  stated  in  a  more  simple  and  less  objectionable 
form.  He  dwells  on  the  bright  and  comforting  side  of  that 
doctrine,  namely,  the  eternal  election  by  the  free  grace  of 
God  in  Christ,  and  leaves  out  the  dark  mystery  of  repro- 
bation and  pretention.^  He  gives  the  light  without  the 
shade,  the  truth  without  the  error.  He  avoids  the  para- 
doxes of  Luther  and  Zwingii,  and  keeps  within  the  limits 
of  a  wise  moderation.  The  fuller  logical  development  of 
his  views  on  predestination  and  on  the  Church,  dates  from 
his  sojourn  in  Strassburg,  where  he  wrote  the  second  edition 
of  the  Institutes,  and  his  Commentary  on  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans. 

The  following  sections  on  some  of  his  leading  doctrines 
from  the  last  edition  give  a  fair  idea  of  the  spirit  and  method 
of  the  work : 

pious  persons  such  a  favorable  acceptance  as  I  never  could  have  presumed  to 
wish,  much  less  to  hope,  while  I  was  conscious  of  receiving  far  more  attention 
than  I  had  deserved,  I  thought  it  would  evince  great  ingratitude,  if  I  did  not 
endeavor  at  least,  according  to  my  humble  ability,  to  make  some  suitable 
return  for  the  attentions  paid  to  me ;  —  attentions  of  themselves  calculated  to 
stimulate  my  industry.  Nor  did  I  attempt  this  only  in  the  second  edition, 
but  in  every  succeeding  one  the  work  has  been  improved  by  some  farther 
enlargements.  But  though  I  repented  not  the  labor  then  devoted  to  it,  yet 
I  never  satisfied  myself  till  it  was  arranged  in  the  order  in  which  it  is  now 
published.  And  I  trust  I  have  here  presented  to  my  readers  what  their  judg- 
ments will  unite  in  approving.  Of  my  diligent  application  to  the  accomplish- 
ment of  this  service  for  the  Church  of  God,  I  can  produce  abundant  proof. 
For,  last  winter,  when  I  thought  that  a  quartan  ague  would  speedily  termi- 
nate in  my  death,  the  more  my  disorder  increased,  the  less  I  spared  myself 
till  I  had  finished  this  book,  to  leave  it  behind  me  as  some  grateful  return  to 
such  kind  solicitations  of  the  religious  public.  Indeed,  I  would  rather  it  had 
been  done  sooner,  but  it  is  soon  enough,  if  well  enough.  I  shall  think  it  has 
appeared  at  the  proper  time,  when  I  shall  find  it  to  have  been  more  beneficial 
than  before  to  the  Church  of  God.     This  is  my  only  wish." 

^  See  the  quotations  of  the  several  passages  bearing  upon  this  doctrine  in 
Schweizer's  Centraldogmen,  I.  150-152,  and  in  Stahelin,  I.  66-68. 


336         THE   EEFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

The  Connection  between  the  Knowledge  of  God  and  the  Knowledge 

OF  Ourselves. 

(Book  I.  ch.  1,  §§  1,  2.) 

1  "  True  and  substantial  wisdom  principally  consists  of  two  parts,  the 
knowledge  of  God  and  the  knowledge  of  ourselves.  But  while  these  two 
branches  of  knowledge  are  so  intimately  connected,  which  of  them  precedes 
and  produces  the  other,  is  not  easy  to  discover.  For,  in  the  first  place,  no 
man  can  take  a  survey  of  himself  but  he  must  immediately  turn  to  the  con- 
templation of  God,  in  wliom  he  '  lives  and  moves '  (Acts  17  :  28)  ;  since  it  is 
evident  that  the  talents  which  we  possess  are  not  from  ourselves,  and  that  our 
very  existence  is  nothing  but  a  subsistence  in  God  alone.  These  bounties, 
distilling  to  us  by  drops  from  heaven,  form,  as  it  were,  so  many  streams  con- 
ducting us  to  the  fountain-head.  Our  poverty  conduces  to  a  clearer  display 
of  the  infinite  fulness  of  God.  Especially  the  miserable  ruin,  into  which  we 
have  been  plunged  by  the  defection  of  the  first  man,  compels  us  to  raise  our 
eyes  towards  heaven  not  only  as  hungry  and  famished,  to  seek  thence  a  supply 
for  our  wants,  but,  aroused  with  fear,  to  learn  humility. 

"For  since  man  is  subject  to  a  world  of  miseries,  and  has  been  spoiled  of 
his  divine  array,  this  melancholy  exposure  discovers  an  immense  mass  of 
deformity.  Every  one,  therefore,  must  be  so  impressed  with  a  consciousness 
of  his  own  infelicity,  as  to  arrive  at  some  knowledge  of  God.  Thus  a  sense 
of  our  ignorance,  vanity,  poverty,  infirmity,  depravity,  and  corruption,  leads 
us  to  perceive  and  acknowledge  that  in  the  Lord  alone  are  to  be  found  true 
wisdom,  solid  strength,  perfect  goodness,  and  unspotted  righteousness ;  and 
so,  by  our  imperfections,  we  are  excited  to  a  consideration  of  the  perfections 
of  God.  Nor  can  we  really  aspire  toward  him,  till  we  have  begun  to  be  dis- 
pleased with  ourselves.  For  who  would  not  gladly  rest  satisfied  with  himself  f 
Where  is  the  man  not  actually  absorbed  in  self-complacency,  while  he  remains 
unacquainted  with  his  true  situation,  or  content  with  his  own  endowments, 
and  ignorant  or  forgetful  of  his  own  misery  ?  The  knowledge  of  ourselves, 
therefore,  is  not  only  an  incitement  to  seek  after  God,  but  likewise  a  consid- 
erable assistance  towards  finding  him. 

2.  "  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  plain  that  no  man  can  arrive  at  the  true  knowl- 
edge of  himself,  without  ha;ving  first  contemplated  the  divine  character,  and 
then  descended  to  the  consideration  of  his  own.  For  such  is  the  native  pride 
of  us  all,  that  we  invariably  esteem  ourselves  righteous,  innocent,  wise,  and 
holy,  till  we  are  convinced  by  clear  proofs  of  our  unrighteousness,  turpitude, 
folly,  and  impurity.  But  we  are  never  thus  convinced,  while  we  confine  our 
attention  to  ourselves  and  regard  not  the  Lord,  who  is  the  only  standard  by 
which  this  judgment  ought  to  be  formed."  .  .  . 

Kational  Proofs  to  Establish  the  Belief  in  the  Scripture. 

(Book  I.  ch.  8,  §§  1,  2.) 

1.    "Without  this  certainty  [that  is,  the  testimony  of  the  Holy  Spirit], 
better  and  stronger  than  any  human  judgment,  in  vain  will  the  authority  of 


§  79.     CALVIN  S    INSTITUTES    OF    CHKISTIAN    RELIGION.       337 

the  Scripture  be  either  defended  by  arguments,  or  establislied  by  the  consent 
of  the  Church,  or  confirmed  by  any  otlier  supports  ;  since,  unless  the  founda- 
tion be  laid,  it  remains  in  perpetual  suspense.  Whilst,  on  the  contrary,  when 
regarding  it  in  a  different  point  of  view  from  common  things,  we  have  once 
religiously  received  it  in  a  manner  worthy  of  its  excellence,  we  shall  then 
derive  great  assistance  from  things  which  before  were  not  sufficient  to  estab- 
lish the  certainty  of  it  in  our  minds.  For  it  is  admirable  to  observe  how  much 
it  conduces  to  our  confirmation,  attentively  to  study  the  order  and  disposition 
of  the  divine  wisdom  dispensed  in  it,  the  heavenly  nature  of  its  doctrine,  which 
never  savors  of  anything  terrestrial,  the  beautiful  agreement  of  all  the  parts 
with  each  other,  and  other  similar  characters  adapted  to  conciliate  respect  to 
any  writings.  But  our  hearts  are  more  strongly  confirmed,  when  we  reflect 
that  we  are  constrained  to  admire  it  more  by  the  dignity  of  the  subjects  than 
by  the  beauties  of  the  language.  For  even  this  did  not  happen  without  the 
particular  providence  of  God,  that  the  sublime  mysteries  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  should  be  communicated,  for  the  most  part,  in  an  humble  and  con- 
temptible style :  lest  if  they  had  been  illustrated  with  more  of  the  splendor  of 
eloquence,  the  impious  might  cavil  that  their  triumph  is  only  the  triumph  of 
eloquence.  Now,  since  that  uncultivated  and  almost  rude  simplicity  procures 
itself  more  reverence  than  all  the  graces  of  rhetoric,  what  opinion  can  we 
form,  but  that  the  force  of  truth  in  the  sacred  Scripture  is  too  powerful  to 
need  the  assistance  of  verbal  art  ?  Justly,  therefore,  does  the  apostle  argue 
that  the  faith  of  the  Corinthians  was  founded  'not  in  the  wisdom  of  men,  but 
in  the  power  of  God,'  because  his  preaching  among  them  was  '  not  with  entic- 
ing words  of  man's  wisdom,  but  in  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  of  power' 
(1  Cor.  2:4).  For  the  truth  is  vindicated  from  every  doubt,  when,  unassisted 
by  foreign  aid,  it  is  sufficient  for  its  own  support.  But  that  this  is  the  peculiar 
property  of  the  Scripture,  appears  from  the  insufiiciency  of  any  human  com- 
positions, however  artificially  polished,  to  make  an  equal  impression  on  our 
minds.  Eead  Demosthenes  or  Cicero ;  read  Plato,  Aristotle,  or  any  others  of 
that  class ;  I  grant  that  you  will  be  attracted,  delighted,  moved,  and  enrap- 
tured by  them  in  a  surprising  manner;  but  if,  after  reading  them,  you  turn 
to  the  perusal  of  the  sacred  volume,  whether  you  are  willing  or  unwilling,  it 
will  affect  you  so  powerfully,  it  will  so  penetrate  your  heart,  and  impress 
itself  so  strongly  on  your  mind,  that,  compared  with  its  energetic  influence, 
the  beauties  of  rhetoricians  and  philosophers  will  almost  entirely  disappear; 
so  that  it  is  easy  to  perceive  something  divine  in  the  sacred  Scriptures,  whiclt 
far  surpass  the  highest  attainments  and  ornaments  of  human  industry. 

2.  "I  grant,  indeed,  that  the  diction  of  some  of  the  prophets  is  neat  and  ele- 
gant, and  even  splendid;  so  that  they  are  not  inferior  in  eloquence  to  the 
heathen  writers.  And  by  such  examples  the  Holy  Spirit  hath  been  pleased  to 
show  that  he  was  not  deficient  in  eloquence,  though  elsewhere  he  hath  used 
a  rude  and  homely  style.  But  whether  we  read  David,  Isaiah,  and  others 
that  resemble  them,  who  have  a  sweet  and  pleasant  flow  of  words,  or  Amos, 
the  herdsman,  Jeremiah,  and  Zechariah,  whose  rougher  language  savors  of 
rusticity ;  that  majesty  of  the  Spirit  which  I  have  mentioned  is  everywhere 
conspicuous.  .  .  .  With  respect  to  the  sacred  Scripture,  though  presumptuous- 


338         THE    EEFOEMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

men  try  to  cavil  at  various  passages,  yet  it  is  evidently  replete  with  sentences 
VFhich  are  beyond  the  powers  of  human  conception.  Let  all  the  prophets  be 
examined,  not  one  will  be  found  who  has  not  far  surpassed  the  ability  of  men ; 
so  that  those  to  whom  their  doctrine  is  insipid  must  be  accounted  utterly  des- 
titute of  all  true  taste.  .  .  . 

11.  "If  we  proceed  to  the  New  Testament,  by  wliat  solid  foundations  is  its 
truth  supported  1  Three  evangelists  recite  their  history  in  a  low  and  mean 
style.  Many  proud  men  are  disgusted  with  that  simplicity  because  they 
attend  not  to  the  principal  points  of  doctrine ;  whence  it  were  easy  to  infer, 
that  they  treat  of  heavenly  mysteries  which  are  above  human  capacity.  They 
who  have  a  spark  of  ingenuous  modesty  will  certainly  be  ashamed,  if  they 
peruse  the  first  chapter  of  Luke.  Now  the  discourses  of  Christ,  a  concise 
summary  of  which  is  comprised  in  these  three  evangelists,  easily  exempt  their 
writings  from  contempt.  But  John,  thundering  from  his  sublimity,  more 
powerfully  than  any  thunderbolt,  levels  to  the  dust  the  obstinacy  of  those 
whom  he  does  not  compel  to  the  obedience  of  faith.  Let  all  those  censorious 
critics,  whose  supreme  pleasure  consists  in  banishing  all  reverence  for  the 
Scripture  out  of  their  own  hearts  and  the  hearts  of  others,  come  forth  to  pub- 
lic view.  Let  them  read  the  Gospel  of  John  :  whether  they  wish  it  or  not,  they 
will  there  find  numerous  passages,  which,  at  least,  arouse  their  indolence,  and 
which  will  even  imprint  a  horrible  brand  on  their  consciences  to  restrain  their 
ridicule.  Similar  is  the  method  of  Paul  and  of  Peter,  in  whose  writings, 
though  the  greater  part  be  obscure,  yet  their  heavenly  majesty  attracts  uni- 
versal attention.  But  this  one  circumstance  raises  their  doctrine  suflSciently 
above  the  world,  that  Matthew,  who  had  before  been  confined  to  the  profit  of 
his  table,  and  Peter  and  John,  who  had  been  employed  in  fishing-boats,  all 
plain,  unlettered  men,  had  learned  nothing  in  any  human  sciiool  which  they 
could  communicate  to  others.  And  Paul,  from  not  only  a  professed  but  a 
cruel  and  sanguinary  enemy,  being  converted  to  a  new  man,  proves  by  his 
sudden  and  unhoped-for  change,  that  he  was  constrained,  by  a  command  from 
heaven,  to  vindicate  that  doctrine  which  he  had  before  opposed.  Let  these 
deny  that  the  Holy  Spirit  descended  on  the  apostles ;  or,  at  least,  let  them 
dispute  the  credibility  of  the  history  :  yet  the  fact  itself  loudly  proclaims  that 
they  were  taught  by  the  Spirit,  who,  though  before  despised  as  some  of  the 
meanest  of  the  people,  suddenly  began  to  discourse  in  such  a  magnificent 
manner  on  the  mj-steries  of  heaven.  .  .  . 

13.  "Wherefore,  the  Scripture  will  then  only  be  effectual  to  produce  the 
saving  knowledge  of  God,  when  the  certainty  of  it  shall  be  founded  on  the 
internal  persuasion  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Thus  those  human  testimonies,  which 
contribute  to  its  confirmation,  will  not  be  useless,  if  they  follow  that  first  and 
principal  proof,  as  secondary  aids  to  our  imbecility.  But  those  persons  betray 
great  folly,  who  wish  it  to  be  demonstrated  to  infidels  that  the  Scripture  is  the 
Word  of  God,  which  cannot  be  known  without  faith.  Augustin,  therefore, 
justly  observes,  that  pietj'  and  peace  of  mind  ought  to  precede  in  order  that 
a  man  may  understand  somewhat  of  such  great  subjects." 


§  79.    calvin's  institutes  of  christian  keligion.     339 

Meditatiox  on  the  Future  Life. 
(Book  III.  ch.  9,  §§  1,  3,  6.) 

1.  "With  whatever  kind  of  tribulation  we  may  be  afflicted,  we  should 
always  keep  the  end  in  view;  to  habituate  ourselves  to  a  contempt  of  the 
present  life,  that  we  may  thereby  be  excited  to  meditation  on  that  which  is  to 
come.  For  the  Lord,  well  knowing  our  strong  natural  inclination  to  a  brutish 
love  of  the  world,  adopts  a  most  excellent  method  to  reclaim  us  and  rouse  us 
from  one  insensibility  that  we  may  not  be  too  tenaciously  attached  to  that 
foolish  affection.  There  is  not  one  of  us  who  is  not  desirous  of  appearing 
through  the  whole  course  of  his  life,  to  aspire  and  strive  after  celestial  immor- 
tality. For  we  are  ashamed  of  excelling  in  no  respect  the  brutal  herds,  whose 
condition  would  not  be  at  all  inferior  to  ours,  unless  there  remained  to  us  a 
hope  of  eternity  after  death.  But  if  you  examine  the  designs,  pursuits,  and 
actions  of  every  individual,  you  will  find  nothing  in  them  but  what  is  terres- 
trial. Hence  that  stupidity,  that  the  mental  eyes,  dazzled  with  the  vain  splen- 
dor of  riches,  powers,  and  honors,  cannot  see  to  any  considerable  distance. 
The  heart  also,  occupied  and  oppressed  with  avarice,  ambition,  and  other 
inordinate  desires,  cannot  rise  to  any  eminence.  In  a  word,  the  whole  soul, 
fascinated  by  carnal  allurements,  seeks  its  felicity  on  earth. 

"  To  oppose  this  evil,  the  Lord,  by  continual  lessons  of  miseries,  teaches 
his  children  the  vanity  of  the  present  life.  That  they  may  not  promise  them- 
selves profound  and  secure  peace  in  it,  therefore  he  permits  them  to  be  fre- 
quently disquieted  and  infested  with  wars  or  tumults,  with  robberies  or  other 
injuries.  That  they  may  not  aspire  with  too  much  avidity  after  transient 
and  uncertain  riches,  or  depend  on  those  which  they  possess,  sometimes  by 
exile,  sometimes  by  the  sterility  of  the  land,  sometimes  by  a  conflagration, 
sometimes  by  other  means,  he  reduces  them  to  indigence,  or  at  least  confines 
them  within  the  limits  of  mediocrity.  That  they  may  not  be  too  complacently 
delighted  with  conjugal  blessings,  he  either  causes  them  to  be  distressed  with 
the  wickedness  of  their  wives,  or  humbles  them  with  a  wicked  offspring,  or 
afflicts  them  with  want  or  loss  of  children.  But  if  in  all  these  things  he  is 
more  indulgent  to  them,  yet  that  they  may  not  be  inflated  with  vainglory,  or 
improper  confidence,  he  shows  them  by  diseases  and  dangers  the  unstable  and 
transitory  nature  of  all  mortal  blessings.  We  therefore  truly  derive  advan- 
tages from  the  discipline  of  the  cross,  only  when  we  learn  that  this  life,  con- 
sidered in  itself,  is  unquiet,  turbulent,  miserable  in  numberless  instances,  and 
in  no  respect  altogether  happy ;  and  that  all  its  reputed  blessings  are  uncer- 
tain, transient,  vain,  and  adulterated  with  a  mixture  of  many  evils ;  and  in 
consequence  of  this  at  once  conclude  that  nothing  can  be  sought  or  expected 
on  earth  but  conflict,  and  that  when  we  think  of  a  crown  we  must  raise  our 
eyes  toward  heaven.  For  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  mind  is  never  seriously 
excited  to  desire  and  meditate  on  the  future  life,  without  having  previously 
imbibed  a  contempt  of  the  present.  .  .  . 

3.  "  But  the  faithful  should  accustom  themselves  to  such  a  contempt  of 
the  present  life,  as  may  not  generate  either  hatred  of  life  or  ingratitude 
towards  God  himself.     For  this  life,  though  it  is  repletP  with  innumerable 


340         THE   EEFORIMATION    IN   FRENCH   SWiTZEKLAND. 

miseries,  is  yet  deservedl}'  reckoned  among  the  divine  blessings  which  must 
not  be  despised.  Wherefore  if  we  discover  nothing  of  the  divine  beneficence 
in  it,  we  are  already  guilty  of  no  small  ingratitude  towards  God  himself. 
But  to  the  faithful  especially  it  should  be  a  testimony  of  the  divine  benevo- 
lence, since  tlie  whole  of  it  is  destined  to  the  advancement  of  their  salvation. 
For  before  he  openly  discovers  to  us  the  inheritance  of  eternal  glory,  lie 
intends  to  reveal  himself  as  our  Father  in  inferior  instances ;  and  those  are 
the  benefits  which  he  daily  confers  on  us.  Since  this  life,  then,  is  subservient 
to  a  knowledge  of  the  divine  goodness,  shall  we  fastidiously  scorn  it  as  though 
it  contained  no  particle  of  goodness  in  it  ?  We  must,  therefore,  have  this 
sense  and  affection,  to  class  it  among  the  bounties  of  the  divine  benignity 
which  are  not  to  be  rejected.  For  if  Scripture  testimonies  were  wanting, 
which  are  very  numerous  and  clear,  even  nature  itself  exhorts  us  to  give 
thanks  to  the  Lord  for  having  introduced  us  to  the  light  of  life,  for  granting 
us  the  use  of  it,  and  giving  us  all  the  helps  necessary  to  its  preservation. 
And  it  is  a  far  superior  reason  for  gratitude,  if  we  consider  that  here  we  are 
in  some  measure  prepared  for  the  glory  of  the  heavenly  kingdom.  For  the 
Lord  has  ordained  that  they  who  are  to  be  hereafter  crowned  in  heaven,  must 
first  engage  in  conflicts  on  earth,  that  they  may  not  triumph  without  having 
surmounted  the  difficulties  of  warfare  and  obtained  the  victory.  Another 
reason  is,  that  here  we  begin  in  various  blessings  to  taste  the  sweetness  of  the 
divine  benignity,  that  our  hope  and  desire  may  be  excited  after  the  full  reve- 
lation of  it.  When  we  have  come  to  this  conclusion,  that  our  life  in  this 
world  is  a  gift  of  the  divine  clemency,  wliich  as  we  owe  it  to  him,  we  ought  to 
remember  with  gratitude,  it  will  then  be  time  for  us  to  descend  to  a  consider- 
ation of  its  most  miserable  condition,  that  we  may  be  delivered  from  exces- 
sive cupidity,  to  which,  as  has  been  observed,  we  are  naturally  inclined.  .  .  . 

6.  "  It  is  certainly  true  that  the  whole  family  of  the  faithful,  as  long  as 
they  dwell  on  earth,  must  be  accounted  as  '  sheep  for  the  slaughter '  (Rom. 
8 :  36),  that  they  may  be  conformed  to  Christ  their  Head.  Their  state,  there- 
fore, would  be  extremely  deplorable,  if  they  did  not  elevate  their  thoughts 
towards  heaven,  to  rise  above  all  sublunary  things,  and  look  beyond  present 
appearances  (1  Cor.  15  :  19).  On  the  contrary,  when  they  have  once  raised 
their  heads  al)Ove  this  world,  although  they  see  the  impious  flourishing  in 
riches  and  honors,  and  enjoying  the  most  profound  tranquillity;  though  they 
see  them  boasting  of  their  splendor  and  luxury,  and  behold  them  abounding 
in  every  delight;  though  they  may  also  be  harassed  by  their  wickedness, 
insulted  by  their  pride,  defrauded  by  their  avarice,  and  may  receive  from 
them  any  other  lawless  provocations ;  yet  they  will  find  no  difficulty  in  sup- 
porting themselves  even  under  such  calamities  as  these.  For  they  will  keep  in 
view  that  day  when  the  Lord  will  receive  his  faithful  servants  into  his  peace- 
ful kingdom;  Avill  wipe  every  tear  from  their  eyes  (Isa.  25:8;  Rev.  7:17), 
invest  them  with  robes  of  joy,  adorn  them  with  crowns  of  glory,  entertain 
them  with  his  ineffable  delights,  exalt  them  to  fellowship  with  His  Majesty, 
and,  in  a  word,  honor  them  with  a  participation  of  his  happiness.  But  the 
impious,  who  have  been  great  in  this  world,  he  will  precipitate  down  to  the 
lowest  ignominy  ;  he  will  change  tlieir  delights  into  torments,  and  their  laughter 


§  79.    CALVIN'S    INSTITUTES   OF   CHRISTIAN    RELIGION.      341 

and  mirth  into  weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth ;  lie  will  disturb  their  tran- 
quillity with  dreadful  agonies  of  conscience,  and  will  punish  their  delicacy 
with  inextinguishable  fire,  and  even  put  them  in  subjection  to  the  pious,  whose 
patience  they  have  abused.  For,  according  to  Paul,  it  is  a  righteous  thing 
with  God,  to  recompense  tribulation  to  those  that  trouble  the  saints,  and  rest 
to  those  who  are  troubled,  when  the  Lord  Jesus  shall  be  revealed  from  lieaven 
(2  Thess.  1  :  6,  7).  This  is  our  only  consolation,  and  deprived  of  this,  we 
must  of  necessity  either  sink  into  despondency  of  mind,  or  solace  ourselves  to 
our  own  destruction  with  the  vain  pleasures  of  the  world.  For  even  the 
psalmist  confesses  that  he  staggered,  when  he  was  too  much  engaged  in  con- 
templating the  present  prosperity  of  the  impious;  and  that  he  could  no  other- 
wise establish  himself,  till  he  entered  the  sanctuary  of  God,  and  directed  his 
views  to  the  last  end  of  the  godly  and  of  the  wicked  (Ps.  73:  2,  etc.). 

"  To  conclude  in  one  word,  the  cross  of  Christ  triumphs  in  the  hearts  of 
believers  over  the  devil  and  the  flesh,  over  sin  and  impious  men,  only  when 
their  eyes  are  directed  to  the  power  of  the  resurrection." 

Christian  Liberty. 
(Book  3,  ch.  19,  §  9.) 

1.  "  It  must  be  carefully  observed,  that  Christian  liberty  is  in  all  its  branches 
a  spiritual  thing ;  all  the  virtue  of  which  consists  in  appeasing  terrified  con- 
sciences before  God,  whether  they  are  disquieted  and  solicitous  concerning 
the  remission  of  their  sins,  or  are  anxious  to  know  if  their  works,  which  are 
imperfect  and  contaminated  by  the  defilements  of  the  flesh,  be  acceptable  to 
God,  or  are  tormented  concerning  the  use  of  things  that  are  indifferent. 
Wherefore  those  are  guilty  of  perverting  its  meaning,  who  either  make  it  the 
pretext  of  their  irregular  appetites,  that  they  may  abuse  the  divine  blessings 
to  the  purposes  of  sensuality,  or  who  suppose  that  there  is  no  liberty  but  what 
is  used  before  men,  and  therefore  in  the  exercise  of  it  totally  disregard  their 
weak  brethren. 

2.  "  The  former  of  these  sins  is  the  more  common  in  the  present  age. 
There  is  scarcely  any  one  whom  his  wealth  permits  to  be  sumptuous,  who  is 
not  delighted  with  luxurious  splendor  in  his  entertainments,  in  his  dress,  and 
in  his  buildings  ;  who  does  not  desire  a  pre-eminence  in  every  species  of  luxury  ; 
who  does  not  strangely  flatter  himself  on  his  elegance.  And  all  these  things 
are  defended  under  the  pretext  of  Christian  liberty.  They  allege  that  they 
are  things  indifferent.  This,  I  admit,  provided  they  be  indifferently  used. 
But  where  they  are  too  ardently  coveted,  proudly  boasted,  or  luxuriously  lav- 
ished, these  things,  of  themselves  otherwise  indifferent,  are  completely  polluted 
by  such  vices.  This  passage  of  Paul  makes  an  excellent  distinction  respect- 
ing things  which  are  indifferent :  '  Unto  the  pure,  all  things  are  pure :  but  unto 
them  that  are  defiled  and  unbelieving,  is  nothing  pure  ;  but  even  their  mind 
and  conscience  is  defiled'  (Titus  1:15).  For  why  are  curses  denounced  on 
rich  men,  who  'receive  their  consolation,'  who  are  '  satiated,'  who  '  now  laugh,' 
who  'lie  on  beds  of  ivory,'  who  'join  field  to  field,'  who  'have  the  harp  and 
lyre,  and  the  tabret,  and  wine  in  their  feasts  ? '  (Luke  6  :  24,  25;  Amos  6:1; 


M2         THE   REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Isa.  5:  8).  Ivory  and  gold  and  riches  of  all  kinds  are  certainly  blessings  of 
divine  providence,  not  only  permitted,  but  expressly  designed  for  the  use  of 
men ;  nor  are  we  anywhere  prohibited  to  laugh,  or  to  be  satiated  with  food, 
or  to  annex  new  possessions  to  those  already  enjoyed  by  ourselves  or  by  our 
ancestors,  or  to  be  delighted  with  musical  harmony,  or  to  drink  wine.  This, 
indeed,  is  true ;  but  amidst  an  abundance  of  all  things,  to  be  immersed  in 
sensual  delights,  to  inebriate  the  heart  and  mind  with  present  pleasures,  and 
perpetually  to  grasp  at  new  ones,  these  things  are  very  remote  from  a  legiti- 
mate use  of  the  divine  blessings.  Let  them  banish,  therefore,  immoderate 
cupidity,  excessive  profusion,  vanity,  and  arrogance ;  that  with  a  pure  con- 
science they  may  make  a  proper  use  of  the  gifts  of  God.  When  their  hearts 
shall  be  formed  to  this  sobriety,  they  will  have  a  rule  for  the  legitimate  enjoy- 
ment of  them.  On  the  contrary,  without  this  moderation,  even  the  common 
pleasures  of  the  vulgar  are  chargeable  with  excess.  For  it  is  truly  observed, 
that  a  proud  heart  frequently  dwells  under  coarse  and  ragged  garments,  and 
that  simplicity  and  humility  are  sometimes  concealed  under  purple  and  fine 
linen. 

3.  "Let  all  men  in  their  respective  stations,  whether  of  poverty,  of  compe- 
tence, or  of  splendor,  live  in  the  remembrance  of  this  trutli,  that  God  confers 
his  blessings  on  them  for  the  support  of  life,  not  of  luxury' ;  and  let  them  con- 
sider this  as  the  law  of  Christian  liberty,  that  they  learn  the  lesson  which  Paul 
had  learned,  when  he  said :  '  I  have  learned,  in  whatsoever  state  I  am,  there- 
with to  be  content.  I  know  both  how  to  be  abased,  and  I  know  how  to  abound : 
everywhere  and  in  all  things  I  am  intrusted,  both  to  be  full  and  to  be  hungry, 
both  to  abound  and  to  suffer  need'  (Phil.  4  :  11,  12)." 

The  Doctrine  of  Election. 
(Book  3,  ch.  21,  §  1.) 

1.  "  Nothing  else  [than  election  by  free  grace]  will  be  sufficient  to  produce 
in  us  suitable  humility,  or  to  impress  us  with  a  due  sense  of  our  great  obliga- 
tions to  God.  Nor  is  there  any  other  basis  for  solid  confidence,  even  accord- 
ing to  the  authority  of  Christ,  who,  to  deliver  us  from  all  fear  and  render  us 
invincible  amidst  so  many  dangers,  snares,  and  deadly  conflicts,  promises  to 
preserve  in  safety  all  whom  the  Father  has  committed  to  his  care.  .  .  .  The 
discussion  of  predestination,  a  subject  of  itself  rather  intricate,  is  made  very 
perplexed  and  therefore  dangerous  by  human  curiosity,  which  no  barriers  can 
restrain  from  wandering  into  forbidden  labyrinths,  and  soaring  beyond  its 
sphere,  as  if  determined  to  leave  none  of  the  divine  secrets  unscrutinized  or 
unexplored.  .  .  .  The  secrets  of  God's  will  which  he  determined  to  reveal  to 
us,  he  discovers  in  his  Word ;  and  these  are  all  that  he  foresaw  would  concern 
us,  or  conduce  to  our  advantage.  .  .  - 

2.  "  Let  us  bear  in  mind,  that  to  desire  any  other  knowledge  of  predesti- 
nation than  what  is  unfolded  in  the  Word  of  God,  indicates  as  great  folly,  as 
a  wish  to  walk  through  impassable  roads,  or  to  see  in  the  dark.  Nor  let  us 
be  ashamed  to  be  ignorant  of  some  things  relative  to  a  subject  in  which  there 
is  a  kind  of  learned  ignorance  {aliqua  docta  ignoranUa).  .  .  . 


§  80.     FROM   BASEL   TO    FERRAKA.  343 

3.  "  Others  desirous  of  remedying  this  evil,  will  leave  all  mention  of  pre- 
destination to  be  as  it  were  buried.  .  .  .  Though  their  moderation  is  to  be 
commended  in  judging  that  mysteries  ought  to  be  handled  with  such  great 
sobriety,  yet  as  they  descend  too  low,  they  leave  little  influence  on  the  mind 
of  man  which  refuses  to  submit  to  unreasonable  restraints.  .  .  .  The  Scrip- 
ture is  the  school  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  which  as  nothing  necessary  and  use- 
ful to  be  known  is  omitted,  so  nothing  is  taught  which  it  is  not  beneficial  to 
know.  .  .  .  Let  us  permit  the  Christian  man  to  open  his  heart  and  his  ears  to 
all  the  discourses  addressed  to  him  by  God,  only  with  this  moderation,  that  as 
soon  as  the  Lord  closes  his  sacred  mouth,  he  shall  also  desist  from  further 
inquiry.  .  .  .  'The  secret  things,'  says  Moses  (Deut.  29:  29),  'belong  unto 
the  Lord  our  God :  but  those  things  which  are  revealed  belong  unto  us,  and 
to  our  children  for  ever,  that  we  may  do  all  the  words  of  his  law.' 

5.  "  Predestination,  by  which  God  adopts  some  to  the  hope  of  life,  and 
adjudges  others  to  eternal  death,  no  one,  desirous  of  the  credit  of  piety,  dares 
absolutely  to  deny.  .  .  .  Predestination  we  call  the  eternal  decree  of  God,  by 
which  he  has  determined  in  himself,  what  he  would  have  to  become  of  every 
individual  of  mankind.  For  they  are  not  all  created  with  a  similar  destiny; 
but  eternal  life  is  fore-ordained  for  some,  and  eternal  damnation  for  others. 
Every  man,  therefore,  being  created  for  one  or  the  other  of  these  ends,  we 
say,  he  is  predestinated  either  to  life  or  to  death.  This  God  has  not  onlj'  tes- 
tified in  particular  persons,  but  has  given  as  specimen  of  it  in  the  whole  pos- 
terity of  Abraham,  which  should  evidently  show  the  future  condition  of  every 
nation  to  depend  upon  his  decision  (Deut.  32:  8,  9)." 

§  80.    From  Basel  to  Ferrara.     The  Duchess  Renee. 

Shortly  after,  if  not  before,  the  publication  of  his  great 
work,  in  March,  1536,  Calvin,  in  company  with  Louis  Du 
Tillet,  crossed  the  Alps  to  Italy,  the  classical  soil  of  the  liter- 
ary and  artistic  Renaissance.  He  hoped  to  aid  the  cause  of 
the  religious  Renaissance.  He  went  to  Italy  as  an  evangelist, 
not  as  a  monk,  like  Luther,  who  learned  at  Rome  a  practical 
lesson  of  the  working  of  the  papacy. 

He  spent  a  few  months  in  Ferrara  at  the  brilliant  court 
of  the  Duchess  Ren^e  or  Renata  (1511-1575),  the  second 
daughter  of  Louis  XII.,  of  France,  and  made  a  deep  and 
permanent  impression  on  her.  She  had  probably  heard  of  him 
through  Queen  Marguerite  and  invited  him  to  a  visit.  She 
Avas  a  small  and  deformed,  but  noble,  pious,  and  highly  accom- 
plished lady,  like  her  friends,  Queen  Marguerite  and  Vittoria 
Colonna.     She  srathered  around  her  the  brightest  wits  of  the 


344         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Renaissance,  from  Italy  and  France,  but  she  sympathized  still 
more  with  the  spirit  of  the  Reformation,  and  was  fairly  capti- 
vated by  Calvin.  She  chose  him  as  the  guide  of  her  con- 
science, and  consulted  him  hereafter  as  a  spiritual  father  as 
long  as  he  lived.^  He  discharged  this  duty  with  the  frank- 
ness and  fidelity  of  a  Chiistian  pastor.  Nothing  can  be  more 
manly  and  honorable  than  his  letters  to  her.  Guizot  affirms, 
from  competent  knowledge,  that  '"the  great  Catholic  bishops, 
who  in  the  seventeenth  century  directed  the  consciences  of 
the  miofhtiest  men  in  France,  did  not  fulfil  the  difficult  task 
with  more  Christian  firmness,  intelligent  justice  and  knowl- 
edge of  the  world  than  Calvin  displayed  in  his  intercourse 
■wdth  the  Duchess  of  Ferrara."  ^ 

Renan  wonders  that  such  a  stern  moralist  should  have 
exercised  a  lasting  influence  over  such  a  lady,  and  attributes 
it  to  the  force  of  conviction.  But  the  bond  of  union  was 
deeper.  She  recognized  in  Calvin  the  man  who  could  satisfy 
her  spiritual  nature  and  give  her  strength  and  comfort  to 
fight  the  battle  of  life,  to  face  the  danger  of  the  Inquisition, 
to  suffer  imprisonment,  and  after  the  death  of  her  husband 
and  her  return  to  France  (1559)  openly  to  confess  and  to 
maintain  the  evangelical  faith  under  most  trying  circum- 
stances when  her  own  son-in-law,  the  Duke  of  Guise,  carried 
on  a  war  of  extermination  against  the  Reformation.  She 
continued  to  correspond  with  Calvin  very  freely,  and  his  last 
letter  in   French,  twenty-three  days  before  his  death,   was 

^  Beza  (xxi.  12.3)  :  "  Illain  [Ferrariensem  Diicissam]  in  i-ero  pietatis  studio 
conjirmavit,  ut  eum  postea  vivum  semper  dilexerit,  ac  nunc  quoque  superstes  gratce  in 
defunctum  memoriae  specimen  edat  luculentum."  Colladon  (53)  speaks  likewise 
of  the  high  esteem  in  which  the  Duchess,  then  still  liring,  held  Calvin  before 
and  after  his  death.  Bolsec  in  his  libel  (Ch.  v.  30),  mentions  the  visit  to 
Ferrara,  but  suggests  a  mercenary  motive.  "  Calvin,"  he  says,  "  s'en  alia  vers 
Allemaigne  et  Itallie :  cherchanf  son  adveiiture.  et  passa  par  la  ville  de  Fen-are,  ou 
il  recent  quelque  aumone  de  Madame  la  Durhesse." 

-  St.  Louis  and  Calvin,  p.  207.  He  adds:  "And  the  duchess  was  not  the 
only  person  towards  whom  he  fulfilled  this  duty  of  a  Christian  pastor.  His 
correspondence  shows  that  he  exercised  a  similar  influence,  in  a  spirit  equally 
lofty  and  judicious,  over  the  consciences  of  many  Protestants." 


I 


1 


§  80.     FROM    BASEL   TO   FERRAKA.  345 

directed  to  her.  She  was  in  Paris  during  the  dreadful  mas- 
sacre of  St.  Bartholomew,  and  succeeded  in  saving  the  lives 
of  some  prominent  Huguenots.^ 

Threatened  by  the  Inquisition  which  then  began  its  work 
of  crushing  out  both  the  Renaissance  and  the  Reformation, 
as  two  kindred  serpents,  Calvin  bent  his  way,  probably  through 
Aosta  (the  birthplace  of  Anselm  of  Canterbury)  and  over 
the  Great  St.  Bernard,  to  Switzerland. 

An  uncertain  tradition  connects  with  this  journey  a  perse- 
cution and  flight  of  Calvin  in  the  valley  of  Aosta,  which  was 
commemorated  five  years  later  (1541)  by  a  memorial  cross 
with  the  inscription  "  Calviiii  Fuga.""  ^ 

1  See  the  correspondence  in  the  Letters  by  Bonnet,  and  in  the  Strassburg- 
Braunschweig  edition.  On  Renee  and  her  relation  to  Calvin  see  Henry,  I. 
159,  450-454;  IIL  Beilage  142-153;  in  his  smaller  work,  62-69;  478-483; 
Stahelin,  I.  94-108;  Sophia  W.  Weitzel,  Renee  of  France,  Duchess  of  Ferrara, 
New  York,  1883;  and  Theod.  Schott,  in  Herzog^,  XII.  693-701. 

2  In  the  city  of  Aosta,  near  the  Croix-de-Ville,  stands  a  column  eight  feet 
high,  surmounted  by  a  cross  of  stone,  with  the  following  inscription : 

Hanc 
Calvini  Fuga 

EREXIT 

Anno  MDXLI 

Religionis  Constantia 

Reparavit 

Anno  MDCCXLI. 

The  inscription  was  renewed  again  in  1841,  with  the  following  addition 
(according  to  Merle  d'Aubigne,  who  saw  it  himself,  vol.  V.  531)  : 

clvidm  munificentia 

Renovavit  et  Adornavit. 

Anno  MDCCCXLI. 

"  Religionis  constantia  "  must  refer  to  the  Roman  faith  which  drove  Calvin 
and  his  heresy  away.  Dr.  Merle  d'Aubigne'  accepts  Calvin's  flight  on  the 
ground  of  this  monumental  testimony  as  a  historical  fact,  but  the  silence 
of  Calvin,  Beza,  and  CoUadon  throws  doubt  on  it.  See  J.  Bonnet,  Calvin  au 
Val  d' Aosta,  1861  ;  A.  Rilliet,  Lettre  a  Mr.  Merle  d'Aubigne'  sur  deux  points 
obscure  de  la  vie  de  Calvin,  1864;  Stahelin,  I.  110;  Kampschulte,  I.  280 
(note)  ;  La  F-ance  Prot.,  III.  520 ;  Thomas  M'Crie,  The  Earltj  Years  of  Cal- 
vin, pp.  95  and  104. 

FoNTANA :  Documenti  del  archivio  vaticano  e  dell'  Estenso  circa  soggiorno  di 
Calvino  a  Ferrara,  1885.  Comba  in  "  Rivista  Christiana,"  1885  ;  Sandovini  in 
"  Rivista  stor.  italiana,"  1887. 


346  THE    REFORIVIATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

At  Basel  he  parted  from  Du  Tillet  and  paid  a  last  visit  to 
his  native  town  to  make  a  final  settlement  of  family  affairs.^ 

Then  he  left  France,  with  his  younger  brother  Antoine  and 
his  sister  iVIarie,  forever,  hoping  to  settle  down  in  Basel  or 
Strassburg  and  to  lead  there  the  quiet  life  of  a  scholar  and 
author.  Owing  to  the  disturbances  of  war  between  Charles  V. 
and  Francis  I.,  which  closed  the  direct  route  through  Lor- 
raine, he  had  to  take  a  circuitous  journey  through  Geneva. 

1  This  visit  to  Noyon  is  mentioned  by  Beza  in  the  Latin  Vita,  who  adds 
that  he  then  brought  his  only  surviving  brother  Antoine,  with  him  to  Geneva 
(XXI.  125).  Colladon  (58)  agrees,  and  informs  us  that  Calvin  left  Du  Tillet 
at  Basel,  who  from  there  went  to  Neuchatel.  In  his  French  Life  of  C,  Beza 
omits  the  journey  to  France:  "A  son  retour  d'ltalie  .  .  .  il  passa  a  la  bonne 
heure  par  ceste  ville  de  Geneve." 


CHAPTER   X. 

CALVIN'S   FIRST   SOJOURN   AND  LABORS  IN   GENEVA. 

1536-1538. 

From  1536,  and  especially  from  1541,  we  have,  besides  the  works  and  letters 
of  Calvin  and  his  correspondents  and  other  contemporaries,  important 
sources  of  authentic  information  in  the  following  documents  :  — 

1.  Segistres  du  Conseil  de  Geneve,  from  1536-1564.     Tomes  29-58. 

2.  Registres  des  actes  de  bapteme  et  de  marriage,  preserved  in  the  archives  of 

the  city  of  Geneva. 

3.  Registres  des  actes  du   Consistoire  de   Geneve,  of  which  Calvin  was  a  perma- 

nent member. 

4.  Registres  de  la  Venerable  Compagnie,  or  the  Ministerium  of  Geneva. 

5.  The  Archives  of  Bern,  Ziirich,  and  Basel,  of  that  period,  especially  those 

of  Bern,  which  stood  in  close  connection  with  Geneva  and  exercised  a 
sort  of  protectorate  over  Church  and  State. 

From  these  sources  the  Strassburg  editors  of  Calvin's  Works  have  carefully 
compiled  the  Annales  Calviniani,  in  vol.  XXI.  (or  vol.  XII.  of  Thesaurus 
Epistolicus  Calvinianus) ,  185-818  (published  1879).  The  same  volume 
contains  also  the  biographies  of  Calvin  by  Beza  (French  and  Latin)  and 
Colladon  (French),  the  epitapliia,  and  a  Notice  litteraire,  1-178. 

J.  H.  Albert  Rilliet  :  Le  pre'mier  se'jour  de  Calvin  a  Geneve.  In  his  and 
Dufour's  ed.  of  Calvin's  French  Catechism.  Geneva,  1878. — Henry, 
vol.  I.  chs.  VIIL  and  IX.  —  Dyer,  ch.  III.— Stahelin,  L  122  sqq.— 
Kampschulte,  I.  278-320.  —  Merle  d'Aubigne,  Bk.  XI.  chs.  I.-XIV. 

§  81.    Calvin's  Arrival  and  Settlement  at  Creneva. 

Calvin  arrived  at  Geneva  in  the  later  part  of  July,  1536,i 
two  months  after  the  Reformation  had  been  publicly  intro- 
duced (May  21). 

He  intended  to  stop  only  a  night,  as  he  says,  but  Provi- 
dence had  decreed  otherwise.  It  was  the  decisive  hour  of  his 
life  which  turned  the  quiet  scholar  into  an  active  reformer. 

1  Not  in  August  (as  stated  by  Beza,  Annal.  126,  203,  and  most  biographers). 
He  went  to  Basel  for  two  weeks  (August  4-19),  and  returned  to  Geneva,  accord- 
ing to  promise,  about  the  middle  of  August,  for  settlement.  See  his  letter  to 
Daniel,  Oct.  13,  1536,  in  Herminjard,  IV.  87 ;  comp.  77  note ;  also  Rilliet  and 
Roget.  347 


848         THE   REFORMATION    IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

His  presence  was  made  known  to  Farel  through  the  impru- 
dent zeal  of  Du  Tillet,  who  had  come  from  Basel  via  Neu- 
chatel,  and  remained  in  Geneva  for  more  than  a  year.  Farel 
instinctively  felt  that  the  providential  man  had  come  who 
was  to  complete  and  to  save  the  Reformation  of  Geneva.  He 
at  once  called  on  Calvin  and  held  him  fast,  as  by  divine  com- 
mand. Calvin  protested,  pleading  his  youth,  his  inexperience, 
his  need  of  further  study,  his  natural  timidity  and  bashful- 
ness,  which  unfitted  him  for  public  action.  But  all  in  vain. 
Farel,  "who  burned  of  a  marvellous  zeal  to  advance  the  Gos- 
pel," threatened  him  with  the  curse  of  Almighty  God  if  he 
preferred  his  studies  to  the  work  of  the  Lord,  and  liis  own 
interest  to  the  cause  of  Christ.  Calvin  was  terrified  and 
shaken  by  these  words  of  the  fearless  evangelist,  and  felt  "as 
if  God  from  on  hisfh  had  stretched  out  his  hand."  He  sub- 
mitted,  and  accepted  the  call  to  the  ministry,  as  teacher  and 
pastor  of  the  evangelical  Church  of  Geneva.^ 

It  was  an  act  of  obedience,  a  sacrifice  of  his  desires  to  a 
sense  of  duty,  of  his  will  to  the  will  of  God. 

Farel  gave  the  Reformation  to  Geneva,  and  gave  Calvin  to 
Geneva  —  two  gifts  by  which  he  crowned  his  own  work  and 
immortalized  his  name,  as  one  of  the  greatest  benefactors  of 
that  city  and  of  Reformed  Christendom. 

Calvin  was  foreordained  for  Geneva,  and  Geneva  for  Cal- 
vin.    Both  have  made  "•  tlieir  calling  and  election  sure." 

He  found  in  the  city  on  Lake  Leman  "  a  tottering  republic, 


1  Beza  (Vita,  XXI.  125)  :  "At  eqo  tibi.  inqnit  [Farel Ins'],  st)iclia  iua  prcBtex- 
enti  denuncio  omnipotentis  Dei  nomine  futurum  ut,  nisi  in  opus  istud  Domini  nobis- 
ctim  incumbas,  tibi  non  tam  Christum  qvam  te  ipsum  quce.renii  Dominus  maledicat. 
Hac  terribih  denunciatione  territvs,  Calvinus  sese  presbyter ii  et  magistratus  voluntati 
permisit,  quorum  snffi-acfiis,  accedente  plebis  consensu,  delectus  non  concionator 
tantum  (Jioc  autem  primum  recnsarat) ,  sed  etinm  sacrarum  literarum  doctor,  quod 
unum  admittebot,  est  designatus  anno  Domini  MDXXXVI.  mense  Augusta."  With 
this  should  be  compared  Calvin's  own  account  in  the  Preface  to  his  commen- 
tary on  the  Psalms,  and  Ann.  Calv.  20.3  sq.  Merle  d'Aubignc,  at  the  close  of 
vol.  V.  534-550,  gives  a  dramatic  description  of  Calvin's  first  arrival  and 
interview  with  Farel  at  Geneva,  with  some  embellishments  of  his  imagination. 


§  82.     FIRST    LABORS    AND    TRIALS.  349 

a  wavering  faith,  a  nascent  Church."  He  left  it  a  Gibraltar 
of  Protestantism,  a  school  of  nations  and  churches. ^ 

The  city  had  then  only  about  twelve  thousand  inhabitants, 
but  by  her  situation  on  the  borders  of  France  and  Switzer- 
land, her  recent  deliverance  from  political  and  ecclesiastical 
despotism,  and  her  raw  experiments  in  republican  self-gov- 
ernment, she  offered  rare  advantages  for  the  solution  of 
the  great  social  and  religious  problems  which  agitated 
Europe. 

Calvin's  first  labors  in  that  city  were  an  apparent  failure. 
The  Genevese  were  not  ready  yet  and  expelled  him,  but  after 
a  few  years  they  recalled  him.  They  might  have  expelled 
him  again  and  forever :  for  he  was  poor,  feeble,  and  unpro- 
tected. But  they  gradually  yielded  to  the  moulding  force  of 
his  genius  and  character.  Those  who  call  him  "  the  pope  of 
Geneva "  involuntarily  pay  him  the  highest  compliment. 
His  success  was  achieved  by  moral  and  spiritual  means,  and 
stands  almost  alone  in  history. 

§  82.    First  Labors  and  Trials. 

Calvin  began  his  labors,  Sept.  5, 1536,  by  a  course  of  exposi- 
tory lectures  on  the  Epistles  of  Paul  and  other  books  of  the 
New  Testament,  which  he  delivered  in  the  Church  of  St. 
Peter  in  the  afternoon.  They  were  heard  with  increasing 
attention.  He  had  a  rare  gift  of  teaching,  and  the  people 
were  hungry  for  religious  instruction. 

After  a  short  time  he  assumed  also  the  office  of  pastor 
which  he  had  at  first  declined. 

The  Council  was  asked  by  Farel  to  provide  a  suitable  sup- 
port for  their  new  minister,  but  they  were  slow  to  do  it,  not 
dreaming  that  he  would  become  the  most  distinguished  citi- 

1  Michelet  has  an  eloquent  chapter  on  the  transformation  of  Geneva  by 
Calvin,  who  made  it  from  a  city  of  pleasure  and  commerce  "  a  fabric  of  saints 
and  martyrs,"  a  "  ville  e'tonnnnte  oii  tout  e'tait  flamme  et  priere,  lecture,  travail,  ou- 
ster ite'"  (XI.  n()). 


350         THE  KEF0R:MATI0N   IX    FKENCH   SWITZERLAND, 

zen,  and  calling  him  simply  "  that  Frenchman."  ^  He  re- 
ceived little  or  no  salary  till  Feb.  13,  1537,  when  the  Council 
voted  him  six  gold  crowns.^ 

Calvin  accompanied  Farel  in  October  to  the  disputation  at 
Lausanne,  which  decided  the  Reformation  in  the  Canton  de 
Vaud,  but  took  little  part  in  it,  speaking  only  twice.  Farel 
was  the  senior  pastor,  twenty  years  older,  and  took  the  lead. 
But  with  rare  humility  and  simplicity  he  yielded  very  soon 
to  the  superior  genius  of  his  young  friend.  He  was  contented 
to  have  conquered  the  territory  for  the  renewed  Gospel,  and 
left  it  to  him  to  cultivate  the  same  and  to  bring  order  out 
of  the  political  and  ecclesiastical  chaos.  He  was  willing  to 
decrease,  that  Calvin  might  increase.  Calvin,  on  his  part, 
treated  him  always  with  affectionate  regard  and  gratitude. 
There  was  not  a  shadow  of  enxj  or  jealousy  between 
them. 

The  third  Reformed  preacher  was  Courault,  formerly  an 
Augustinian  monk,  who,  like  Calvin,  had  fled  from  France  to 
Basel,  in  1531,  and  was  called  to  Geneva  to  replace  Viret. 
Though  very  old  and  nearly  blind,  he  showed  as  much  zeal 
and  energy  as  his  younger  colleagues.  Saunier,  the  rector  of 
the  school,  was  an  active  sympathizer,  and  soon  afterwards 
Cordier,  Calvin's  beloved  teacher,  assumed  the  government 
of  the  school  and  effectively  aided  the  ministers  in  their 
arduous  work.  Viret  came  occasionally  from  the  neighboring 
Lausanne.  Calvin's  brother,  and  his  relative  Olivetan,  who 
joined  them  at  Geneva,  increased  liis  influence. 

The  infant  Church  of  Geneva  had  the  usual  trouble  with 
the  Anabaptists.  Two  of  their  preachers  came  from  Holland 
and  gained  some  influence.     But  after  an  unfruitful  disputa- 

1  "  nie  Gallus."  Annal.  Calv.  XXI.  204.  The  Registers  were  then  kept  in 
Latin,  but  after  1537,  in  French.  The  native  languages  superseded  the  Latin 
with  the  progress  of  the  Reformation. 

2  Under  that  date  the  Sepislres  du  Cons,  report :  "  Ici/  est  parl^  de  CALvnftrs 
^i'i7  na  encore  guere  receu  et  este'  arreste  que  Von  luy  delivre  ung  six  escus  soUil " 
(^Annal.  208). 


§  82.    FIRST   LABORS   AND   TRIALS.  351 

tion  they  were  banished  by  the  large  Council  from  the  terri- 
tory of  the  city  as  early  as  March,  1537. ^ 

A  more  serious  trouble  was  created  by  Peter  Caroli.  a  doc- 
tor of  the  Sorbonne,  an  unprincipled,  yain,  and  quarrelsome 
theological  adyenturer  and  turncoat,  who  changed  his  religion 
seyeral  times,  led  a  disorderly  life,  and  was  ultimately  recon- 
ciled to  the  pope  and  released  from  his  concubine,  as  he 
called  his  wife.  He  had  fled  from  Paris  to  Geneya  in  1535, 
became  pastor  at  Xeuchatel,  where  he  married,  and  then  at 
Lausanne.  He  raised  the  charge  of  Arianism  against  Farel 
and  Calyin  at  a  synod  in  Lausanne,  May,  1537,^  because  they 
ayoided  in  the  Confession  the  metaphysical  terms  Trinity  and 
Person,  (though  Calyin  did  use  them  in  his  Institutio  and  his 
Catechism,)  and  because  they  refused,  at  Caroli's  dictation, 
to  sign  the  Athanasian  Creed  with  its  damnatory  clauses, 
which  are  unjust  and  uncharitable.  Cahin  was  incensed  at 
his  arrocrant  and  boisterous  conduct  and  charged  him  -u-ith 
atheism.  '•  Caroli,'"  he  said,  "  quarrels  with  us  about  the 
nature  of  God  and  the  distinction  of  the  persons ;  but  I  carry 
the  matter  further  and  ask  him,  whether  he  belieyes  in  the 
Deity  at  all  ?  For  I  protest  before  God  and  man  that  he  has 
no  more  faith  in  the  Diyine  Word  than  a  dog  or  a  pig  that 
tramples  under  foot  holy  things*'  (Matt.  7  :  6).  This  is  the 
first  manifestation  of  his  angry  temper  and  of  that  contempt- 
uous tone  which  characterizes  his  polemical  writings.  He 
handed  in  with  his  colleagues  a  confession  on  the  Trinity .^ 

1  Ann.  208-210.  "  Conseil  des  Deux-cents  (Lundi  19  ^Jars).  Fuit  propositum 
negotium  illonim  Katabaptistarum  sur  lesquelz  a  este  advise  que  iceulx  et  tons  aultres 
de  leur  secte  soyent  perpetuellement  bannys  de  ceste  cite'  et  terres  dicelle  sus  poenne 
de  la  vye."  They  were  asked  to  recant,  but  answered  that  their  conscience 
did  not  allow  it,  whereupon  they  were  "perpetually  banished." 

2  The  troubles  with  Caroli  began  in  January,  1537;  the  synod  convened 
May  13.  Opera.  X.  82,  sqq. ;  letter  of  Farel,  p.  102,  of  Calvin,  107 ;  Annal 
207  and  211.     Kampschulte  (I.  296)  gives  a  wrong  date  (March). 

3  Confessio  de  Trinitate  propter  calumnias  P.  Caroli,  signed  by  Farel,  Calvin, 
and  Viret,  and  approved  by  Capito,  Bucer,  Myconius,  and  Grynaeus,  in  Opera, 
IX.  703-710. 


352         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

The  synod  after  due  consideration  was  satisiied  with  their 
orthodoxy,  and  declared  Caroli  convicted  of  calumny  and 
unworthy  of  the  ministry.     He  died  in  a  hospital  at  Rome.^ 

§  83.    The  Reformers  introduce  Order  and  Discipline. 

Confession  de  la  Foy  laquelle  tons  les  bourgeois  et  hahitans  de  Geneve  et  subjectz 
du  pays  doyvent  jurer  de  garder  et  tenir ;  extraicte  de  I' instruction  dont  on 
use  en  I'eglise  de  la  dicte  ville,  1537.  Confessio  Fidei  in  quam  jurare  cives 
omnes  Genevenses  et  qui  sub  civitatis  ejus  ditione  agunt,  jussi  sunt.  The  French 
in  Opera,  vol.  IX.  693-700  (and  by  Rilliet-Dufour,  see  below)  ;  the  Latin 
in  vol.  V.  355-362.     See  also  vol.  XXII.  5  sqq.  (publ.  1880). 

Le  Cate'chisme  de  I'Eglise  de  Geneve,  c'est  a  dire  le  Formulaire  d'instruire  les 
enfans  la  Chretiente  fait  en  maniere  de  dialogue  ou  le  ministre  interrogue  et 
I'enfant  respond.  The  first  edition  of  1537  is  not  divided  into  questions 
and  answers,  and  bears  the  title  Instruction  et  Confession  de  Foy  dont  on 
use  en  I'Eglise  de  Geneve.  A  copy  of  it  was  discovered  by  H.  Bordier  in 
Paris  and  published  by  Th.  Dcfour,  together  with  the  first  ed.  of  the 
Confession  de  la  Foy,  at  Geneva,  1878  (see  below).  A  copy  of  a  Latin 
ed.  of  1545  had  been  previously  found  in  the  Ducal  library  at  Gotha. 

Catechismus  sive  Christiance  religionis  institutio,  communibus  renalce  nuper  in 
evangelic  Genevensis  ecclesice  suffragiis  recepta  et  vulgar i  quidem  prius 
idiomate,  nunc  vero  Latine  etiam  in  luce.m  edita,  Joanne  Calvino  uuctore. 
The  first  draft,  or  Catechismus  prior,  was  printed  at  Basel,  1538  (with  a 
Latin  translation  of  the  Confession  of  1537).  Reprinted  in  Opera  in 
both  languages,  vol.  V.  313-361.  The  second  or  larger  Catechism  ap- 
peared in  French,  1541,  in  Latin,  1545,  etc. ;  both  reprinted  in  parallel 
columns,  Opera,  vol.  VI.  1-160. 

(NiEMEYER  in  his  Coll.  Conf.  gives  the  Latin  text  of  the  larger  Cat.  together 
with  the  prayers  and  liturgical  forms ;  comp.  his  Proleg.  XXXVII.- 
XLI.  BoCKEL  in  his  Bekenntniss- Schriften  der  evang.  Reform.  Kirche  gives 
a  German  version  of  the  larger  Cat.,  127-172.  An  English  translation 
was  prepared  by  the  Marian  exiles,  Geneva,  1556,  and  reprinted  in  Dun- 
lop's   Confessions,  II.  139-272). 

Calvin  had  a  hand  in  nearly  all  the  French  and  Helvetic  confessions  of  his 

age.     See  Opera,  IX.  693-772. 
*  Albert  Rilliet  and  Theophile  Dufour:  Le  Cate'chisme  francais  de  Calvin 
piiblie'  en  1537,   reimprime  pour  la  premiere  fois  d''apres  un  exemplaire  nou- 
vellement  retrouve,  et  suivi  de  la  plus  ancienne  Confession  de  Foi  de  I'Eglise 
de    Geneve  {avec   un  notice  sur  le  premier  sejour  de   Calvin  a    Geneve,  par 

1  On  the  controversies  with  Caroli,  see  Beza,  Vita,  in  Op.  XXI.  126  sq. ; 
Letters,  Nos.  638,  640,  644,  645,  665,  in  the  4th.  vol.  of  Herminjard  ;  Ruchat, 
vol.  v.;  Henry,  I.  253;  IL  37,  182;  III.  Beil.,209;  and  Merle  d'Aubigne,  VL 
362  sqq. 


§  83.     ORDER   AND   DISCIPLINE   INTRODUCED.  353 

Albert  Rilliet,  et  iine  notice  bibliographique  sur  le  Cate'chlsme  et  la  Confes- 
sion de  Foi  de  Calvin,  par  Tii£ophile  Dufour),  Geneve  (H.  Georg. ), 
and  Paris  (Fischbaeher),  1878,  16°.  pp.  ccLXxxvm.  and  146;  reprinted 
in  Opera,  XXII. 
ScHAFF :  Creeds  of  Christendom,  I.  467  sqq.  Stahelin,  I.  121  sqq. 
Kampschdlte,  I.  284  sqq.     Merle  d'Aubigne,  VI.  328-357. 

Geneva  needed  first  of  all  a  strong  moral  government  on 
the  doctrinal  basis  of  the  evangelical  Reformation.  The 
Genevese  were  a  light-hearted,  joyous  people,  fond  of  public 
amusements,  dancing,  singing,  masquerades,  and  revelries. 
Reckless  gambling,  drunkenness,  adultery,  blasphemy,  and 
all  sorts  of  vice  abounded.  Prostitution  was  sanctioned  by 
the  authority  of  the  State  and  superintended  by  a  woman 
called  the  Reine^  du  bordel.  The  people  were  ignorant.  The 
priests  had  taken  no  pains  to  instruct  them  and  had  set  them 
a  bad  example.  To  remedy  these  evils,  a  Confession  of  Faith 
and  Discipline,  and  a  popular  Catechism  were  prepared,  the 
first  by  Farel  as  the  senior  pastor,  with  the  aid  of  Calvin ;  ^ 
the  second  by  Calvin.  Both  were  accepted  and  approved  by 
the  Council  in  November,  1536.^ 

The  Confession  of  Faith  consists  of  twenty-one  articles  in 
which  the  chief  doctrines  of  the  evangelical  faith  are  briefly 
and  clearly  stated  for  the  comprehension  of  the  people.  It 
begins  with  the  Word  of  God,  as  the  rule  of  faith  and  prac- 
tice, and  ends  with  the  duty  to  the  civil  magistracy.     The 

1  Beza  treats  the  Confession  as  a  work  of  Calvin,  but  the  Strassburg  edi- 
tors defend  the  authorship  of  Farel.  Opera,  XXII.  Suppl.  col.  11-18.  Beza  says 
(XXI.  126)  :  "  Tunc  [i.e.  after  the  disputation  at  Lausanne,  1536]  edita  est  a 
Calvino  Christiance  doctrina'  qiUEdam  veluti  fonnula,  vixdum  emergenti  e  papatus 
sordilms  Genevensi  ecclesifE  accomodata .  Addidit  etiani  Catechismum,  non  ilium  in 
qucestiones  et  responsiones  distributnm,  quern  nunc  habemus,  sed  alium  multo  breviorem 
praiciprui  religionis  capita  complexum."  But  the  Catechism  appeared  two  months 
before  the  Confession.  "lam  vero  confessionem  non  sine  ratione  adjungendam 
curavimus."  Calv.,  Opera,  V.  319.  Rilliet,  I.e.  p.  IX.:  "La  Gonf.  de  Foy 
ii'a  para  que  quelques  mois  plus  tard."  The  Confession  is  an  extract  from  the 
Catechism,  as  the  title  says.  Merle  d'Aubigne  (VI.  337)  regards  the  con- 
fession as  the  joint  work  of  Calvin  and  Farel. 

2  Annal.,  206,  "Nov.  10.  La  confession  accepte'e.  Vers  la  meme  €poque  pre- 
miere e'dition  du  cat€chisme." 


35-1  THE    EEFOEMATIOX    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

doctrine  of  predestination  and  reprobation  is  omitted,  but  it 
is  clearly  taught  that  man  is  saved  by  the  free  grace  of  God 
without  any  merit  (Art.  10).  The  necessity  of  discipline  by 
admonition  and  excommunication  for  the  conversion  of  the 
sinner  is  asserted  (Art.  19).  This  subject  gave  much  trouble 
in  Geneva  and  other  Swiss  churches.  The  Confession  pre- 
pared the  way  for  fuller  Reformed  Confessions,  as  the  Galil- 
ean, the  Belgic,  and  the  Second  Helvetic.  It  was  printed 
and  distributed  in  April,  1537,  and  read  ever)-  Sunday  from 
the  pulpits,  to  prepare  the  citizens  for  its  adoption.^ 

Calvin's  Catechism,  which  preceded  the  Confession,  is  an 
extract  from  his  Institutes,  but  passed  through  several  trans- 
formations. On  his  return  from  Strassburg  he  re-wrote  it 
on  a  larger  scale,  and  arranged  it  in  questions  and  answers, 
or  in  the  form  of  a  dialogue  between  the  teacher  and  the 
pupd.  It  was  used  for  a  long  time  in  Reformed  Churches 
and  schools,  and  served  a  good  purpose  in  promoting  an  in- 
telligent piety  and  virtue  by  systematic  biblical  instruction. 
It  includes  an  exposition  of  the  Creed,  the  Decalogue,  and 
the  Lord's  Prayer.  It  is  much  fuller  than  Luther's,  but  less 
adapted  for  children.  Beza  says  that  it  was  translated  into 
German,  English,  Scotch,  Belgic,  Spanish,  into  Hebrew  by 
E.  Tremellius,  and  '•  most  elegantly "'  into  Greek  by  H. 
Stephanus.  It  furnished  the  basis  and  material  for  a  num- 
ber of  similar  works,  especially  the  Anglican  (Xowell's), 
the  Palatinate  (Heidelberg),  and  the  Westminster  Catechisms, 
which  gradually  superseded  it. 

Calvin  has  been  called  "the  father  of  popular  education 
and  the  inventor  of  free  schools."  ^  But  he  must  share  this 
honor  with  Luther  and  Zwingfli. 


1  Reg.  du  Cons.  17  and  27  avril,  1537.  It  had  been  previouslr  examined 
and  adopted  in  manuscript. 

-  Among  others  by  George  Bancroft,  in  his  Lit.  and  Hist.  Miscellanies,  p. 
406 :  "  Calvin  was  the  father  of  popular  education,  the  inventor  of  the  svstem 
of  free  schools." 


§  83.     ORDER    AND    DISCIPLINE   INTRODUCED.  355 

Besides  the  Confession  and  Catechism,  the  Keformed  pas- 
tors (/.6\  Farel,  Calvin,  and  Courault)  presented  to  the 
Council  a  memorial  concerning  the  future  organization  and 
discipline  of  the  Church  of  Geneva,  recommending  frequent 
and  solemn  celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  at  least  once  a 
month,  alternately  in  the  three  principal  churches,  singing 
of  Psalms,  regular  instruction  of  the  youth,  abolition  of  the 
papal  marriage  laws,  the  maintenance  of  public  order,  and 
the  exclusion  of  unworthy  communicants.^  They  regarded 
the  apostolic  custom  of  excommunication  as  necessary  for  the 
protection  of  the  purity  of  the  Church,  but  as  it  had  been 
fearfully  abused  by  the  papal  bishops,  they  requested  the 
Council  to  elect  a  number  of  reliable,  godly,  and  irreproach- 
able citizens  for  the  moral  supervision  of  the  different  dis- 
tricts, and  the  exercise  of  discipline,  in  connection  with  the 
ministers,  by  private  and  public  admonition,  and,  in  case  of 
stubborn  disobedience,  by  excommunication  from  the  privi- 
leges of  church  membership. 

On  Jan.  16,  1537,  the  Great  Council  of  Two  Hundred 
issued  a  series  of  orders  forbidding  immoral  habits,  foolish 
songs,  gambling,  the  desecration  of  the  Lord's  Day,  baptism 
by  midwives,  and  directing  that  the  remaining  idolatrous 
images  should  be  burned ;  but  nothing  was  said  about  excom- 
munication.^ This  subject  became  a  bone  of  contention 
between  the  pastors  and  citizens  and  the  cause  of  the  expul- 
sion of  the  Reformers.  The  election  of  syndics,  Feb.  5,  was 
favorable  to  them. 

The  ministers  were  incessantly  active  in  preaching,  cate- 
chising, and  visiting  all  classes  of  the  people.     Five  sermons 

^  Me'moire  de  Calvin  et  Farel  sur  l' organisation  de  I'eglise  de  Geneve.  In  the 
Registers  of  the  Council,  it  is  called  "  les  articles  donnes  par  M'  G.  Farel 
et  les  aultres  predicans."  The  document  was  recently  brought  to  light  by 
Gaberel  (Histoire  de  Ve'glise  de  Geneve,  1858,  Tom.  I.  102),  reprinted  in 
Opera,  vol.  X.  Part  I.  5-14.  A  summary  is  given  by  Merle  d'Aubigne,  VI. 
340  sqq. 

2  Annal.  Calv.  206  sq. 


356         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

were  preached  every  Sunday,  two  every  week  day,  and  were 
well  attended.  The  schools  were  flourishing,  and  public 
morality  was  steadily  rising.  Saunier,  in  a  school  oration, 
praised  the  goodly  city  of  Geneva  which  now  added  to  her 
natural  advantages  of  a  magnificent  site,  a  fertile  country,  a 
lovely  lake,  fine  streets  and  squares,  the  crowning  glory  of 
the  pure  doctrine  of  the  gospel.  The  magistrates  showed  a 
willingness  to  assist  in  the  maintenance  of  discipline.  A  gam- 
bler was  placed  in  the  pillory  with  a  chain  around  his  neck. 
Three  women  were  imprisoned  for  an  improper  head-dress. 
Even  FranQois  Bonivard,  the  famous  patriot  and  prisoner  of 
Chillon,  was  frequently  warned  on  account  of  his  licentious- 
ness. Every  open  manifestation  of  sympath}-  Avith  poper}^  by 
carrying  a  rosary,  or  cherishing  a  sacred  relic,  or  observing  a 
saint's  day,  was  liable  to  punishment.  The  fame  of  Geneva 
went  abroad  and  began  to  attract  students  and  refugees. 
Before  the  close  of  1537  English  Protestants  came  to  Geneva 
to  "see  Calvin  and  Farel."  ^ 

On  July  29, 1537,  the  Council  of  the  Two  Hundred  ordered 
all  the  citizens,  male  and  female,  to  assent  to  the  Confession 
of  Faith  in  the  Church  of  St.  Peter.^  It  was  done  by  a  large 
number.  On  Nov.  12,  the  Council  even  passed  a  measure  to 
banish  all  who  would  not  take  the  oath.^ 

1  Bullinger's  letter  to  Farel  and  Calvin,  Nov.  1,  1537  (in  the  Siraler  collec- 
tion of  Ziirich),  and  in  Op.  X.,  Pt.  I.  128,  also  in  Herminjard,  IV.  309.  Bul- 
linger  recommends  three  worthy  English  students  of  the  Bible,  "  Eliott,  Buttler, 
and  Partridge,"  who  had  spent  some  time  in  Ziirich.  BuUinger  had  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Farel  at  the  disputation  in  Bern,  January,  1528,  and  of 
Calvin  in  Basel,  February,  1536. 

2  Annal.  218:  " De  la  confession:  que  Von  donne  ordrefaire  que  tons  les  dizen- 
niers  ameneront  leurs  gens  dizenne  par  dizzenne  en  realise  S.  Pierre  et  la  leiir  seront 
leuz  les  articles  touchant  la  confession  en  dieu  et  seront  interrogne's  s'ils  veulent  cela 
tenir;  aiissi  sera  faict  le  serment  de  Jidelite'  a  la  ville."  A  dizennier  is  a  tithing- 
man,  or  headborough. 

8  Annal.  216  from  Reg.  du  Cons.  Tom.  31,  fol.  90.  But  the  order  could  not 
be  executed.  Not  one  from  the  rue  des  Allemands  would  subscribe  to  the 
Confession.  Even  Saunier  was  opposed  to  the  imposition  of  a  personal 
pledge. 


§  83.    ORDER    AND   DISCIPLI]SrE   INTRODUCED.  357 

The  Confession  was  thus  to  be  made  the  law  of  Church 
and  State.  This  is  the  first  instance  of  a  formal  pledge  to  a 
symbolical  book  by  a  whole  people. 

It  was  a  glaring  inconsistency  that  those  who  had  just 
shaken  off  the  yoke  of  popery  as  an  intolerable  burden,  should 
subject  their  conscience  and  intellect  to  a  human  creed ;  in 
other  words,  substitute  for  the  old  Roman  popery  a  modern 
Protestant  popery.  Of  course,  they  sincerely  believed  that 
they  had  the  infallible  Word  of  God  on  their  side ;  but  they 
could  not  claim  infallibility  in  its  interpretation.  The  same 
inconsistency  and  intolerance  was  repeated  a  hundred  years 
later  on  a  much  larger  scale  in  the  "  Solemn  League  and 
Covenant "  of  the  Scotch  Presbyterians  and  English  Puritans 
against  popery  and  prelacy,  and  sanctioned  in  1648  by  the 
Westminster  Assembly  of  Divines  which  vainly  attempted  to 
prescribe  a  creed,  a  Church  polity,  and  a  directory  of  worship 
for  three  nations.  But  in  those  days  neither  Protestants 
nor  Catholics  had  any  proper  conception  of  religious  tolera- 
tion, much  less  of  religious  liberty,  as  an  inalienable  right  of 
man.  "  The  power  of  the  magistrates  ends  where  that  of 
conscience  begins."     God  alone  is  the  Lord  of  conscience. 

The  Calvinistic  churches  of  modern  times  still  require 
subscription  to  the  Westminster  standards,  but  only  from  the 
officers,  and  only  in  a  qualified  sense,  as  to  substance  of  doc- 
trine ;  while  the  members  are  admitted  simply  on  profession 
of  faith  in  Christ  as  their  Lord  and  Saviour.^ 

1  The  Congregational  or  Independent  and  Baptist  churches,  however, 
while  they  disown  the  autliority  of  general  confessions,  and  hold  to  the  vol- 
untary principle,  usually  have  local  or  congregational  creeds  and  covenants 
which  must  be  assented  to  by  all  applicants  for  membership.  In  this  respect 
the  Prestjyterian  churches  are  more  liberal. 


358         THE    REFORMATION   IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

§  84.    Expulsion  of  the  Reformers.     1538. 

Calvin's  correspondence  from  1537  to  1538,  in   Op.  vol.  X.,  Pt.  II.  137  sqq. 

Herminjard,  vols.  IV.  and  V.  —  Annal.  Calv.,  Op.  XXI.,  fol.  215-235. 
Henry,  I.  ch.  IX.  — Dyer,  78  sqq.  —  Stahelin,  I.  151  sqq.  — Kampschulte,  I. 

296-319.    Merle  d'Aubigne,  Bk.  XL  chs.  XI.-XIV.  (vol.  VI.  469  sqq.), 
C.   A.  Cornelius:    Die    Verbannung   Calvins  aus   Genf.  i.J.  1538.     Miinchen, 

1886. 

The  submission  of  the  people  of  Geneva  to  such  a  severe 
system  of  discipline  was  only  temporary.  Many  had  never 
sworn  to  the  Confession,  notwithstanding  the  threat  of  pun- 
ishment, and  among  them  were  the  most  influential  citizens  of 
the  republic  ;  ^  others  declared  that  they  had  been  compelled 
to  perjure  themselves.  The  impossibility  of  enforcing  the  law 
brought  the  Council  into  contempt.  Ami  Porral,  the  leader 
of  the  clerical  party  in  the  Council,  was  charged  with  arbi- 
trary conduct  and  disregard  of  the  rights  of  the  people.  The 
Patriots  and  Libertines  who  had  hailed  the  Reformation  in  the 
interest  of  political  independence  from  the  yoke  of  Savoy 
and  of  the  bishop,  had  no  idea  of  becoming  slaves  of  Farel, 
and  were  jealous  of  the  influence  of  foreigners.  An  intrigue 
to  annex  Geneva  to  the  kingdom  of  France  increased  the 
suspicion.  The  Patriots  organized  themselves  as  a  political 
party  and  labored  to  overthrow  the  clerical  regime.  They 
were  aided  in  part  by  Bern,  which  was  opposed  to  the  tenet 
of  excommunication  and  to  the  radicalism  of  the  Reformers. 

There  was  another  cause  of  dissatisfaction  even  among 
the  more  moderate,  which  brought  on  the  crisis.  Farel  in  his 
iconoclastic  zeal  had,  before  the  arrival  of  Calvin,  abolished 
all  holidays  except  Sunday,  the  baptismal  fonts,  and  the 
unleavened  bread  in  the  communion,  all  of  which  were 
retained  by  the  Reformed  Church  in  Bern.^  A  synod  of 
Lausanne,  under  the  influence   of   Bern,  recommended   the 

1  According  to  the  testimony  of  Claude  Rozet,  the  secretary  of  state. 
He  himself  had  not  sworn  the  Confession,  although  he  had  read  it  publicly 
and  taken  the  oath  of  the  citizens  in  St.  Peter's,  July  29,  1537. 

2  Beza,  in  Calvin's  Opera,  XXI.  128. 


§  84.     EXPULSION    OF    THE    REFORMERS.  359 

restoration  of  the  old  Bernese  customs,  as  they  were  called. 
The  Council  enforced  this  decision.  Calvin  himself  regarded 
such  matters  as  in  themselves  indifferent,  but  would  not  for- 
sake his  colleagues. 

Stormy  scenes  took  place  in  the  general  assembly  of  citi- 
zens, Nov.  15,  1537.  In  the  popular  elections  on  Feb.  3, 
1638,  the  anti-clerical  party  succeeded  in  the  election  of  four 
syndics  and  a  majority  of  the  Council.^ 

The  new  rulers  proceeded  with  caution.  They  appointed 
new  preachers  for  the  country,  which  was  much  needed. 
They  prohibited  indecent  songs  and  broils  in  the  streets, 
and  going  out  at  night  after  nine.  They  took  Bern  for 
their  model.  They  enforced  the  decision  of  the  Council  of 
Lausanne  concerning  the  Church  festivals  and  baptismal 
fonts. 

But  the  preachers  were  determined  to  die  rather  than  to 
yield  an  inch.  They  continued  to  thunder  against  the  pop- 
ular vices,  and  censured  the  Council  for  want  of  energy 
in  suppressing  them.  The  result  was  that  they  were  warned 
not  to  meddle  in  politics  (March  12). ^  Courauld,  who  sur- 
passed even  Farel  in  vehemence,  was  forbidden  to  preach,  but 
ascended  the  pulpit  again,  April  7,  denounced  Geneva  and 
its  citizens  in  a  rude  and  insulting  manner,^  was  imprisoned, 
and  six  days  afterwards  banished  in  spite  of  the  energetic 
protests  of  Calvin  and  Farel.  The  old  man  retired  to  Thonon, 
on  the  lake  of  Geneva,  was  elected  minister  at  Orbe,  and 
died  there  Oct.  4  in  the  same  year. 

Calvin  and  Farel  were  emboldened  by  this  harsh  treatment 
of  their  colleague.    They  attacked  the  Council  from  the  pulpit. 

1  The  new  syndics,  Claude  Richardet,  Jean  Philippe,  Jean  Lullin,  and  Ami 
de  Chapeaurouge,  were  pronounced  enemies  of  Farel  and  Viret.  Ami  Porral 
was  not  re-elected.  Grynsus  of  Basel  wrote  several  letters  of  comfort  and 
encouragement  to  Farel  and  Calvin,  Feb.  13,  March  4,  March  12,  1538.  In 
Herminjard,  IV.  361,  370,  401. 

^  Ann.  222,  "  de  point  se  mesler  du  magistrat." 

3  He  compared  the  state  of  Geneva  with  the  kingdom  of  frogs,  and  the 
Geuevese  with  rats.     Merle  d'Aubigne',  VI.  455. 


360         THE   REFORMATION   IN    FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

Even  Calvin  went  so  far  as  to  denounce  it  as  the  Devil's 
Council.  Libels  were  circulated  against  the  preachers.  They 
often  heard  the  cry  late  in  the  evening,  "  To  the  Rhone  with 
the  traitors,"  and  in  the  night  they  were  disturbed  by  violent 
knocks  at  the  door  of  their  dwelling. 

They  were  ordered  to  celebrate  the  approaching  Easter 
communion  after  the  Bernese  rite,  but  they  refused  to  do  so 
in  the  prevailing  state  of  debauchery  and  insubordination. 
The  Council  could  find  no  supplies.  On  Easter  Sunday, 
April  21,  Calvin,  after  all,  ascended  the  pulpit  of  St.  Peter's  ; 
Farel,  the  pulpit  of  St.  Gervais.  They  preached  before  large 
audiences,  but  declared  that  they  could  not  administer  the 
communion  to  the  rebellious  city,  lest  the  sacrament  be  dese- 
crated. And  indeed,  under  existing  circumstances,  the  cele- 
bration of  the  love-feast  of  the  Saviour  would  have  been  a 
solemn  mockery.  Many  hearers  were  armed,  drew  their 
swords,  and  drowned  the  voice  of  the  preachers,  who  left  the 
church  and  went  home  under  the  protection  of  their  friends. 
Calvin  preached  also  in  the  evening  in  the  Church  of  St. 
Francis  at  Rive  in  the  lower  part  of  the  city,  and  was  threat- 
ened with  violence. 

The  small  Council  met  after  the  morning  service  in  great 
commotion  and  summoned  the  general  Council.  On  the  next 
two  days,  April  22  and  23,  the  great  Council  of  the  Two 
Hundred  assembled  in  the  cloisters  of  St.  Peter's,  deposed 
Farel  and  Calvin,  without  a  trial,  and  ordered  them  to  leave 
the  city  within  three   days.^ 

They  received  the  news  with  great  composure.  "  Very 
well,"  said  Calvin,  "  it  is  better  to  serve  God  than  man.  If 
we  had  sought  to  please  men,  we  should  have  been  badly 
rewarded,  but  we  serve  a  higher  Master,  who  will  not  with- 

1  The  same  Council  deposed  Claude  Rozet,  the  secretary  of  state,  who,  in 
his  official  capacity,  had  recorded  the  oath  of  the  people  to  the  Confession  of 
Faith,  July  29,  1537.  Registers  of  April  23,  1538.  Rozet,  Chron.  MS.  de 
Geneve,  Bk.  IV.  ch.  18  (quoted  by  Merle  d'Aubigne,  VI.  485). 


§  84.     EXPULSION   OF   THE   REFORMERS.  361 

hold  from  us  his  reward."  ^  Calvin  even  rejoiced  at  the  result 
more  than  seemed  proper. 

The  people  celebrated  the  downfall  of  the  clerical  regime 
with  public  rejoicings.  The  decrees  of  the  synod  of  Lausanne 
were  published  by  sound  of  trumpets.  The  baptismal  fonts 
were  re-erected,  and  the  communion  administered  on  the  fol- 
lowing Sunday  with  unleavened  bread. 

The  deposed  ministers  went  to  Bern,  but  found  little  sym- 
pathy. They  proceeded  to  ZUrich,  whei-e  a  general  synod  was 
held,  and  were  kindly  received.  They  admitted  that  they 
had  been  too  rigid,  and  consented  to  the  restoration  of  the 
baptismal  fonts,  the  unleavened  bread  (provided  the  bread 
was  broken),  and  the  four  Church  festivals  observed  in  Bern ; 
but  they  insisted  on  the  introduction  of  discipline,  the  divis- 
ion of  the  Church  into  parishes,  the  more  frequent  adminis- 
tration of  the  communion,  the  singing  of  Psalms  in  public 
worship,  and  the  exercise  of  discipline  by  joint  committees  of 
laymen  and  ministers.''^ 

Bullinger  undertook  to  advocate  this  compromise  before 
Bern  and  Geneva.  But  the  Genevese  confirmed  in  general 
assembly  the  sentence  of  banishment,  May  26. 

With  gloomy  prospects  for  the  future,  yet  trusting  in  God, 
who  orders  all  things  well,  the  exiled  ministers  travelled  on 
horseback  in  stormy  weather  to  Basel.  In  crossing  a  torrent 
swollen  by  the  rains  they  were  nearly  swept  away.  In  Basel 
they  were  warmly  received  by  sympathizing  friends,  especially 
by  Grynseus.  Here  they  determined  to  wait  for  the  call  of 
Providence.  Farel,  after  a  few  weeks,  in  July,  received  and 
accepted  a  call  to  Neuch^tel,  his  former  seat  of  labor,  on  con- 
dition that  he  should  have  freedom  to  introduce- his  system  of 


1  Beza,  Rozet,  and  the  Rer/isters  all  report  tliis  answer  with  slight  varia- 
tions. Farel's  answer  to  the  messenger  was :  "  Well  and  good ;  it  is  from 
God." 

2  See  the  14  Articles  drawn  up  by  Calvin  and  Farel,  in  Henry,  I.  Beilage,  8  ; 
in  Op.  X.,  Part  II.  190-192,  and  in  Herminjard,  V.  3-6. 


362         THE    REFORMATION    IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

discipline.     Calvin  was  induced,  two  months  later,  to  leave 
Basel  for  Strassburg. 

It  was  during  this  crisis  that  Calvin's  friend  and  travelling 
companion,  Louis  du  Tillet,  who  seems  to  have  been  of  a  mild 
and  peaceable  disposition,  lost  faith  in  the  success  of  the 
Reformation.  He  left  Geneva  in  August,  1537,  for  Strass- 
burof  and  Paris,  and  returned  to  the  Roman  Church.  He 
had  relations  in  high  standing  who  influenced  him.  His 
brother,  Jean  du  Tillet,  was  the  famous  registrar  of  the  Par- 
liament of  Paris ;  another  brother  became  bishop  of  Sainte- 
Brieux,  afterwards  of  Meaux.^  He  explained  to  Calvin  his 
conscientious  scruples  and  reasons  for  the  change.  Calvin 
regarded  them  as  insuthcient,  and  warned  him  earnestly,  but 
kindly  and  courteously.  The  separation  was  very  painful  to 
both,  but  was  relieved  by  mutual  regard.  Du  Tillet  even 
offered  to  aid  Calvin  in  his  distressed  condition  after  his  ex- 
pulsion, but  Calvin  gratefully  declined,  writing  from  Strass- 
burg, Oct.  20,  1588  :  "  You  have  made  me  an  offer  for  which 
I  cannot  sufficiently  thank  you;  neither  am  I  so  rude  and 
unmannerly  as  not  to  feel  the  unmerited  kindness  so  deeply, 
that  even  in  declining  to  accept  it,  I  can  never  adequately  ex- 
press the  obligation  that  I  owe  to  you."'  As  to  their  difference 
of  opinion,  he  appeals  to  the  judgment  of  God  to  decide  who 
are  the  true  schismatics,  and  concludes  the  letter  with  the 
prayer :  '*  May  our  Lord  uphold  and  keep  you  in  his  holy  pro- 
tection, so  directing  you  that  you  decline  not  from  his  way.'"^ 

1  Hermiujard,  V.  107  (note  11)  :  and  p.  163. 

■^  See  the  correspondence  in  Herminjard,  IV.  354-3-59  and  384-400  ;  V.  103- 
109;  161,  162;  180-200.  Du  Tillet  writes  under  his  nom  selqneurial  De  Hault- 
raont  to  Charles  d'Espeville  (Calvin).  His  last  letter  is  dated  Paris,  Dec.  1, 
1538,  and  closes  with  the  desire  to  remain  "  always  his  friend  and  brother  in 
Christ."  There  is  also  an  answer  of  Bucer  to  Du  Tillet  from  Strassburg,  Oct. 
8,  1539  (in  Herminjard,  VI.  61-70),  in  which  he  refutes  four  objections 
which  Du  Tillet  had  made  against  the  Protestants,  viz.:  1)  that  they  seceded 
from  the  Church  of  Christ ;  2)  that  they  rejected  good  customs  and  observ- 
ances of  the  Church ;  3)  that  they  spoiled  the  goods  of  the  Church ;  4)  that 
they  denied  many  true  dogmas  and  introduced  false  dogmas. 


CHAPTER   XI. 

CALVIX  IN   GERMAXY.     FROM   1538-1541. 
§  85.    Calvin  in  Strasshurg. 

I.  Calvin's    correspondence   from    15o8-lo41    in    Opera,  vols.   X.  and  XI. ; 

Hermixjaed,  vols.  V.  and  VI.;  Boxnet-Coxstable,  vol.  I.  53  sqq. — 
Beza:  Vita  Cab.,  in  Op.  XXI.  128  sq.  — .-l«n.  Calv.,  Op.  XXI.  226-285. 
Contains  extracts  from  the  Archives  du  chapitre  de  St.  Thomas  de  Stras- 
bourg. 

II.  Alf.  Erichsox  :  L'Eglise  frangaise  de  Strasbowg  au  XVI^  siecle,  d'apres 
des  documents  ine'dits.  Strasb.  1885.  Comp.  also  his  other  works  on  the 
History  of  the  Keformation  in  the  Alsace.  —  0.  A.  Cornelius  :  Die  Riick- 
kehr  Calvin^s  nach  Genf.  Miinchen,  1889.  —  E.  Docmergue  (Prof,  of  the 
Prot.  Faculty  of  Montauban)  :  JEssai  sur  I'histoire  du  Gulte  Beyhrme' princi- 
palement  au  XIX^  Siecle.  Paris,  1890.  Ch.  I.,  Calvin  a  Strasbourg,  treats  of 
the  worship  in  the  first  French  Reformed  Church,  the  model  of  the 
churches  of  France.  —  Edcard  Stricker  :  Johannes  Calvin  als  erster 
Pfarrer  der  reformirten  Gemeinde  zu  Strassburg .  Xach  urkundlichen  Quellen. 
Strassburg  (Heitz  &  Miindel),  1890  (65  pp.).  In  commemoration  of  the 
centenarj'  of  tlie  church  edifice  of  the  French  Reformed  congregation 
(built  in  1790)  by    its  present  pastor. 

III.  Hexrt,  I.  ch.  X.  —  Stahelix,  1. 168-283.  —Kasipschulte,  I.  320-368.  — 
Merle  d'Aubigxe,  Bk.  XI.  chs.  XV.-XVII.  (vol.  VI.  513-609). 

Calvin  felt  so  discouraged  by  his  recent  experience  that 
he  was  disinclined  to  assume  another  public  office,  and  Cou- 
rault  approved  of  this  purpose.  He  therefore  refused  the  first 
invitation  of  Bucer  to  come  to  Strassburg,  the  more  so  as  his 
friend  Farel  was  not  included.  But  he  pelded  at  last  to 
repeated  solicitations,  mindful  of  the  example  of  the  prophet 
Jonah.     Farel  gave  his  hearty  assent. 

Strassburg  1  was  since  1254  a  free  imperial  city  of  Ger- 
many, famous  for  one  of  the  finest  Gothic  cathedrals,  large 

1  Or  Strasbourg  in  French.  Argenloratum  was  a  Roman  military  station 
in  the  time  of  Augustus. 

363 


364         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

commerce,  and  literary  enterprise.  Some  of  the  first  editions 
of  the  Bible  were  printed  there.  By  its  geographical  situa- 
tion, a  few  miles  west  of  the  Upper  Rhine,  it  formed  a 
connecting  link  between  Germany,  France,  and  Switzerland, 
as  also  between  Lutheranism  and  Zwinglianism.  It  offered 
a  hospitable  home  to  a  steady  flow  of  persecuted  Protestants 
from  France,  who  called  Strassburg  the  New  Jerusalem. 
The  citizens  had  accepted  the  Reformation  in  1523  in  the 
spirit  of  evangelical  union  between  the  two  leading  types  of 
Protestantism.  Bucer,  Capito,  Hedio,  Niger,  Matthias  Zell, 
Sturm,  and  others,  labored  there  harmoniously  together. 
Strassburg  was  the  Wittenberg  of  South-western  Germany, 
and  in  friendly  alliance  with  Ziirich  and  Geneva. 

Martin  Bucer,  the  chief  Reformer  of  the  city,  was  the 
embodiment  of  a  generous  and  comprehensive  catholicity, 
and  gave  it  expression  in  the  Tetrapolitan  Confession,  which 
was  presented  at  the  diet  of  Augsburg  in  1530.^  He  after- 
wards brought  about,  in  the  same  irenic  spirit,  the  Witten- 
berg Concordia  (1536),  which  was  to  harmonize  the  Lutheran 
and  Zwinglian  theories  on  the  Lord's  Supper,  but  conceded 
too  much  to  Luther  (even  the  participation  of  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ  by  unworthy  communicants),  and  therefore 
was  rejected  by  BuUinger  and  the  Swiss  Churches.  He 
wrote  to  Bern  in  June,  1540,  that  next  to  Wittenberg  no 
city  in  Germany  was  so  friendly  to  the  gospel  and  so  large- 
hearted  in  spirit  as  Strassburg.  He  ended  his  labors  in  the 
Anglican  Church  as  professor  of  theology  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Cambridge  in  1551.  Six  years  after  his  death  his 
body  was  dug  up,  chained  upright  to  a  stake  and  burned, 
under  Queen  Mary ;  but  his  tomb  was  rebuilt  and  his  mem- 
ory honorably  restored  under  Queen  Elizabeth.  His  col- 
league Fagius  shared  the  same  fate. 

The  Ziirichers,  in  a  letter  to  Calvin,  call  Strassburg  "  the 

1  See  vol.  VI.  571  and  718. 


§  85.    CALVIN   IN    STRASSBURG.  365 

Antioch  of  the  Reformation  "  ;  Capito,  "  the  refuge  of  exiled 
brethren " ;  the  Roman  Catholic  historian,  Florimond  de 
Rsemond,  "the  retreat  and  rendez-vous  of  Lutherans  and 
Zwinglians  under  the  control  of  Bucer,  and  the  receptacle 
of  those  that  were  banished  from  France."  ^  Among  the  dis- 
tinguished early  refugees  from  France  were  Francis  Lambert, 
Farel,  Le  Fevre,  Roussel,  and  Michel  d'Arande.  Unfortu- 
nately, Strassburg  did  not  long  occupy  this  noble  position, 
but  became  a  battlefield  of  bitter  sectarian  strife  and,  for 
some  time,  the  home  of  a  narrow  Lutheran  orthodoxy.  The 
city  was  conquered  by  Louis  XIV.  and  annexed  to  Roman 
Catholic  France  in  1681,  to  the  detriment  of  her  Protestant 
character,  but  was  reconquered  by  Emperor  William  I.  and 
incorporated  with  united  Germany  as  the  capital  of  Alsace 
and  Lorraine  in  1870.  The  university  was  newly  organized 
and  better  equipped  than  ever  before.^ 

Calvin  arrived  at  Strassburg  in  the  first  days  of  Septem- 
ber, 1538.^  He  spent  there  three  years  in  useful  labors. 
He  was  received  with  open  arms  by  Bucer,  Capito,  Hedio, 
Sturm,  and  Niger,  the  leading  men  in  the  Church,  and 
appointed  by  the  Council  professor  of  theology,  with  a  mod- 
erate salary.  He  soon  felt  at  home,  and  in  the  next  summer 
bought  the  citizenship,  and  joined  the  guild  of  the  tailors.* 

1  "  C'etait  le  receptacle  des  bannis  de  la  France."  Hisl.  de  la  naissance  de 
I'hergsie,  p.  838. 

-  It  will  take  some  time  before  the  irritating  question  of  language  and 
nationality  can  be  settled.  When  last  in  Strassburg,  I  asked,  first,  a  shop- 
keeper whether  the  people  speak  more  French  or  German,  and  received  the 
prompt  and  emphatic  answer:  '■'On  park  toajours  fran^ais  a  Strasbourg." 
The  next  person,  in  answer  to  the  same  question,  replied :  "  Man  spricht  mehr 
deutsch."  At  last,  a  market-woman  told  the  truth:  "Man  spricht  dietsch." 
The  Alsatian  dialect  prevails  at  home,  the  French  in  society,  the  high  Ger- 
man in  the  university,  among  tlie  government  officials  and  soldiers. 

3  Not  at  the  end  of  September,  as  Stiihelin  has  it.  See  Strieker,  p.  11, 
note,  where  he  shows  that  Calvin  preached  his  first  sermon  at  Strassburg  on 
the  8th  of  September. 

*  July  30,  1539.  Some  historians  err  in  stating  that  the  citizenship  was 
presented   to  him.     See  Strieker,  44,  and   Amial.  XXI.  fol.   250:   "  Ujf  den 


366         THE    REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

The  sojourn  of  Calvin  in  this  city  was  a  fruitful  epi- 
sode in  his  life,  and  an  education  for  more  successful  work 
in  Genpva.  His  views  were  enlarged  and  deepened.  He 
gained  valuable  experience.  He  came  in  contact  with  the 
Lutheran  Church  and  its  leaders.  He  learned  to  understand 
and  appreciate  them,  but  was  unfavorably  impressed  with 
the  want  of  discipline  and  the  slavish  dependence  of  the 
clergy  upon  the  secular  rulers.  He  labored  indefatigably 
and  successfully  as  professor,  pastor,  and  author.  He  in- 
formed Farel  (April  20,  1539)  that,  when  the  messenger 
called  for  copy  of  his  book  (the  second  edition  of  the  Insti- 
tutes), he  had  to  read  fifty  pages,  then  to  teach  and  to 
preach,  to  write  four  letters,  to  adjust  some  quarrels,  and 
was  interrupted  by  visitors  more  than  ten  times. ^ 

It  is  in  the  fitness  of  things  that  three  learned  professors 
of  the  University  of  Strassburg,  who  lived  during  the  French 
and  German  regime,  and  were  equall}^  at  home  in  the  language 
and  theology  of  both  nations,  should  give  to  the  world  the 
last  and  best  edition  of  Calvin's  works. 

Calvin's  economic  condition  during  these  three  years  was 
very  humble.  It  is  a  shame  for  the  congregation  and  the 
city  government  that  they  allowed  such  a  man  to  struggle 
for  his  daily  bread.  For  the  first  five  months  he  received  no 
pay  at  all,  only  free  board  in  the  house  of  a  liberal  friend. 
His  countrymen  were  poor,  but  might  have  done  something. 
He  informed  Farel,  in  April,  1539,  that  of  his  many  friends 
in  France,  not  one  had  offered  him  a  copper,  except  Louis 
Du  Tillet,  who  hoped  to  induce  him  to  return.  Hence  he 
declined.2     The  city  paid  him  a  very  meagre  salary  of  fifty- 

30  tag  Julij  Anno  39  ist  Johannes  Galvinus  uff  unser  Herren  der  statt  Strasz- 
burg  Saal  erschinnen,  und  sich  angeben  lut  der  Ordnung  und  will  dienen  mit  den 
schnydern." 

1  Herminjard,  V.  286  sq. ;   Opera,  X.,  Pars  II.  337. 

2  "  Cum  innumeros  aliquando  amicos  in  Gallia  habuerim,  nemo  fuit  qui  assem 
mihi  obiulerit  ;  et  tamen  si  fecissent,  poterant  frui  gratuita  beneficentice  Jactantia  : 
nihil  enim  illis  constitisset  offerre  quod  acceptassem.      Exciderat   mihi  Ludovicus 


§  86.    CHURCH   OF   THE   STRANGERS   IN    STRASSBURG.      367 

two  guilders  (about  two  hundred  marks)  for  his  professorial 
duties  from  May,  1539.^  His  books  were  not  profitable. 
When  the  Swiss  heard  of  his  embarrassment,  they  wished  to 
come  to  his  aid,  and  Fabri  sent  ten  ducats  to  Farel  for 
Calvin.2  But  he  preferred  to  sell  his  greatest  treasure  —  the 
library  —  which  he  had  left  in  Geneva,  and  to  take  students 
as  boarders  (^pensionnaires}.  He  trusted  to  God  for  the 
future.^ 

With  all  his  poverty  he  was  happy  in  his  independence,  the 
society  of  congenial  friends,  and  his  large  field  of  usefulness. 

§  86.    The   Church  of  the  Strangers  in  Strassburg. 

Calvin  combined  the  offices  of  pastor  and  professor  of 
theology  in  Strassburg,  as  he  had  done  in  Geneva.  The 
former  activity  kept  him  in  contact  with  his  French  country- 
men; the  latter  extended  his  influence  among  the  scholars 
in  Germany. 

[Du  Tillet]  ;  ille  unus  fuit  qui  ohtulit ;  sed  ipse  quoque  suam  largitionem  niniis 
magno  venditabat  :  siquidem  me  tantum  non  ad  recantandum  fiortabatur ."  Herniin- 
jard,  V.  291  sq.  See  the  letter  of  Du  Tillet  from  Paris,  Oct.  20,  1538,  in 
which  he  offers  him  to  furnish  ^'■assez  a  toute  vostre  necessite'"  (ibid.  p.  107). 

^  May  1,  1539  :  ' '  Joannes  Calvinus  so  ein  geldhrter  frommer  Gesell  sein  soil  und 
zu  Zeiten  auch  in  Theologia  lese,  zudem  auch  zu  den  Reuwern  franzosisch  predige, 
haben  die  Herren  .  .  .  ist  beschlossen  dasz  man  demselben  nuhn  filrter  ein  Jar 
lang  die  52  fi.  alsz  ein  zuhelffer  geben  und  soil  prima  Maij  angehen."  From  the 
Thomas-Archiv,  in  Annal.  fol.  246. 

2  "  Decern  coronates."  Libertet  (Christophe  Fabri)  to  Farel,  May  8,  1539, 
in  Herminjard,  V.  307. 

3  "It  is  very  agreeable  to  me,"  he  wrote  to  Farel,  who  had  communicated 
to  his  colleagues  Calvin's  wants,  "  I  confess,  that  my  brethren  entertahi  such 
a  regard  for  me,  that  they  are  ready  to  supply  my  wants  from  their  own 
means.  It  could  not  be  otherwise  than  that  I  must  be  greatly  delighted  with 
such  a  testimony  of  their  love  (quin  tali  ainoris  testimonio  delecter).  Neverthe- 
less, I  have  determined  to  abstain  from  putting  both  your  kindness  and  theirs 
in  requisition,  unless  a  greater  necessity  shall  compel  me.  Wendelin  [Wende- 
lin  Rihel],  the  printer,  to  whom  I  intrusted  my  book  [the  second  edition  of 
the  Institutio']  to  be  printed,  will  provide  me  with  as  much  as  will  be  sufficient 
for  any  extraordinary  expenses.  From  my  books  which  yet  remain  at  Geneva, 
there  will  be  enough  to  satisfy  my  landlord  till  next  winter.  As  to  the  future, 
the  Lord  will  provide."     (Herminjard,  I.e.) 


368         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

He  organized  the  first  Protestant  congregation  of  French 
refugees,  which  served  as  a  model  for  the  Reformed  Churches 
of  Geneva  and  France. 

The  number  of  refugees  amounted  at  that  time  to  about 
four  hundred.!  Most  of  tliem  belonged  to  the  "  little  French 
Church."  2  His  first  sermon  was  delivered  in  the  Church  of 
St.  Nicholas,  and  attracted  a  large  crowd  of  Frenchmen  and 
Germans.^  He  preached  four  times  a  week  (twice  on  Sun- 
day), and  held  Bible  classes.  He  trained  deacons  to  assist 
him,  especially  in  the  care  of  the  poor,  whom  he  had  much  at 
heart.  The  names  of  the  first  two  were  Nicholas  Parent, 
who  afterwards  became  pastor  at  Neuchatel,  and  Claude  de 
Fer  or  F^ray  (Claudius  Ferseus),  a  French  Hellenist,  who 
had  fled  to  Strassburg,  taught  Greek,  and  died  of  the  pesti- 
lence in  1541,  to  the  great  grief  of  Calvin. 

He  introduced  his  favorite  discipline,  and  as  he  was  not 
interfered  with  by  the  magistracy  he  had  better  success  than 
at  Geneva  during  his  first  sojourn.  "  No  house,"  he  says, 
"  no  society,  can  exist  without  order  and  discipline,  much  less 
the  Church."  He  laid  as  much  stress  upon  it  as  Luther  did 
upon  doctrine,  and  he  regarded  it  as  the  best  safeguard  of 
sound  doctrine  and  Christian  life.  He  excluded  a  student 
who  had  neglected  public  worship  for  a  month  and  fallen 
into  gross  immorality,  from  the  communion  table,  and  would 
not  admit  him  till  he  professed  repentance.* 

1  A  census  of  Strassburg,  taken  Oct.  18,  1553,  enumerates  one  hundred 
Frenchmen  who  were  citizens,  thirty-five  who  were  not  citizens,  and  sixteen 
soldiers  (in  all  151  men),  without  including  wives,  children,  and  servants. 
From  this  Strieker  (p.  5)  infers  that  the  foreign  population  numbered  four 
hundred  souls.  Doumergue  (^.c.  p.  3)  counts  from  five  hundred  to  six  hun- 
dred. Specklin  (1536-1589),  the  author  of  a  chronicle  of  Strassburg  (edited 
by  Rud.  Reuss,  Strassb.  1890),  gives  a  much  larger  number,  namely,  fifteen 
hundred ;  but  he  is  not  very  accurate,  and  must  be  corrected  by  the  official 
census. 

2  "  Ecdesiola  Gallicana,"  as  Calvin  calls  it. 

^  Afterwards  he  preached  in  the  Klosterhirche  der  Reuerinnen,  now  called 
the  Magdalenen  Kirche. 

*  Calvin  to  Farel,  in  Herminjard,  V.  291. 


§  86.    CHURCH   OF   THE   STRANGERS   IN    STRASSBURG.      369 

Not  a  few  of  the  yovmger  members,  however,  objected  to  ex- 
communication as  a  popish  institution.  But  he  distinguished 
between  the  yoke  of  Christ  and  the  tyranny  of  the  pope.  He 
persevered  and  succeeded.  "  I  have  conflicts,"  he  wrote  to 
Farel,  "■  severe  conflicts,  but  they  are  a  good  school  for  me." 

He  converted  many  Anabaptists,  who  were  wisely  tolerated 
in  the  territory  of  Strassburg,  and  brought  to  him  from  the 
city  and  country  their  children  for  baptism.  He  was  con- 
sulted by  the  magistrates  on  all  important  questions  touch- 
ing religion.  He  conscientiously  attended  to  pastoral  care, 
and  took  a  kindly  interest  in  every  member  of  his  flock.  In 
this  way  he  built  up  in  a  short  time  a  prosperous  church, 
which  commanded  the  respect  and  admiration  of  the  commu- 
nity of  Strassburg.^ 

Unfortunately,  this  Church  of  the  Strangers  lasted  only 
about  twenty-five  years,  and  was  extinguished  by  the  flames 
of  sectarian  bigotry,  though  not  till  after  many  copies  had 
been  made  from  it  as  a  model.  An  exclusive  Lutheranism, 
under  the  lead  of  Marbach,  obtained  the  ascendency  in 
Strassburg,  and  treated  the  Calvinistic  Christians  as  danger- 
ous heretics.  When  Calvin  passed  through  the  city  on  his 
way  to  Frankfort,  in  August,  1556,  he  was  indeed  honorably 
received  by  John  Sturm  and  the  students,  who  respectfully 
rose  to  their  feet  in  his  presence,  but  he  was  not  allowed  to 
preach  to  his  own  congregation,  because  he  did  not  believe  in 
the  dogma  of  consubstantiation.  A  few  year^  later  the 
Reformed  worship  was  altogether  forbidden  by  order  of  the 
Council,  Aug.  19,  1563.2 

1  Kampschulte,  I.  324,  thus  sums  up  Calvin's  pastoral  labors  in  Strassburg  r 
"  Strassburg  hatte  in  Kurzem  eine  blilhende  luohlgeordnete  franzosische  Fliicldlings- 
gemeinde  mit  Predlgt  und  Bihelstunden,  viit  regelmdssiger  Abendmahhfeier  und 
Psalmengesang,  insbesondere  aber  mit  einer  strenqe  gehandhabten  Disciplin,  und 
nicht  ohne  Staunen  erzlihlten  die  deutschen  Pastoren  bald  einander  von  den  Einricht- 
ungen  und  dem  merkwiirdigen  Eifer  der  neuen  Emigrantenkirche  in  Strassburg." 

-  Strieker,  pp.  11,  12,  64;  Erichson,  p.  65;  Doumergue,  p.  4;  Calvin's 
letter  to  BuUinger,  Sept.  12,  1563  (Opera,  X.  151).  Under  the  French  rule  the 
Reformed  Church  was  reorganized  in  Strassburg. 


370  THE    REFOKMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

§  87.    The  Liturgy  of  Calvin. 

I.  La  forme  des  prieres  et  chantzs  ecclesiastiques,  avec  la  maniere  d' administrer  les 

sacremens  et  consacrer  le  marriage,  selon  la  coutume  de  f  Eijhse  ancienne, 
A.D.  1542.  In  Opera,  VI.  161-210  (from  a  copy  at  Stuttgart;  the  title 
is  given  in  the  old  spelling  without  accents).  Later  editions  (1543,  1545, 
1562,  etc.)  add:  "la  visitation  des  inalades,"  and  '■'■  comme  on  Pobserve  a 
Geneve."  An  earlier  edition  of  eighteen  Psalms  appeared  at  IStrassburg, 
1539.  (See  Doden,  Cle'ment  Marat,  I.  300  sqq.)  An  edition  of  the 
liturgy  with  the  Psalms  was  printed  at  Strassburg,  Feb.  15,  1542.  (See 
DouEN,  I.e.  305,  and  342  sqq.)  A  copy  of  an  enlarged  Strassburg  ed.  of 
1545,  entitled  La  forme  des  prieres  et  chantzs  ecclesiustirjues,  was  preserved 
in  the  Public  Library  at  Strassburg  till  Aug.  24,  1870,  when  it  was  burnt 
at  the  siege  of  the  city  in  the  Franco-German  War  (Douen,  1.  451  sq.). 

II.  Ch.  d'Hericault  :  Ouvres  de  Marot.  Paris,  1867. — Felix  Bovet:  His- 
toire  du  psautier  des  ^glises  reformees.  Neuchatel,  1872.  —  O.  Douen  : 
Cle'ment  Marot  et  le  Psautier  Huguenot.  Etude  historique,  litte'raire,  musicale 
et  hihliographique  ;  contenant  les  melodies  primitives  des  Psaumes,  etc.  Paris 
(a  I'imprimerie  national),  1878  sq.  2  vols,  royal  8vo.  A  magnificent  work 
published  at  the  expense  of  the  French  Republic  on  the  recommendation 
of  the  Institute.    The  second  volume  contains  the  harmonies  of  Goudimel. 

Farel  published  at  Neuchatel  in  1533,  and  introduced  at 
Geneva  in  1537,  the  first  French  Reformed  liturgy,  which 
includes,  in  the  regular  Sunday  service,  a  general  prayer,  the 
Lord's  Prayer  (before  sermon),  the  Decalogue,  confession  of 
sins,  repetition  of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Apostles'  Creed,  a 
final  exhortation  and  benediction.^  It  resembled  the  German 
liturgy  of  Bern,  which  was  published  in  1529,  and  which 
Calvin  caused  to  be  translated  into  French  by  his  friend 
Morelet.^  Of  Farel's  liturgy  only  the  form  of  marriage  sur- 
vived.    The  rest  was  reconstructed  and  improved  by  Calvin 

1  Republished  by  Baum  at  Strassburg,  1859.     Douen,  I.e.  I.  346. 

-  In  a  letter  to  Gaspard  Megander,  an  influential  minister  at  Bern  (prob- 
ably from  Feb.  20,  1537),  Calvin  writes:  " Libellum  tuum  ceremonialem  a 
Mauro  [Maurus  Musaeus,  Morelet  de  Museau],  rogatu  nostro,  versum,  cum 
nostro  contnlimus,  a  quo  nihil  penitus  nisi  brevitate  differt."  Herminjard  (vol. 
IV.  191)  adds  the  following  note:  "La  liturgie  usite'e  dans  Pe'qlise  genevoise 
e'tait,  selon  toutes  les  vraisemblances,  celle  de  Farel,  publiee  a  Neuchatel,  le  29  aont 
1533,  sous  le  litre  sxuvant:  'La  Maniere  et  Fasson  qu'on  tient  en  baillant  le  sainct 
baptesme  .  .  .  es  lieu.r  que  Dieu  de  sa  grace  a  visite's.'  Nous  avo7is  constate'  que  la 
liturgie  bernoise  offre  les  plus  grands  rapports  avec  '  La  Maniere  et  Fasson,'  et 
qu'elle  en  diffire  seulement  par  la  brievete'." 


i 


§   87.     THE    LITURGY    OF    CALVIN.  371 

in  the  liturgy  which  he  first  introduced  in  Strassburg,  and 
with  some  modifications  in  Geneva  after  his  return. 

Calvin's  liturgy  was  published  twice  in  1542.  It  was 
introduced  at  Lausanne  in  the  same  year,  and  gradually 
passed  into  other  Reformed  Churches. 

Calvin  built  his  form  of  worship  on  the  foundation  of 
Zwingli  and  Farel,  and  the  services  already  in  use  in  the 
Swiss  Reformed  Churches.  Like  his  predecessors,  he  had 
no  sympathy  whatever  with  the  Roman  Catholic  ceremonial- 
ism, which  was  overloaded  with  un scriptural  traditions  and 
superstitions.  We  may  add  that  he  had  no  taste  for  the 
artistic,  symbolical,  and  ornamental  features  in  worship. 
He  rejected  the  mass,  all  the  sacraments,  except  two,  the 
saints'  days,  nearly  all  church  festivals,  except  Sunday,  im- 
ages, relics,  processions,  and  the  whole  pomp  and  circum- 
stance of  a  gaudy  worship  which  appeals  to  the  senses  and 
imagination  rather  than  the  intellect  and  the  conscience,  and 
tends  to  distract  the  mind  with  the  outward  show  instead 
of  concentrating  it  upon  the  contemplation  of  the  saving 
truth  of  the  gospel. 

He  substituted  in  its  place  that  simple  and  spiritual  mode 
of  worship  which  is  well  adapted  for  intelligent  devotion,  if 
it  be  animated  by  the  quickening  presence  and  power  of  the 
Spirit  of  God,  but  becomes  jejune,  barren,  cold,  and  chilly 
if  that  power  is  wanting.  He  made  the  sermon  the  central 
part  of  worship,  and  substituted  instruction  and  edification 
in  the  vernacular  for  the  reading  of  the  mass  in  Latin.  He 
magnified  the  pulpit,  as  the  throne  of  the  preacher,  above  the 
altar  of  the  sacrificing  priest.  He  opened  the  inexhaustible 
fountain  of  free  prayer  in  public  worship,  with  its  endless 
possibilities  of  application  to  varying  circumstances  and 
wants;  he  restored  to  the  Church,  like  Luther,  the  inesti- 
mable blessing  of  congregational  singing,  which  is  the  true 
popular  liturgy,  and  more  effective  than  the  reading  of  writ- 
ten forms  of  prayer. 


372         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

The  order  of  public  worship  in  Calvin's  congregation  at 
Strassburg  was  as  follows :  — 

The  service  began  with  an  invocation,^  a  confession  of 
sin  and  a  brief  absolution .^  Then  followed  reading  of  the 
Scriptures,  singing,  and  a  free  prayer.  The  whole  congrega- 
tion, male  and  female,  joined  in  chanting  the  Psalms,  and 
thus  took  an  active  part  in  public  worship,  while  formerly 
they  were  but  passive  listeners  or  spectators.  This  was  in 
accordance  with  the  Protestant  doctrine  of  the  general  priest- 
hood of  believers.^     The  sermon  came  next,  and  after  it  a 

1  "  JVostre  aide  soit  ait  nom  de  Dieu,  qui  a  faict  le  Ciel  et  la  terre.  Amen." 
Opera,  VI.  173. 

2  This  confession  is  still  in  use  and  may  be  favorably  compared  with  the 
confession  in  the  Anglican  liturgy.     It  is  as  follows  (in  modern  spelling)  :  — 

"  Mes  freres,  qu'un  chacun  de  nous  se  pre'sente  devant  la  face  du  Seigneur,  avec 
confession  de  sesf antes  et  pe'che's,  suivant  de  son  caur  mes  paroles. 

"  Seigneur  Dieu,  Pere  €ternal  et  tout-puissant,  nous  confessons  l_et  reconnaissonsl 
sans  feintise,  devant  ta  Sainte  Majeste',  que  nous  sommes  pauvres  pe'clteurs,  concus  et 
ne's  en  iniquite  et  corruption,  enclins  a  malfaire,  inutiles  a  tout  bien,  et  que  par  notre 
vice,  nous  transgressons  sans  fin  et  sans  cesse  tes  saints  commandements.  En  quoi 
faisant,  nous  acque'rons,  par  ton  juste  jugement,  mine  et  perdition  sur  nous. 

"  Toutefois,  Seigneur,  nous  avons  deplaisir  en  nous-memes,  de  t'avoir  offense',  et 
condamnons  nous  et  nos  vices,  avec  vraie  repentance,  de'sirant  que  ta  grace  [et  aide'\ 
subviennent  a  notre  calamite. 

"  Veuille  done  avoir  pitie  de  nous,  Dieu  et  Pere  tres  be'nin,  et  plein  de  mise'ricorde, 
au  7iom  de  ton  Fils  Je'sus-Christ,  notre  Seigneur;  effacant  done  nos  vices  et  macules, 
e'largis  nous  et  augmente  de  jour  en  jour  les  graces  de  ton  Saint-JEsprit,  afn 
que,  reconnaissant  de  tout  notre  cceur  notre  injustice,  nous  soyons  touches  de  de'plaisir, 
qui  engendre  dyoite  pe'nitence  en  nous  :  laquelle  nous  mortifiant  a  tous  pe'che's  pro- 
duise  en  nous  fruits  de  justice  et  innocence  qui  te  soient  agre'ahles  par  ice-lui  Je'sus- 
Christ.     Amen." 

After  this  confession  the  Strassburg  Liturgy  adds  a  form  of  absolution, 
which  was  afterwards  omitted :  — 

"  let,  dit  le  ministre  quelques  paroles  de  I'Ecriture  pour  consoler  les  consciences, 
etfait  I'absolution  en  cette  maniere  : 

"  Un  chacun  de  vous  se  reconnaisse  vraiment  pecheur,  s'humiliant  devant  Dieu, 
et  croieque  le  Pere  ce'teste  lui  veut  etre  prop  ice  en  Jesus-Christ.  A  tous  ceux  qui,  en 
cette  maniere  se  repentent,  et  cherchent  Je'sus-Chi-ist  potir  leur  salut,  je  de'nonce  I'abso- 
lution au  nom  du  Pere,  du  Fils,  et  du  Saint-Esprit.     Amen." 

3  In  this  respect  Calvin  followed  the  example  of  the  Lutheran  churches. 
Gerard  Eoussel,  who  was  one  of  the  earliest  refugees  at  Strassburg,  reported 
to  Brifonnet,  bishop  of  Meaux,  that  the  singing  of  Psalms,  translated  from 
the  Hebrew,  was  there  a  prominent  feature  of  worship,  and  that  "  le  chant  des 


§   87.     THE    LITURGY    OF    CALVIN.  373 

long  general  prayer  and  the  Lord's  Prayer.  The  service 
closed  with  singing  and  the  benediction.^ 

The  same  order  is  substantially  observed  in  the  French 
Reformed  Churches.  Calvin  prepared  also  liturgical  forms 
for  baptism  and  the  holy  communion.  A  form  for  marriage 
and  the  visitation  of  the  sick  had  been  previously  composed 
by  Farel.  The  combination  of  the  liturgical  and  extempora- 
neous features  continue  in  the  Reformed  Churches  of  the 
Continent.  In  the  Presbyterian  churches  of  Scotland  and 
most  of  the  Dissenting  churches  of  England,  and  their  de- 
scendants in  America,  the  liturgical  element  was  gradually 
ruled  out  by  free  prayer;  while  the  Anglican  Church  pur- 
sued the  opposite  course. 

Baptism  was  always  performed  before  the  congregation  at 
the  close  of  the  public  service,  and  in  the  simplest  manner, 
according  to  the  institution  of  Clu'ist ;  without  the  traditional 
ceremony  of  exorcism,  and  the  use  of  salt,  spittle,  and  burn- 
ing candles,  because  these  are  not  commanded  in  the  Scrip- 
tures, nourish  superstition,  and  divert  the  attention  from  the 
spiritual  substance  of  the  ordinance  to  outward  forms.  Cal- 
vin regarded  immersion  as  the  primitive  form  of  baptism,  but 
pouring  and  sprinkling  as  equally  valid.^ 

The  communion  was  celebrated  once  a  month  in  a  simple 

femmes,  se  melant  a  celui  des  homines,  produit  un  effet  ravissant."  Herminjard, 
I.  404-408.  In  another  letter,  he  speaks  also  of  the  congregational  chanting 
of  the  Apostles'  Creed  and  the  Kyrie  Eleison  at  the  communion.  Ibid.  I.  411- 
413.     Doumergue,  pp.  8,  9. 

1  An  interesting  description  of  the  Reformed  worship  at  Strassburg,  by  a 
French  student  in  1545,  was  first  published  in  188o  by  Erichson,  p.  7,  and  is 
given  by  Doumergue,  I.e.  p.  15  sq.  He  speaks  of  daily  preaching  and  chant- 
ing of  Psalms  by  the  whole  congregation  ("  tant  homme  que  femvie  avec  un 
bel  accord")  from  a  tune  book  (un  litre  de  musique),  which  each  member  had 
in  his  hand. 

2  He  says,  Instit.  IV.  ch.  XV.  §  19 :  "  Whether  the  person  who  is  baptized 
be  wholly  immersed,  and  whether  thrice  or  once,  or  whether  water  be  only 
poured  or  sprinkled  upon  him,  is  of  no  importance ;  churches  ought  to  be 
left  at  liberty  in  this  respect,  to  act  according  to  the  difference  of  countries. 
The  very  word  haptize,  however,  signifies  to  immerse;  and  it  is  certain  that 
immersion  was  the  practice  of  the  ancient  Church." 


374         THE   REFORMATION    IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

but  very. solemn  manner  by  the  whole  congregation.  Calvin 
required  the  communicants  to  give  him  previous  notice  of 
their  intention,  that  they  might  receive  instruction,  warning, 
or  comfort,  according  to  their  need.  Unworthy  applicants 
were  excluded. 

The  introduction  of  the  Psalter  in  the  vernacular  was  a 
most  important  feature,  and  the  beginning  of  a  long  and 
heroic  chapter  in  the  history  of  worship  and  Christian  life. 
The  Psalter  occupies  the  same  important  place  in  the  Re- 
formed Church  as  the  hymnal  in  the  Lutheran.  It  was  the 
source  of  comfort  and  strength  to  the  Huguenot  Church  of 
the  Desert,  and  to  the  Presbyterian  Covenanters  of  Scotland, 
in  the  days  of  bitter  trial  and  persecution.  Calvin  himself 
prepared  metrical  versions  of  Psalms  25,  36,  43,  46,^  91,  113, 
120,  138,  142,  together  with  a  metrical  version  of  the  Song 
of  Simeon  and  the  Ten  Commandments.^  He  afterwards 
used  the  superior  version  of  Clement  Marot,  the  greatest 
French  poet  of  that  age,  who  was  the  poet  of  the  court,  and 
the  psalmist  of  the  Church  (1497-1544).  Calvin  met  him 
first  at  the  court  of  the  Duchess  of  Ferrara  (1536),  whither 
he  had  fled,  and  afterwards  at  Geneva  (1542),  where  he 
encouraged  him  to  continue  his  metrical  translation  of  the 
Psalms.  Marot's  Psalter  first  appeared  at  Paris,  1541,  and 
contained  thirty  Psalms,  together  with  metrical  versions  of 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Angelic  Salutation,  the  Creed,  and  the 
Decalogue.  Several  editions,  with  fifty  Psalms,  were  printed 
at  Geneva  in  1543,  one  at  Strassburg  in  1545.  Later  editions 
were  enlarged  with  the  translations  of  Beza.     The  popularity 

^  The   same   Psalm  furnished  the  key-note  to  Luther's  immortal  hymn, 

" Einfeste  Burg  ist  unser  Gott."     Calvin's  version  begins:  — 

"  Nostre  Dieu  estferme  appuy, 

Vertiie,  fortresse  ei  seur  confort, 
Auquel  aurons  en  notre  enniiy. 
Present  refuge  et  trks  bon  port." 

2  They  were  printed  at  Strassburg,  1539,  and  republished,  together  with 
an  original  hymn  (Salutation  a  Jesus- Christ),  from  an  edition  of  1545,  in 
Opera,  VI.  212-224. 


§  88.     CALVIN   AS   THEOLOGICAL   TEACHEFw  375 

and  usefulness  of  his  and  Beza's  Psalter  were  greatly  en- 
hanced by  the  rich  melodies  of  Claude  Goudimel  (1510- 
1572),  who  joined  the  Reformed  Church  in  1562,  and  died 
a  martyr  at  Lyons  in  the  night  of  the  Massacre  of  St.  Bar- 
tholomew. He  devoted  his  musical  sfenius  to  the  Reforma- 
tion.  His  tunes  are  based  in  part  on  popular  songs,  and 
breathe  the  simple  and  earnest  spirit  of  the  Reformed  cultus. 
Some  of  them  have  found  a  place  among  the  chorals  of  the 
Lutheran  Church. 

§  88.    Calvin  as  Theological  Teacher  and  Author. 

The  Reformers  of  Strassburg,  aided  by  leading  laymen,  as 
Jacob  Sturm  and  John  Sturm,  provided  for  better  element- 
ary and  higher  education,  and  founded  schools  which 
attracted  pupils  from  France  as  early  as  1525.  Gerard 
Roussel,  one  of  the  earliest  of  the  refugees,  speaks  very 
highly  of  them  in  a  letter  to  the  bishop  of  Meaux.^  A 
Protestant  college  (gymnasium),  with  a  theological  depart- 
ment, was  established  March  22,  1538,  and  placed  under  the 
direction  of  John  Sturm,  one  of  the  ablest  pedagogues  of  his 
times.  It  was  the  nucleus  of  a  university  which  continued 
German  down  to  the  French  Revolution,  was  then  half  French- 
ified, and  is  now  again  German  in  language  and  methods  of 
teaching.  The  first  teachers  in  that  college  were  Bucer  for 
the  New  Testament,  Capito  for  the  Old,  Hedio  for  history 
and  theology,  Herlin  for  mathematics,  and  Jacob  Bedrot  or 
Pedrotus  for  Greek.^     A  converted  Jew  taught  Hebrew. 

1  Herminjard,  I.  407  ;  also  Farel  in  a  letter  of  June  4,  1526,  to  Myconius, 
ibid.  433  sq.  On  the  scliools  in  Strassburg  see  Roehrich,  Gesckichte  der 
Eeformation  im  Elsass,  I.  253,  261-264;  A.  G.  Strobel,  Histoire  du  Gymnase 
protestant  de  Strasbourg,  Strasb.  1838;  Charles  Schmidt,  La  vie  et  les  travaux  de 
Jean  Sturm,  Strasb.  1855  (quoted  by  Herminjard)  ;  and  R.  Zopffel,  Johann 
Sturm,  der  erste  ReJctor  der  Strassburger  Akademie,  Strassburg,  1887. 

2  Pedrotus  (Padrut),  whose  name  often  occurs  in  Calvin's  letters,  was  a 
native  of  Pludenz  in  Vorarlberg,  and  famous  as  editor  and  expounder  of 
ancient   classics,  hence  also   called   Jacobus    Grcecus.      Capito  recommended 


376         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND, 

Calvin  was  appointed  assistant  professor  of  theology  in 
January,  1539.^  He  lectured  on  the  Gospel  of  John,  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  and  other  books  of  the  Bible.  Many 
students  came  from  Switzerland  and  France  to  hear  him, 
who  afterwards  returned  as  evangelists.  He  speaks  of  sev- 
eral students  in  his  correspondence  with  satisfaction.  In 
some  cases  he  was  disappointed.  He  presided  over  public 
disputations.  He  refuted  in  1539  a  certain  Robertus  Mosha- 
mus,  dean  of  Passau,  in  a  disputation  on  the  merits  of  good 
works,  and  achieved  a  signal  victory  to  the  great  delight 
of  the  scholars  of  the  city.^ 

But  he  had  also  an  unpleasant  dispute  with  that  worthless 
theological  turncoat,  Peter  Caroli,  who  appeared  at  Strass- 
burg  in  October,  1539,  as  a  troubler  in  Israel,  as  he  had  done 
before  at  Lausanne,  and  sought  to  prejudice  even  Bucer  and 
Capito  against  Calvin  on  the  subject  of  the  Trinity.'^ 

With  all  his  j)rofessional  duties  he  found  leisure  for  impor- 
tant literary  work,  which  had  been  interrupted  at  Geneva. 
He  prepared  a  thorough  revision  of  his  Institutes,  which 
superseded  the  first,  and  a  commentary  on  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans,  which  opened  the  series  of  his  invaluable  exegetical 
works.  Both  were  published  at  Strassburg  by  the  famous 
printer  Wendelin  Rihel  in  1539.  He  had  been  preceded,  in 
the  commentary  on  Romans,  by  Melanchthon,  Bucer,  Bullin- 
ger,  but  he  easily  surpassed  them  all.  He  also  wrote,  in 
French,  a  popular  treatise  on  the  Lord's  Supper,  in  which  he 

him  very  highly  in  a  letter  to  Blaarer,  Nov.  26,  1525,  in  Herminjard,  I.  440, 
note  16.     He  died  of  the  pestilence  at  Strassburg,  1541. 

1  Calvin  to  Farel,  January,  1539  (Herminjard,  V.  230)  :  "  Nuper  ad  publi- 
cam  professionem  invitus  a  Capitone  protractus  sum.  Ita  quotidie  aut  lego  aut 
concionor."  He  preached  four  times,  and  lectured  three  times.  The  salary  of 
52  guilders  for  one  year  was  to  commence  the  first  of  May.  It  is  mentioned 
in  Annal.  246,  by  Herminjard,  V.  231,  note  19,  and  by  Strieker,  22. 

2  He  defeated  him  again  at  Worms  in  the  presence  of  Melanchthon. 
Jacob  Sturm,  Antipappi,  as  quoted  in  Herminjard,  VII.  26,  note  6. 

3  "  Ter  desertor,  ter  transfuga,  ter  proditor  utriusque  partis,"  ne  is  called  by 
Calvin.     See  on  this  unimportant  episode  Strieker,  pp.  30-39. 


§  89.    CALVIN   AT   THE   COLLOQUIES.  377 

pointed  out  a  via  media  between  the  realism  of  Luther  and 
the  spiritualism  of  Zwingli.  Both  parties,  he  says  towards 
the  close,  have  failed  and  departed  from  the  truth  in  their 
passionate  zeal,  but  this  should  not  blind  us  to  the  great 
benefits  which  God  through  Luther  and  Zwingli  has  be- 
stowed upon  mankind.  If  we  are  not  ungrateful  and  for- 
getful of  what  we  owe  to  them,  we  shall  be  well  able  to 
pardon  that  and  much  more,  without  blaming  them.  We 
must  hope  for  a  reconciliation  of  the  two  parties. 

At  the  Diet  of  Regensburg  in  1541  he  had,  with  the  other 
Protestant  delegates,  to  subscribe  the  Augsburg  Confession. 
He  could  do  so  honestly,  understanding  it,  as  he  said  ex- 
pressly, in  the  sense  of  the  author  who,  in  the  year  before, 
had  published  a  revised  edition  with  an  important  change  in 
the  10th  Article  (on  the  doctrine  of  the  Lord's  Supper)  .^ 

Of  his  masterly  answer  to  Sadolet  we  shall  speak  sepa- 
rately. 

His  many  letters  from  that  period  prove  his  constant  and 
faithful  attention  to  the  duties  of  friendship.  In  his  letters 
to  Farel  he  pours  out  his  heart,  and  makes  him  partaker  of 
his  troubles  and  joys,  and  .familiar  with  public  events  and 
private  affairs  even  to  little  details.  Farel  could  not  stand  a 
long  separation  and  paid  him  two  brief  visits  in  1539  and  1540. 

§  89.    Calvin  at  the  Colloquies  of  Frankfurt,  Worms,  and 
Regensburg. 

Calvin:  Letters  from  Worms,  Regensburg,  and  Strassburg,  in  Opera,  XI., 
and  Herminjard,  vols.  VI.  and  VII.  His  report  on  the  Diet  at  Regens- 
liurg  (Les  Actes  de  la  journe'e  imperiule  en  la  cite  de  Regenspourg),  in  Opera, 
V.  509-684.  — Melanchthon:  Report  on  the  Colloquy  at  Worms,  in 
Latin,  and   the  Acts  of  the  Colloquy  at  Regensburg,  in  German,  1542. 

1  Calvin's  letter  to  Martin  Schalling,  a  minister  at  Regensburg,  March, 
1557,  in  Opera,  XVI.  430 :  "  Nee  vero  Augustanam  Confessioneni  repudio,  ctti 
pridem  volens  ac  libens  siibscripsi  si'cut  earn  autor  ipse  interpreiatus  est."  His 
colleagues,  Bucer  and  Capito,  understood  the  Augsburg  Confession  in  the 
same  irenic  spirit. 


378         THE   EEFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

See  his  Epistola,  ed.  Bretschneider,  IV.  33-78,  and  pp.  728  sqq.  —  Stukm: 
Aiitipappus. — Sleidax  :  -De  Statu  Eccles.  et  Reipublica'  Carolo  T".  Caesare, 
Lib.  XIII. 
Henry,  vol.  I.  cli.  XVII.  —  Dyer,  pp.  105  sqq.  —  StXhelix,  I.  229-254. — 
IvAMPSCHULTE,  I.  328-342.  —  Strickee,  pp.  27  sqq.  —  Lcdwig  Pastor 
(Rom.  Cath.)  :  Die  kirchlichen  Reiuiionsbestrebuiigen  icuhrend  der  Regierung 
Karls  V.  Aiis  den  Quellen  dargestellt.  Freiburg -i.-B.,  1879  (507  pp.).  He 
notices  Calvin's  influence,  pp.  194,  196,  212,  230,  245,  258,  266,  484,  but 
apparently  without  having  read  his  correspondence,  which  is  one  of  the 
chief  sources;  he  only  refers  to  Kampschulte. 

Calvin  was  employed,  with  Bucer,  Capito,  and  Sturm,  as 
one  of  the  commissioners  of  the  city  and  Church  of  Strass- 
burg,  on  several  public  colloquies,  which  were  held  during 
his  sojourn  in  Germany  for  the  healing  of  the  split  caused 
by  the  Eeformation.  The  emperor  Charles  V.  was  anxious, 
from  political  motives,  to  reconcile  the  Protestant  princes  to 
the  Roman  Church,  and  to  secure  their  aid  against  the  Turks. 
The  leading  theological  spirits  in  these  conferences  were 
Melanchthon  on  the  Lutlieran,  and  Julius  Pflug  on  the 
Roman  Catholic  side.  They  aimed  to  secure  the  reunion  of 
the  Church  by  mutual  concessions  on  minor  differences  of 
doctrine  and  discipline.  But  the  conferences  shared  the  fate 
of  all  compromises.  Luther  and  Calvin  would  not  3'ield  an 
inch  to  the  pope,  while  the  extreme  men  of  the  papal  party, 
like  Eck,  were  as  unwilling  to  make  any  concession  to  Prot- 
estantism. A  fuller  account  belongs  to  the  ecclesiastical 
histor}^  of  Germany. 

Calvin,  being  a  foreigner  and  a  Frenchman,  ignorant  of 
the  German  language,  acted  a  subordinate  part,  though  he 
commanded  the  respect  of  both  parties  for  his  ability  and 
learning,  in  which  he  was  not  inferior  to  anj-.  Having  no 
faith  in  compromises,  or  in  the  sincerity  of  the  emperor,  he 
helped  to  defeat  rather  than  to  promote  the  pacific  object 
of  these  conferences.  He  favored  an  alliance  between  the 
Lutheran  princes  of  the  Smalkaldian  League  with  Francis  I., 
who,  as  the  rival  of  Charles  V.,  was  inclined  to  such  an  alli- 
ance.    He  was  encouraged  in  this  line  of  policy  by  Queen 


§  89.     CALVIN    AT    THE   COLLOl^UiES.  879 

Marguerite,  who  corresponded  with  him  at  that  time  through 
his  friend  Sleidan,  the  statesman  and  historian.^  He  did 
succeed  in  securing,  after  repeated  efforts,  a  petition  of  the 
Lutheran  princes  assembled  at  liegensburg  to  the  French 
king  in  behalf  of  the  persecuted  Protestants  in  France  (May 
23, 1541). 2  But  he  had  no  more  confidence  in  Francis  I.  than 
in  Charles  V.  "  The  king,"  he  wrote  to  Farel  (September, 
1540),  ''  and  the  emperor,  while  contending  in  cruel  persecu- 
tion of  the  godl}',  both  endeavor  to  gain  the  favor  of  the 
Roman  idol."  ^  He  placed  his  trust  in  God,  and  in  a  close 
alliance  of  the  Lutheran  princes  among  themselves  and  with 
the  Protestants  in  France  and  Switzerland. 

He  was  a  shrewd  observer  of  the  religious  and  political 
movements,  and  judged  correctly  of  the  situation  and  the 
principal  actors.  Nothing  escaped  his  attention.  He  kept 
Farel  at  Neuchatel  informed  even  about  minor  incidents. 

Calvin  attended  the  first  Colloquy  at  Frankfurt  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1539,  in  a  private  capacity,  for  the  purpose  of  making 
the  personal  acquaintance  of  Melanchthon  and  pleading  the 
cause  of  his  persecuted  brethren  in  France,  whom  he  had 
more  at  heart  than  German  politics. 

The  Colloquy  was  prorogued  to  Hagenau  in  June,  1540, 
but  did  not  get  over  the  preliminaries. 

A  more  important  CoUoqu}^  was  held  at  Worms  in  Novem- 
ber of  the  same  year.  In  that  ancient  city  Luther  had  made 
his  ever  memorable  declaration  in  favor  of  the  liberty  of  con- 
science, which  in  spite  of  the  pope's  protest  had  become  an 
irrepressible   power.     Calvin   appeared   at  this  time  in  the 

1  Herminjard,  VII.  198  sqq. ;  Opera,  XI.  62  sqq. 

-  Herminjard,  VII.  126-128 ;  Opera,  XI.  Ep.  311,  p.  220.  Comp.  Epp.  302, 
307,  309.  Calvin  was  not  satisfied  with  the  success.  "  Quantum  ad  fratres 
attinet,"  he  wrote  to  Farel  (July  6,  1541),  ''qui  oh  evangeliiim  laborant,  non  feci 
quod  volui."  Melanchthon  incurred  the  displeasure  of  the  emperor  for  favor- 
ing the  French  Protestants.     Herminjard,  VII.  179,  note  16. 

^  "-Nihil  hie  novi  audimus,  nisi  quod  Bex  et  Caesar,  certatim  in  pios  sceviendo, 
idolum  Romanum  sibi  demereri  student."     Herminjard,  VI.  315,  comp.  note  8. 


380         THE   REFORMATION    IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

capacity  of  a  commissioner  both  of  Strassburg  and  the  dukes 
of  Liineburg.  He  went  reluctantly,  being  just  then  in  ill 
health  and  feeling  unequal  to  the  task.  But  he  gathered 
strength  on  the  spot,  and  braced  up  the  courage  of  Melanch- 
thon  who,  as  the  spokesman  of  the  Lutheran  theologians, 
showed  less  disposition  to  yield  than  on  former  occasions. 
He  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  discussion.  He  defeated 
Dean  Robert  Mosham  of  Passau  in  a  second  disputation,  and 
earned  on  that  occasion  from  Melanchthon,  and  the  Lutheran 
theologians  who  were  present,  the  distinctive  title  "the 
Theologian  "  by  eminence.^ 

He  also  wrote  at  Worms,  for  his  private  solace,  not  for 
publication,  an  epic  poem  in  sixty-one  distichs  (one  hundred 
and  twenty-two  lines),  which  celebrates  the  triumph  of  Christ 
and  the  defeat  of  his  enemies  (Eck,  Cochlteus,  Nausea,  Pelar- 
gus)  after  their  apparent  and  temporary  victory.^  He  was  not 
a  poetic  genius,  but  by  study  he  made  up  the  defects  of  nature.^ 

1  Beza  {Opera,  vol.  XXI.  130)  :  "  Calvimis  .  .  .  Domino  Philippo  Melanck- 
thoni  et  Gaspari  Crucigero  beatce  memorice  imprimis  (jratus,  adeo  ut  eum  ille  soepe 
'  Theologum '  cognominaverit,  hie  vera  privatum  de  ccena  cum  eo  colloquium  habuerit 
eiusque  cognitam  sententiam  diserte  comprobarit."  The  Report  of  the  Strass- 
burger  Kirchenordnung,  II.  140,  as  quoted  by  Strieker  (p.  28,  note),  says  : 
"  Auff  welchem  Colloquio  auch  Philippus  [Melanchthon],  Cruciger  und  anderefur- 
neme  Theologi  Kandlschafft  mit  Galvino  gemacht,  dass  sie  ihn,  per  Excellentiam, 
'den  Theologum'  genannt."  Papire  Masson  (in  Vita  Calv.,  as  quoted  by 
Hernainjard,  VII.  26)  :  "  Wormatiam  missus  a  civibus  excerruit  excellentis  ingenii 
vires  tanto  applausn  theologorum  Germania',  ut  judicio  Melanchthonis  et  reliquorum 
singular i  privilegio  Theologi  cognomen  adcptus  sit."  A  theologian  in  that  emi- 
nently theological  age  meant  a  great  deal  more  than  a  doctor  of  divinity  now- 
adays. 

2  Epinicion  ad  Christum,  in  Opera,Y.  423-428.  Dyer  (p.  106),  Kampschulte 
(I.  333),  Henry  (I.  ch.  XVIII),  and  even  Merle  d'Aubigne'  (VII.  23),  were 
mistaken  in  calling  this  Song  of  Victory  the  only  poem  of  Calvin  (I.  333). 
He  wrote  also  metrical  versions  of  a  number  of  Psalms,  and  a  lyric  hymn  to 
Christ.     See  Opera,  VI.  212-224. 

3  As  he  says  himself  in  the  concluding  lines  :  — 

"  Quod  natura  negat,  studii  pius  efficit  ardor, 
Ut  coner  laudes,  Chrisie,  sonare  tuas." 

He  gave  the  manuscript  to  a  few  friends,  but  did  not  permit  it  to  be  printed 
till  the  court  of  Toulouse,  four  years  afterwards,  put  the  poem  in  the  list  of 


§  89.    CALVIN   AT   THE   COLLOQUIES.  381 

The  Colloquy  of  Worms,  after  having  hardly  begun,  was 
broken  off  in  January,  1541,  to  be  resumed  at  the  approach- 
ing Diet  of  Regensburg  (Ratisbon)  in  presence  of  the  emperor 
on  liis  return. 

The  Diet  at  Regensburg  was  opened  April  5,  1541.  Cal- 
vin appeared  again  as  a  delegate  of  Strassburg  and  at  the 
special  request  of  Melanchthon,  but  reluctantly  and  with 
little  hope  of  success.  He  felt  that  he  was  ill  suited  for 
such  work,  and  would  only  waste  time.^  After  long  and 
vexatious  delays  in  the  arrival  of  the  deputies,  the  theologi- 
cal Colloquy  was  opened  and  conducted  on  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic side  by  Dr.  John  Eck,  professor  at  Ingolstadt  (who  had 
disputed  with  Luther  at  Leipzig  and  promulgated  the  papal 
bull  of  excommunication),  Julius  Pflug,  canon  of  Mainz 
(afterwards  bishop  of  Naumburg),  and  John  Cropper,  canon 
and  professor  of  canon  law  at  Cologne ;  on  the  Protestant 
side  by  Melanchthon  of  Wittenberg,  Bucer  of  Strassburg, 
and  Pistorius  of  Nidda  in  Hesse.  Granvella  presided  in  the 
name  of  the  emperor;  Cardinal  Contarini,  an  enlightened 
and  well-disposed  prelate,  who  was  inclined  to  evangelical 
views  and  favored  a  moderate  reformation,  acted  as  legate 
of  Pope  Paul  TIL,  who  sent,  however,  at  the  same  time 
the  intolerant  Bishop  Morone  as  a  special  nuncio.  Calvin 
could  see  no  difference  between  the  two  legates,  except  that 
Morone  would  like  to  subdue  the  Protestants  with  bloodshed, 
Contarini  without  bloodshed.  He  was  urged  to  seek  an 
interview  with  Contarini,  but  refused.  He  speaks  favorably 
of  Pflug  and  Cropper,  but  contemptuously  of  Eck,  the  sten- 

forbidden  books,  and  caused  many  inquiries  after  it.      Otherwise  he  would 
have  allowed  it  to  be  forgotten.     See  his  preface  in  Opera,  V.  422. 

1  "  Invitissimus,"  he  wrote  to  Farel  (Feb.  19,  1541,  in  Herminjard,  VII.  26), 
"Ratisponam  trahor :  turn  quia  ipsam  prqfectionem  mihi  molestissimam  prospicio 
fore  :  turn  quod  valde  timeo  ne  diuturna  mora  futura  sit,  ut  sclent  scepe  numero 
comitia  ad  decimum  mensem  producere  :  turn  quod  minime  idoneus  mihi  ad  tales 
actiones  videor,  qnidquid  alii  judicent.  Sed  Deum  sequar,  qui  novit  cur  mihi  hanc 
necessitatem  imponat." 


382         THE   IIEFOKMATION   IN   FEENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

torian  mouthpiece  of  the  papal  party,  whom  he  regarded  as 
an  impudent  babbler  and  vain  sophist.^  The  French  king 
was  represented  by  Du  Veil,  whom  Calvin  calls  a  "busy 
blockhead."  There  were  present  also  a  good  many  bishoi)s, 
the  princes  of  the  German  States,  and  delegates  of  the  impe- 
rial cities.  The  emperor,  in  an  earnest  speech,  exhorted  the 
divines,  through  an  interpreter,  to  lay  aside  private  feelings 
and  to  study  only  the  truth,  the  glory  of  God,  the  good  of 
the  Church,  and  the  peace  of  the  empire. 

The  Colloquy  passed  slightly  over  the  doctrines  of  original 
sin  and  the  slavery  of  the  will,  where  the  Protestants  were 
protected  by  the  authority  of  St.  Augustin.  The  Catholics 
agreed  to  the  evangelical  view  of  justification  by  faith  (with- 
out the  Lutheran  sola)^  and  conceded  the  eucharistic  cup  to 
the  laity,  but  the  parties  split  on  the  doctrine  of  the  power 
of  the  Church  and  the  real  presence.  Calvin  was  especially 
consulted  on  the  last  point,  and  gave  a  decided  judgment  in 
Latin  against  transubstantiation,  which  he  rejected  as  a  scho- 
lastic fiction,  and  against  the  adoration  of  the  wafer  which  he 
declared  to  be  idolatrous.^  He  Avas  displeased  with  the  sub- 
missiveness  of  Melanchthon  and  Bucer,  although  he  did  not 
doubt  the  sincerity  of  their  motives.  He  loved  truth  and  con- 
sistency more  than  peace  and  unity.     "  Philip,"  he  wrote  to 

1  See  his  judgment  of  these  persons  in  the  letter  to  Farel,  April  24,  1541, 
in  Herminjard,  VII.  89.  Of  Eck  he  says:  " Nemint  dubium  est  quin  Davus 
ille  [referring  to  the  impudent  slave  in  the  ancient  drama]  sua  importunitate 
sit  omnia  turbatiirus."  In  a  letter  of  May  12  he  reports  that  Eck  was  struck 
by  apoplexy  (May  10),  but  recovered,  adding:  "Nondum  meretur  miindus  ista 
hesiia  liberari."  (Herminjard,  VII.  115  sq.)  Eck  died  Feb.  16,  1543.  Franz 
Burckhard,  the  Saxon  Chancellor,  gave,  in  a  letter  to  Pontanus,  April  22, 1541, 
a  similar  estimate  of  Pflug,  Gropper,  and  Eck,  and  calls  the  last  an  "  ebrius 
sophista,  qui  pliiris  facit  Bacchum  quam  idlam  religionem  "  (Mel.  Epist.  IV.  185). 
Mosellanus  described  Eck,  as  he  appeared  at  the  disputation  in  Leipzig,  as 
"  a  big-bodied,  broad-shouldered,  stout-hearted,  and  impudent  man,  who 
looked  more  like  a  town-crier  than  a  theologian."  Melanchthon  thought  that 
"  no  pious  person  could  listen  without  disgust  to  the  sophisms  and  vain  sub- 
tleties of  that  talking  mountebank." 

2  Calvin  to  Farel,  May  11,  1541,  in  Herminjard,  VII.  Ill  sq. 


§  89.     CALVIN   AT   THE   COLLOQUIES.  383 

Farel  (May  12,  1541),i  "and  Bucer  have  drawn  up  ambigu- 
ous and  varnished  formulas  concerning  transubstantiation,  to 
try  whether  they  could  satisfy  the  opposite  party  by  giving 
them  nothing.2  I  cannot  agree  to  this  device,  although  they 
have  reasonable  grounds  for  doing  so ;  for  they  hope  that  in 
a  short  time  they  would  begin  to  see  more  clearly  if  the  mat- 
ter of  doctrine  be  left  open ;  therefore  they  rather  wish  to 
skip  over  it,  and  do  not  dread  that  equivocation  (flexiloqua- 
tion)  than  which  nothing  can  be  more  hurtful.  I  can  assure 
you,  however,  that  both  are  animated  with  the  best  intentions, 
and  have  no  other  object  in  view  than  to  promote  the  king- 
dom of  Christ;  only  in  their  method  of  proceeding  they 
accommodate  themselves  too  much  to  the  times.  .  .  .  These 
things  I  deplore  in  private  to  yourself,  my  dear  Farel ;  see, 
therefore,  that  they  are  not  made  public.  One  thing  I  am 
thankful  for,  that  there  is  no  one  who  is  fighting  now  more 
earnestly  against  the  wafer-god,^  as  he  calls  it,  than  Brentz."  * 

All  the  negotiations  failed  at  last  by  the  combined  opposi- 
tion of  the  extreme  men  of  both  parties.^ 

The  emperor  closed  the  Diet  on  the  28th  of  July,  "and 
promised  to  use  his  influence  with  the  pope  to  convene  a 
General  Council  for  the  settlement  of  the  theological  ques- 
tions.^ 

Calvin  had  left  Regensburg  as  soon  as  he  found  a  chance, 

1  Herminjard,  VII.  115. 

2  These  formulas  are  printed  in  Melanchthon's  Epistolce,  IV.  262-264. 

3  Or,  in-breaded  God,  impanatus  Deus. 

*  The  leading  Lutheran  divine  of  Wilrttemberg,  who  attended  the  Col- 
loquy. 

^  The  popular  wit  described  the  failure  of  the  Colloquy  in  the  line :  "  Sie 
pfliigen  (Pflug,  Plough),  eggen  (Eck),  graben  (Grobber),  piitzen  (Bucer  or 
Butzer),  und  backen  (Pistorius,  whose  German  name  was  Becker),  und  richten 
nichts  aus."      Corp.  Reform.  IV.  335. 

6  Calvin  wrote  to  Viret  from  Strassburg,  Aug.  13,  1541  (Herminjard,  VII. 
218)  :  "Finis  comitiorum  talis  fuit  qualem  ego  fore  semper  divinavi.  2'ota  enim 
pacijicationis  actio  in  fuinum  abiit,  cum  ad  concilium  universale  rejecta  est,  vel 
saltern  nationals,  si  illud  brevi  obtineri  nequeat.  Quid  enim  hoc  aliud  est  quam 
fru^trari '?  " 


884         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

about  the  middle  of  June,  much  to  the  regret  of  Bucer  and 
Melanchthon,  who  wished  to  retain  him.^ 

His  sojourn  there  was  embittered  by  the  ravages  of  the 
pestilence  in  Strassburg,  which  carried  away  his  beloved 
deacon,  Claude  Feray  (Ferseus),  his  friends  Bedrotus  and 
Capito,  one  of  his  boarders,  Louis  de  Richebourg  (Claude's 
pupil),  and  the  sons  of  CEcolampadius,  Zwingli,  and  Hedio. 
He  was  thrown  into  a  state  of  extreme  anxiety  and  depres- 
sion, which  he  revealed  to  Farel  in  a  melancholy  letter  of 
March  29,  1541  .^  "  My  dear  friend  Claude,  whom  I  sin- 
gularly esteemed,"  he  writes,  "has  been  carried  off  by  the 
plague.  Louis  (de  Richebourg)  followed  three  days  after- 
wards. My  house  was  in  a  state  of  sad  desolation.  My 
brother  (Antoine)  had  gone  with  Charles  (de  Richebourg) 
to  a  neighboring  village ;  my  wife  had  betaken  herself  to 
my  brother's  ;  and  the  youngest  of  Claude's  scholars  [proba- 
bly Malherbe  of  Normandy]  is  lying  sick  in  bed.  To  the 
bitterness  of  grief  there  was  added  a  very  anxious  concern 
for  those  who  survived.  Day  and  night  my  wife  is  con- 
stantly present  to  my  thoughts,  in  need  of  advice,  seeing  that 
she  is  deprived  of  her  husband.^  .  .  .  These  events  have 
produced  in  me  so  much  sadness  that  it  seems  as  if  they 
would  utterly  upset  the  mind  and  dejiress  the  spirit.  You 
cannot  believe  the  grief  which  consumes  me  on  account  of 
the  death  of  my  dear  friend  Claude."  Then  he  pays  a  touch- 
ing tribute  to  Feray,  who  had  lived  in  his  house  and  stuck 
closer  to  him  than  a  brother.  But  the  most  precious  fruit 
of  this  sore  affliction  is  his  letter  of  comfort  to  the  distressed 
father  of  Louis  de  Richebourg,  which  we  shall  quote  in 
another  connection.^ 

1  Letter  to  Farel  from  Strassburg,  early  in  July,  1541,  in  Herminjard, 
VII.  176.  He  gives  in  this  letter  an  account  of  the  later  disputes  at  Regens- 
burg  on  confession  and  absolution,  the  invocation  of  saints,  and  the  primacy 
of  the  pope. 

2  Herminjard,  VII.  55  sqq. ;   Opera,  XI.  174  sqq. 

3  "  Mihi  dies  ac  nodes  animo  obversatur  uxor,  consilii  inops,  quia  capite  suo  caret.'' 
*  See  below,  §  92,  p.  421. 


§  90.     CALVIN    AND    MELANCHTHON.  385 

§  90.    Calvin  and  Melanchthon. 

The  correspondence  between  Calvin  (14  letters)  and  Melanchthon  (8  letters), 
and  several  letters  of  Calvin  to  Farel  from  Strassburg  and  Regensburg. 

Henry,  vol.  I.  chs.  XII.  and  XVII. —  Stahelin,  I.  237-254.  —  Merle  d'Au- 
BiGNE,  bk.  XI.  ch.  XIX.  (vol.  VII.  18-22,  in  Cates'  translation). 

One  of  the  important  advantages  which  his  sojourn  at 
Strassburg  brought  to  Calvin  and  to  the  evangelical  Church 
was  his  friendship  with  Melanchthon.  It  has  a  typical  sig- 
nificance for  the  relationship  of  the  Lutheran  and  Reformed 
Confessions,  and  therefore  deserves  special  consideration. 

They  became  first  acquainted  by  correspondence  through 
Bucer  in  October,  1538.  Melanchthon  brought  Calvin  at 
once  into  a  friendly  contact  with  Luther,  who  read  with 
great  pleasure  Calvin's  answer  to  Sadolet  (perhaps  also  his 
Institutes'),  and  sent  his  salutations  to  him  at  Strassburg.^ 

Luther  never  saw  Calvin,  and  probably  knew  little  or 
nothing  of  the  Reformation  in  Geneva.  His  own  work  was 
then  nearly  finished,  and  he  was  longing  for  rest.  It  is  very 
fortunate,  however,  that  while  his  mind  was  incurably  poi- 
soned against  Zwingli  and  Ziirich,  he  never  came  into  hostile 
conflict  with  Calvin  and  Geneva,  but  sent  him  before  his 
departure  a  fraternal  greeting  from  a  respectful  distance. 
His  conduct  foreshadows  the  attitute  of  the  Lutheran  Church 
and  theology  towards  Calvin,  who  had  the  highest  regard  for 
Luther,  and  enjoyed  in  turn  the  esteem  of  Lutheran  divines 
in  proportion  as  he  was  known. 

1  In  a  letter  to  Bucer,  Oct.  14,  15.39:  "  Salutabis  Dn.  Joannem  Sturinium 
et  Joannem  Calvinum  reverenter,  quorum  libellos  cum  singulari  voluptate  legi. 
Sadoleto  optarem  ut  crederet  Deum  esse  creatorem  hominum  extra  Italiam."  De 
Wette,  V.  211;  and  Herminjard,  VI.  73  (comp.  note  6).  Calvin  refers  to  this 
compliment  in  a  letter  to  Farel,  Nov.  20,  1539  (in  Herminjard,  VI.  130).  He 
also  quotes,  from  a  lost  letter  of  Melanchthon,  the  words:  " Lut/ierus  et  Pom- 
eranus  [Bugenhagen^  Calvinum  et  Sturmium  jusserunt  salutari.  Calvinus  mag- 
nam  gratiam  iniit."  (Ibid.  p.  131.)  Luther  is  reported  to  have  expressed  also 
a  favorable  judgment  on  Calvin's  tract  on  the  Lord's  Supper,  published  at 
Strassburg,  1541,  in  French.     See  vol.  VI.  660. 


386         THE   EEFOKIVIATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Melanchthon  was  twelve  years  older  than  Cahdn,  as 
Luther  was  thirteen  years  older  than  Melanchthon.  Calvin, 
therefore,  might  have  sustained  to  Melanchthon  the  relation 
of  a  pupil  to  a  teacher.  He  sought  his  friendship,  and  he 
always  treated  him  with  reverential  affection.^  In  the  dedi- 
cation of  his  commentary  on  Daniel,  he  describes  Melanchthon 
as  "  a  man  who,  on  account  of  his  incomparable  skill  in  the 
most  excellent  branches  of  knowledge,  his  piety,  and  other 
virtues,  is  worthy  of  the  admiration  of  all  ages."  But  while 
Melanchthon  was  under  the  overawing  influence  of  the  per- 
sonality of  Luther,  the  Reformer  of  Geneva  was  quite  inde- 
pendent of  Melanchthon,  and  so  far  could  meet  him  on  equal 
terms.  Melanchthon,  in  sincere  humility  and  utter  freedom 
from  jealousy,  even  acknowledged  the  superiority  of  his 
younger  friend  as  a  theologian  and  disciplinarian,  and  called 
Jiim  emphatically  "  the  theologian." 

They  had  many  points  of  contact.  Both  were  men  of  un- 
common precocity;  both  excelled,  above  their  contemporaries, 
in  humanistic  culture  and  polished  style;  both  devoted  all 
their  learning  to  the  renovation  of  the  Church;  they  were 
equally  conscientious  and  unselfish  ;  they  agreed  in  the  root 
of  their  piety,  and  in  all  essential  doctrines ;  the}"  deplored 
the  divisions  in  the  Protestant  ranks,  and  heartily  desired 
unity  and  harmony  consistent  with  truth. 

But  they  were  differently  constituted.  Melanchthon  was 
modest,  gentle,  sensitive,  feminine,  irenic,  elastic,  temporiz- 
ing, always  open  to  new  light ;  Calvin,  though  by  nature 
as  modest,  bashful,  and  irritable,  was  in  principle  and  con- 
viction firm,  unyielding,  fearless  of  consequences,  and  opposed 
to  all  compromises.  They  differed  also  on  minor  points  of 
doctrine  and  discipline.  Melanchthon,  from  a  conscientious 
love  of  truth  and  peace,  and  from  regard  for  the  demands  of 

1  In  a  letter  of  11  Cal.  Maii,  1544  {Opera,  XI.  698),  he  addresses  him  as  "  or- 
natissime  vir,  fidelissime  Christi  minister,  et  amice  mihi  semper  hovorande.  Domi- 
nus  te  semper  spiritu  suo  regut,  diuque  nobis  et  ecclesicn  suce  incolumem  conservet." 


§  90.    CALVIN   AND   MELANCHTHON.  387 

practical  common  sense,  had  independently  changed  his 
views  on  two  important  doctrines.  He  abandoned  the  Lu- 
theran dogma  of  a  corporal  9,nd  ubiquitous  presence  in  the 
eucharist,  and  approached  the  theory  of  Calvin ;  and  he  sub- 
stituted for  his  earlier  fatalistic  view  of  a  divine  foreordina- 
tion  of  evil  as  well  as  good  the  synergistic  scheme  which 
ascribes  conversion  to  the  co-operation  of  three  causes :  the 
Spirit  of  God,  the  Word  of  God,  and  the  will  of  man.  He 
conceded  to  man  the  freedom  of  either  accepting  or  rejecting 
the  Gospel  salvation,  yet  without  giving  any  merit  to  him 
for  accepting  the  free  gift ;  and  on  this  point  he  dissented 
from  Calvin's  more  rigorous  and  logical  system.^ 

The  sincere  and  lasting  friendship  of  these  two  great  and 
good  men  is  therefore  all  the  more  remarkable  and  valuable 
as  a  testimony  that  a  deep  spiritual  union  and  harmony  may 
co-exist  with  theological  differences.^ 

Calvin  and  Melanchthon  met  at  Frankfurt,  Worms,  and 
Regensburg  under  trying  circumstances.  Melanchthon  felt 
discouraged  about  the  prospects  of  Protestantism.  He  de- 
plored the  confusion  which  followed  the  abolition  of  the 
episcopal  supervision,  the  want  of  discipline,  the  rapacity  of 
the  princes,  the  bigotry  of  the  theologians.  He  had  allowed 
himself,  wdth  Luther  and  Bucer,  to  give  his  concUtional  assent 
to  the  scandalous  bigam}'  of  Philip  of  Hesse  (May,  1540), 
which  was  the  darkest  blot  in  the  history  of  the  German 
Reformation,  and  worse  than  the  successive  polygamy  of 
Henry  VHI.  His  conscience  was  so  much  troubled  about 
his  own  weakness  that,  at  Weimar,  on  his  way  to  the  Collo- 
quies at  Hagenau  and  Worms,  he  was  brought  to  the  brink 

1  On  these  changes  see  the  biographies  of  Melanchthon  by  Galle,  Carl 
Schmidt,  and  Herrlinger;  Gieseler's  Church  History;  and  Schaff's  Creeds  of 
Christendom,  I.  261  sqq. 

2  Merle  d'Aubigne  (VII.  19)  thinks  that  "  esteem  was  uppermost  in  Me- 
lanchthon, and  affection  in  Calvin";  that  "on  the  one  side  the  friendship  was 
foundefl  more  on  reflection  (r^fl^chi),  on  the  other  it  was  more  spontaneous"; 
but  "on  both  sides  it  was  the  product  of  their  noble  and  beautiful  qualities." 


388         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

of  the  grave,  and  would  have  died  if  Luther  had  not  prayed 
him  out  of  the  jaws  of  the  king  of  terrors.  What  a  contrast 
between  Melanchthon  at  Worms  in  1540,  and  Luther  at 
Worms  in  1521 !  At  the  Diet  of  Regensburg,  in  1541,  he 
felt  no  better.  His  son  was  sick,  and  he  dreamed  that  he  had 
died.  He  read  disaster  and  war  in  the  stars.  His  letters  to 
intimate  friends  are  full  of  grief  and  anxious  forebodings. 
"  I  am  devoured  by  a  desire  for  a  better  life,"  he  wrote  to  one 
of  them.  He  was  oppressed  by  a  sense  of  the  responsibility 
that  rested  upon  him  as  the  spokesman  and  leader  of  the 
Reformation  in  the  declining  years  of  Luther,  who  had  been 
formerly  his  inspiration  and  strength.  It  is  natural  that  in 
this  condition  of  mind  he  looked  for  a  new  support,  and  this 
he  found  in  Calvin.  We  can  thus  easily  understand  his 
wish  to  die  in  his  arms.  But  Calvin  himself,  though  more 
calm  and  composed  in  regard  to  public  affairs,  was,  as  we 
have  seen,  deeply  distressed  at  Regensburg  by  news  of  the 
ravages  of  the  pestilence  among  his  friends  at  Strassburg, 
besides  being  harassed  by  multiplying  petitions  to  return  to 
Geneva.  These  troubles  and  afflictions  brought  their  hearts 
nearer  to  each  other. 

In  their  first  personal  interview  at  Frankfurt  on  the  Main, 
in  February,  1539,  they  at  once  became  intimate,  and  freely 
discussed  the  burning  questions  of  the  day,  relating  to  doc- 
trine, discipline,  and  worship.^ 

As  to  doctrine,  Calvin  had  previously  sent  to  Melanchthon 
a  summary,  in  twelve  articles,  on  the  crucial  topic  of  the 
real  presence.  To  these  Melanchthon  assented  without  dis- 
pute,^ but  confessed  that  he  had  no  hope  of  satisfying  those 

1  Calvin  wrote  to  Farel,  after  his  return  to  Strassburg,  at  the  end  of 
March,  1539:  "  Gum.  Philippo  fuit  niihi  multis  de  rebus  colloquium." 

2  "Sine  controversia  ipse  assentitur."  Calvin  adds:  "  de  ipso  (Afel.)  nihil 
dubita,  quin  penitus  nobiscum  sentiat."  Herminjard,  V.  269.  In  a  previous 
letter  to  Farel,  October,  1538  (in  Herminjard,  V.  146  and  note  24),  he  in- 
formed Farel  that  he  had  sent  twelve  articles  of  agreement  with  a  letter  to 
Melanchthon  from  Strassburg.  The  articles  are  lost,  but  may  yet  be  recov- 
ered. 


§  90.    CALVIN   AND   MELANCHTHON.  389 

who  obstinately  insisted  on  a  more  gross  and  palpable  pres- 
ence.^ Yet  he  was  anxious  that  the  present  agreement,  such 
as  it  was,  might  be  cherished  until  at  length  the  Lord  shall  lead 
both  sides  into  the  unity  of  his  own  truth.  This  is  no  doubt 
the  reason  why  he  himself  refrained  from  such  a  full  and 
unequivocal  public  expression  of  his  own  view  as  might  lead 
to  a  rupture  in  the  Lutheran  Church.  He  went  as  far  as  he 
deemed  it  prudent  by  modifying  the  tenth  article  of  the 
Augsburg  Confession,  and  omitting  the  anti-Zwinglian  clause 
(1540). 

As  to  ecclesiastical  discipline,  Melanchthon  deplored  the 
want  of  it  in  Germany,  but  could  see  no  prospect  of  improve- 
ment, till  the  people  would  learn  to  distinguish  the  yoke  of 
Christ  from  the  papal  tyranny. 

As  to  worship,  Calvin  frankly  expressed  his  objection  to 
many  ceremonies,  which  seemed  to  him  to  border  too  closely 
on  Judaism. 2  He  was  opposed  to  chanting  in  Latin,  to 
pictures  and  candles  in  churches,  to  exorcism  in  baptism, 
and  the  like.  Melanchthon  was  reluctant  to  discuss  this 
point,  but  admitted  that  there  was  an  excess  of  trifling  or 
unnecessary  Roman  Catholic  rites  retained  in  deference  to 
the  judgment  of  the  Canonists,  and  expressed  the  hope  that 
some  of  them  would  be  abandoned  by  degrees. 

After  the  Colloquy  at  Regensburg  the  two  Reformers  saw 
each  other  no  more,  but  continued  to  correspond  as  far  as 

1  "  Sed  fatetur,  esse  in  ilia  parte  nonnullos  qui  crassius  aliquid  reqnirant  : 
atque  id  tanta  pervicacia,  ne  dicam  tyrannide,  ut  diu  in  pericuJo  fuerit,  quod  eum 
videbant  a  sno  sensu  nonnihil  alienum."  Hemiinjard,  V.  269.  Those  men  who 
outluthered  Luther,  were  not  satisfied  witli  the  words  of  institution,  simpliciter, 
but  demanded  such  scholastic  terms  as  suhstantialiter,  essentialiter,  corporaliter, 
quantitative,  idiiquitcditer,  carnaliter.  When  Mattliaeus  Zell,  preacher  in  tlie 
Minster  at  Strassburg,  told  Melanchthon  (in  1536)  that  he  abhorred  these 
terms  as  diabolical  additions,  Melanchthon  assented.  See  Rohrich  Mittheilun- 
gen  aus  der  Geschichte  der  evang.  Kirche  des  Elsasses,  III.  133,  as  quoted  by 
Stahelin,  I.  169. 

2  Letter  to  Farel,  April,  1539  (Herminjard,  V.  292)  :  "  Nuper  PhiUppo  in 
faciem  non  dissimulavi,  quin  mihi  admodum  ilia  ceremoniarum  copia  displiceret. 
Vtderi  enim  mihi formam  quam  tenent  non  procul  esse  a  Judaismo." 


390         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

their  time  and  multiplicity  of  duties  would  permit.  The 
correspondence  of  friendship  is  apt  to  diminish  with  the  in- 
crease of  age  and  cares.  Several  letters  are  preserved,  and 
are  most  creditable  to  both  parties.^ 

The  first  letter  of  Calvin  after  that  Colloquy,  is  dated 
Feb.  16,  1543,  and  is  a  lengthy  answer  to  a  message  from 
Melanchthon.2 

"  You  see,"  he  writes,  "  to  what  a  lazy  fellow  you  have  intrusted  your  letter. 
It  was  full  four  months  before  he  delivered  it  to  me,  and  then  crushed  and 
rumpled  with  much  rough  usage.  But  although  it  has  reached  me  somewhat 
late,  I  set  a  great  value  upon  the  acquisition.  .  .  .  Would,  indeed,  as  you 
observe,  that  we  could  oftener  converse  together  were  it  only  by  letters. 
To  you  that  would  be  no  advantage ;  but  to  me,  nothing  in  this  world  could 
be  more  desirable  than  to  take  solace  in  the  mild  and  gentle  spirit  of  your 
correspondence.  You  can  scarce  believe  with  what  a  load  of  business  I  am 
here  burdened  and  incessantly  hurried  along ;  but  in  the  midst  of  these  dis- 
tractions there  are  two  things  which  most  of  all  annoy  me.  My  chief  regret 
is,  that  there  does  not  appear  to  be  the  amount  of  fruit  that  one  may  reason- 
ably expect  from  the  labor  bestowed ;  the  other  is,  because  I  am  so  far  re- 
moved from  yourself  and  a  few  others,  and  therefore  am  deprived  of  that 
sort  of  comfort  and  consolation  which  would  prove  a  special  help  to  me. 

"  But  since  we  cannot  have  even  so  much  at  our  own  choice,  that  each 
at  his  own  discretion  might  pick  out  the  corner  of  the  vineyard  where  he 
might  serve  Christ,  we  must  remain  at  that  post  which  He  Himself  has  allotted 
to  each.  This  comfort  we  have  at  least,  of  which  no  far  distant  separation 
can  deprive  us,  —  I  mean,  that  resting  content  with  this  fellowship  which 
Christ  has  consecrated  with  his  own  blood,  and  has  also  confirmed  and  sealed 
by  his  blessed  Spirit  in  our  hearts,  —  while  we  live  on  the  earth,  we  may  cheer 
each  other  with  that  blessed  hope  to  which  your  letter  calls  us  that  in  heaven 
above  we  shall  dwell  forever  where  we  shall  rejoice  in  love  and  in  continuance 
of  our  friendship."  ^ 

There  can  be  no  nobler  expression  of  Christian  friendship. 

In  the  same  letter  Calvin  informs  Melanchthon  that  he 

had  dedicated  to  liim  his  "  Defence  of  the  Orthodox  Doctrine 

1  In  Calvin's  Opera  there  are  fourteen  letters  of  his  to  Melanchthon. 

2  Letters  of  John  Calvin  by  Dr.  Jules  Bonnet,  translated  from  the  original 
Latin  and  French  by  Constable,  vol.  I.  349.  In  Calvin's  Opera,  XI.  515.  The 
original  copy  is  in  Simler's  Collection  in  the  City  Library  of  Ziirich. 

8  "  Hoc  saltern  nobis  nulla  regionum  longinquitas  eripiet,  quin  hac  conjunctione, 
quam  Christus  sanguine  suo  consecratam  Spiritu  quoque  suo  in  cordibus  nostris 
sanxit,  contenti,  dum  vivimus  in  terra  sustineamur  beata  ilia  spe,  ad  quam  nos  literce  turn 
revocant :  in  coelis  nos  simul perpetuo  victuros,  ubi  amore  amicitiaque  nostra fruemur." 


§  90.    CALVIN   AND   MELANCHTHON.  391 

on  the  Slavery  and  Deliverance  of  the  Human  Will  against 
the  Calumnies  of  Albert  Pighius,"  which  he  had  urged  Cal- 
vin to  write,  and  which  appeared  in  February,  1543.1  After 
some  modest  account  of  his  labors  in  Geneva,  and  judicious 
reflections  on  the  condition  of  the  Church  in  Germany,  he 
thus  concludes :  — 

"Adieu,  O  man  of  most  eminent  accomplishments,  and  ever  to  be  remem- 
bered by  me  and  honored  in  the  Lord  !  May  the  Lord  long  preserve  you  in 
safety  to  the  glory  of  his  name  and  the  edification  of  the  Church.  I  wonder 
what  can  be  the  reason  why  you  keep  your  Daniel  a  sealed  book  at  home.^ 
Neither  can  I  suffer  myself  quietly,  without  remonstrance,  to  be  deprived  of 
the  benefit  of  its  perusal.  I  beg  you  to  salute  Dr.  Martin  reverently  in  my 
name.  "We  have  here  with  us  at  present  Bernardino  of  Siena,  an  eminent 
and  excellent  man,  who  has  occasioned  no  little  stir  in  Italy  by  his  secession. 
He  has  requested  me  that  I  would  greet  you  in  his  name.  Once  more  adieu, 
along  with  your  family,  whom  may  the  Lord  continually  preserve." 

On  the  11th  of  May  following,  Melanchthon  thanked  Calvin 
for  the  dedication,  saying -.^  "I  am  much  affected  by  your 
kindness,  and  I  thank  you  that  you  have  been  pleased  to  give 
evidence  of  your  love  for  me  to  all  the  world,  by  placing  my 
name  at  the  beginning  of  your  remarkable  book,  where  all 
the  world  will  see  it."  He  gives  due  praise  to  the  force  and 
eloquence  with  which  he  refuted  Pighius,  and,  confessing 
his  own  inferiority  as  a  writer,  encourages  him  to  continue 
to  exercise  his  splendid  talents  for  the  edification  and  encour- 
agement of  the  Church.  Yet,  while  inferior  as  a  logician 
and  polemic,  he,  after  all,  had  a  deeper  insight  into  the  mys- 
tery of  predestination  and  free  will,  although  unable  to  solve 
it.  He  gently  hints  to  his  friend  that  he  looked  too  much 
to  one  side  of  the  problem  of  divine  sovereignty  and  human 
liberty,  and  says  in  substance  :  — 

"As  regards  the  question  treated  in  your  book,  the  question  of  predestina- 
tion, I  had  in  Tiibingen  a  learned  friend,  Franciscus  Stadianus,  who  used  to 

^  "  Defensio  sance  et  orthodoxcB  doctrince  de  servitute  et  liberatione  httmani  avhi- 
trii  adversus  calumnias  Alberti  Pighii  Cainpensis.     Opera,  VI.  225-404. 

•2  Melanchthon's  Commentary  on  Daniel  appeared  in  the  same  year  at 
Wittenberg  and  Leipzig. 

3  Opera,  vol.  XL  539-542.     Also  in  Corp.  'Reform.  V.  107. 


392         THE   KEFORMATION   IN    FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

say,  I  hold  both  to  be  true  that  all  things  happen  according  to  divine  fore- 
ordination,  and  yet  according  to  their  own  laws,  although  he  could  not  har- 
monize the  two.  I  maintain  the  proposition  that  God  is  not  the  author  of 
sin,  and  therefore  cannot  will  it.  David  was  by  his  own  will  carried  into 
transgression.!  He  might  have  retained  the  Holy  Spirit.  In  this  conflict 
there  is  some  margin  for  free  will.  .  .  .  Let  us  accuse  our  own  will  if  we  fall, 
and  not  find  the  cause  in  God.  He  will  help  and  aid  those  who  fight  in  earn- 
est. M6i'ov  de\y}<Tov,  says  Basilius,  Kal  debs  irpoairavTo..  God  promises  and  gives 
help  to  those  who  are  willing  to  receive  it.  So  says  the  Word  of  God,  and  in 
this  let  us  abide.  I  am  far  from  prescribing  to  you,  the  most  learned  and 
experienced  man  in  all  things  that  belong  to  piety.  I  know  that  in  general 
you  agree  with  my  view.  I  only  suggest  that  this  mode  of  expression  is 
better  adapted  for  practical  use."  ^ 

In  a  letter  to  Camerarius,  1552,  Melanchthon  expresses  his 
dissatisfaction  with  the  manner  in  which  Calvin  emphasized 
the  doctrine  of  predestination,  and  attempted  to  force  the 
Swiss  churches  to  accept  it  in  the  Consensus  Genevensis.^ 

Calvin  made  another  attempt  in  1554  to  gain  him  to  his 
view,  but  in  vain.*  On  one  point,  however,  he  could  agree 
to  a  certain  modification ;  for  he  laid  stress  on  the  spontane- 
ity of  the  will,  and  rejected  Luther's  paradoxes,  and  his  com- 
parison of  the  natural  man  to  a  dead  statue. 

It  is  greatly  to  the  credit  of  Calvin  that,  notwithstanding 
his  sensitiveness  and  intolerance  against  the  opponents  of  his 
favorite  dogma,  he  respected  the  judgment  of  the  most  emi- 
nent Lutheran  divine,  and  gave  signal  proof  of  it  by  pub- 
lishing a  French  translation  of  the  improved  edition  of 
Melanchthon's  Theological  Commonplaces  in  1546,  with  a 
commendatorj'-  preface  of  his  own,^  in  which  he  says  that  the 

^  This  is  a  direct  contradiction  to  the  assertion  in  the  first  edition  of  his 
Loci  (1521),  and  his  commentary  on  the  Romans  (1524),  that  God  does  all 
things  not  permissive,  but  patenter,  and  that  he  foreordained  and  wrought  the 
adultery  of  David,  and  the  treason  of  Judas,  as  well  as  the  vocation  of  Paul. 
He  so  understood  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans.  In  December,  1525,  Luther 
expressed  the  same  views  in  his  book  against  Erasmus,  which  he  never  re- 
called, but  pronounced  one  of  his  best  books  (1537). 

2  "Ad  usum  accommodata." 

^  Mel.  Opera,  in  the  Corpus  Heformatorum ,  VII.  390. 

*   Opera,  XV.  215-217.     Dated  6  Calendas  Septembris. 

5  The  preface  is  reprinted  in  his  Opera,  vol.   IX.  847-850. 


§  90.    CALVIN   AND   MELANCHTHON.  393 

book  was  a  brief  summary  of  all  things  necessary  for  a  Chris- 
tian to  know  on  the  way  of  salvation,  stated  in  the  simplest 
manner  by  the  profoundly  learned  author.  He  does  not  con- 
ceal the  difference  of  views  on  the  subject  of  free  will,  and 
says  that  Melanchthon  seems  to  concede  to  man  some  share 
in  his  salvation ;  yet  in  such  a  manner  that  God's  grace  is 
not  in  any  way  diminished,  and  no  ground  is  left  to  us  for 
boasting. 

This  is  the  only  example  of  a  Reformer  republishing  and 
recommending  the  work  of  another  Reformer,  which  was  the 
only  formidable  rival  of  his  own  chief  work  on  the  same  sub- 
ject (the  Institutes^,  and  differed  from  it  in  several  points.^ 

The  revival  of  the  unfortunate  eucharistic  controversy  by 
Luther  in  1545,  and  the  equally  unfortunate  controversy 
caused  by  the  imperial  Interim  in  1548,  tried  the  friendship 
of  the  Reformers  to  the  uttermost.  Calvin  respectfully,  yet 
frankly,  expressed  his  regret  at  the  indecision  and  want  of 
courage  displayed  by  Melanchthon  from  fear  of  Luther  and 
love  of  peace. 

When  Luther  came  out  a  year  before  his  death  with  his 
most  violent  and  abusive  book  against  the  "  Sacramenta- 
rians,"^  which  deeply  grieved  Melanchthon  and  roused  the 
just  indignation  of  the  Zwinglians,  Calvin  wrote  to  Melanch- 
thon (June  28,  1545)  :  ^  — 

"  Would  that  the  fellow-feeling  which  enables  me  to  condole  with  you,  and 
to  sympathize  in  your  heaviness,  might  also  impart  the  power  in  some  degree 
at  least  to  lighten  your  sorrow.  If  the  matter  stands  as  the  Ziirichers  say  it 
does,  then  they  have  just  occasion  for  their  writing.  .  .  .  Your  Pericles  allows 
himself  to  be  carried  beyond  all  bounds  with  his  love  of  thunder,  especially 

1  Henry  justly  remarks  (I.  370)  :  "So  free  were  these  rare  men  of  ambi- 
tion, love  of  glory,  and  littleness  of  spirit,  that  they  thought  of  nothing  but 
the  salvation  of  the  world.  Calvin  wanted  France  to  love  Melanchthon  as 
much  as  he  did,  and  to  be  converted  to  Christ  through  him."  Comp.  Stahelin, 
I.  244. 

2  His  "  Short  Confession  on  the  Lord's  Supper."  See  this  History,  vol.  VL 
654  sqq. 

8  Bonnet-Constable,  I.  442-444 ;  Opera,  XII.  98-100. 


394         THE   REFORMATION    IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND, 

seeino-  that  his  own  cause  is  by  no  means  the  better  of  the  two.  .  .  .  We  all 
of  us  acknowledge  that  we  are  much  indebted  to  him.  But  in  the  Church 
we  always  must  be  upon  our  guard,  lest  we  pay  too  great  a  deference  to  men. 
It  is  all  over  with  her  when  a  single  individual  has  more  authority  than  all 
the  rest.  .  .  .  Where  there  is  so  much  division  and  separation  as  we  now 
see,  it  is  indeed  no  easy  matter  to  still  the  troubled  waters,  and  bring  about 
composure.  .  .  .  You  will  say  he  [Luther]  has  a  vehement  disposition  and 
uno-overnable  impetuosity;  as  if  that  very  vehemence  did  not  break  forth 
with  all  tlie  greater  violence  when  all  show  themselves  alike  indulgent  to 
him,  and  allow  him  to  have  his  way  unquestioned.  If  this  specimen  of  over- 
bearing tyranny  has  sprung  forth  already  as  the  early  blossom  in  the  spring- 
tide of  a  reviving  Church,  what  must  we  expect  in  a  short  time,  when  affairs 
have  fallen  into  a  far  worse  condition?  Let  us,  therefore,  bewail  the  calamity 
of  the  Church  and  not  devour  our  grief  in  silence,  but  venture  boldly  to 
groan  for  freedom.  .  .  .  You  have  studiously  endeavored,  by  your  kindly 
method  of  instruction,  to  recall  the  minds  of  men  from  strife  and  contention. 
I  applaud  your  prudence  and  moderation.  But  while  you  dread,  as  you  would 
some  hidden  rock,  to  meddle  with  this  question  from  fear  of  giving  offence, 
you  are  leaving  in  perplexity  and  suspense  very  many  persons  who  require 
from  you  somewhat  of  a  more  certain  sound,  on  which  they  can  repose.  .  .  . 
Perhaps  it  is  now  the  will  of  God  to  open  the  way  for  a  full  and  satisfactory 
declaration  of  your  own  mind,  that  those  who  look  up  to  your  authority  may 
not  be  brought  to  a  stand,  and  kept  in  a  state  of  perpetual  doubt  and  hesita- 
tion. .  .  . 

"  In  the  mean  time  let  us  run  the  race  set  before  us  with  deliberate  courage. 
I  return  you  very  many  thanks  for  your  reply,  and  for  the  extraordinary 
kindness  which  Claude  assures  me  had  been  shown  to  him  by  you.^  I  can 
form  a  conjecture  what  you  would  have  been  to  myself,  from  your  having 
given  so  kind  and  courteous  a  reception  to  my  friend.  I  do  not  cease  to  offer 
my  chief  thanks  to  God,  who  has  vouchsafed  to  us  that  agreement  in  opinion 
upon  the  whole  of  that  question  [on  the  real  presence] ;  for  although  there  is 
a  slight  difference  in  certain  particulars,  we  are  very  well  agreed  upon  the 
general  question  itself." 

When  after  the  defeat  of  the  Protestants  in  the  Sraalkal- 
dian  War,  Mehanchthon  accepted  the  Leipzig  Interim  with 
the  humiliating  condition  of  conformity  to  the  Roman  ritual, 
which  the  German  emperor  imposed  upon  them,  Calvin  was 
still  more  dissatisfied  with  his  old  friend.  He  sided,  in  this 
case,  with  the  Lutheran  non-conformists  who,  under  the  lead 
of  Matthias  Flacius,  resisted  the  Interim,  and  were  put  under 

1  Claude  de  Senarcleus,  a  friend  of  Calvin,  returned  from  Wittenberg  with 
an  album  full  of  pious  inscriptions  of  leading  Lutheran  divines,  which  is  pre- 
served in  the  Town  Library  of  Geneva.     Bonnet,  I.e.  I.  444, 


§  90.    C^\I.VIN    AND   MELANCHTHON.  395 

the  ban  of  the  emph-e.  He  wrote  to  Melanchthon,  June  18, 
1550,  the  following  letter  of  remonstrance :  ^  — 

"  The  ancient  satirist  [Juvenal,  I.  79]  once  said,  — 

'  Si  natura  negat,facit  indignatio  versmn.' 

"  It  is  at  present  far  otherwise  with  nie.     So  little  does  my  present  grief 
aid  me  in  speaking,  that  it  rather  renders  me  almost  entirely  speechless.  .  .  . 

1  would  have  you  suppose  me  to  be  groaning  rather  than  speaking.  It  is  too 
well  known,  from  their  mocking  and  jests,  how  much  the  enemies  of  Christ 
were  rejoicing  over  your  contests  with  the  theologians  of  Magdeburg.'-  .  .  . 
If  no  blame  attaches  to  you  in  this  matter,  my  dear  Thilip,  it  would  be  but 
the  dictate  of  prudence  and  justice  to  devise  means  of  curing,  or  at  least  miti- 
gating, the  evil.  Yet,  forgive  me  if  I  do  not  consider  you  altogether  free 
from  blame.  ...  In  openly  admonishing  you,  I  am  discharging  the  duty  of 
a  true  friend;  and  if  I  employ  a  little  more  severity  than  usual,  do  not  tliink 
tliat  it  is  owing  to  any  diminution  of  my  old  affection  and  esteem  for  you. 
...  I  know  that  nothing  gives  you  greater  pleasure  than  open  candor.  .  .  . 
This  is  the  sum  of  your  defence  :  that,  provided  purity  of  doctrine  be  retained, 
externals  sliould  not  be  pertinaciously  contended  for.  .  .  .  But  you  extend 
the  distinction  of  non-essentials  too  far.  You  are  aware  that  the  Papists  have 
corrupted  the  worship  of  God  in  a  thousand  ways.  Several  of  those  things 
which  you  consider  indifferent  are  obviously  repugnant  to  the  Word  of  God. 
.  .  .  You  ought  not  to  have  made  such  large  concessions  to  the  Papists.  .  .  . 
At  the  time  when  circumcision  was  yet  lawful,  do  you  not  see  that  Paul, 
because  crafty  and  malicious  fowlers  were  laying  snares  for  the  liberty  of 
believers,  pertinaciously  refused  to  concede  to  them  a  ceremony  at  the  first 
instituted  by  God?  He  boasts  that  he  did  not  yield  to  them,  —  no,  not  for  an 
hour,  —  that  the  truth  of  God  might  remain  intact  among  the  Gentiles  (Gal. 

2  :  5).  ...  I  remind  you  of  what  I  once  said  to  you,  tliat  we  consider  our 
ink  too  precious  if  we  hesitate  to  bear  testimony  in  writing  to  those  things 
which  so  many  of  the  flock  are  daily  sealing  with  tlieir  blood.  .  .  .  The  trep- 
idation of  a  general  is  more  dishonorable  than  the  flight  of  a  whole  herd  of 
private  soldiers.  .  .  .  You  alone,  by  only  giving  way  a  little,  will  cause  more 
complaints  and  sighs  than  would  a  hundred  ordinary  individuals  by  open 
desertion.  And,  althougli  I  am  fully  persuaded  that  the  fear  of  death  never 
compelled  you  in  the  very  least  to  swerve  from  the  right  path,  yet  I  am  appre- 
hensive that  it  is  just  possible  that  another  species  of  fear  may  have  proved 
too  much  for  your  courage.  For  I  know  how  much  you  are  horrified  at  the 
charge  of  rude  severity.  But  we  should  remember  that  reputation  must  not 
be  accounted  by  the  servants  of  Christ  as  of  more  value  than  life.  We  are 
no  better  than  Paul  was,  who  remained  fearlessly  on  his  way  through  '  evil 
and  good  report.'  .  .  .     You  know  why  I  am  so  vehement.     I  had  rather  die 

1  Opera,  XIII.  593  sqq. 

-  The  zealous  Lutherans  at  Magdeburg  which  stood  out  a  long  siege  by 
the  army  of  the  Elector  Maurice. 


396         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

with  you  a  hundred  times  than  see  you  survive  the  doctrines  surrendered  by 
you.  .  .  . 

"  Pardon  me  for  loading  your  breast  with  these  miserable  though  ineffect- 
ual groans.  Adieu,  most  illustrious  sir,  and  ever  worthy  of  my  hearty  regard. 
May  the  Lord  continue  to  guide  you  by  his  Spirit,  and  sustain  you  by  his 
might.     May  his  protection  guard  you.    Amen." 

We  have  here  a  repetition  of  the  scene  between  Paul  and 
Peter  at  Antioch,  concerning  the  rite  of  circumcision;  and 
while  we  admire  the  frankness  and  boldness  of  Paul  and  Cal- 
vin in  rebuking  an  elder  brother,  and  standing  up  for  princi- 
ple, we  must  also  admire  the  meekness  and  humility  of  Peter 
and  Melanchthon  in  bearing  the  censure. 

Melanchthon  himself,  after  a  brief  interruption,  reopened 
the  correspondence  in  the  old  friendly  spirit,  during  the  dis- 
turbances of  war  between  Elector  Maurice  and  the  Emperor 
Charles,  which  made  an  end  of  the  controversy  about  the 
Adiaphora. 

"  How  often,"  wrote  Melanchthon,  Oct.  1,  1552, i  "  would  I  have  written  to 
you,  reverend  sir  and  dearest  brother,  if  I  could  find  more  trustworthy  letter- 
carriers.  For  I  would  like  to  converse  with  you  about  many  most  important 
matters,  because  I  esteem  your  judgment  very  highly  and  know  the  candor 
and  purity  of  your  soul.^  I  am  now  living  as  in  a  wasp's  nest  ;3  but  perhaps 
I  shall  soon  be  called  from  this  mortal  life  "to  a  brighter  companionship  in 
heaven.  If  I  live  longer,  I  have  to  expect  new  exiles  ;  if  so,  I  am  determined 
to  turn  to  you.  The  studies  are  now  broken  up  by  pestilence  and  war.  How 
often  do  I  mourn  and  sigh  over  the  causes  of  this  fury  among  princes." 

In  a  lengthy  and  interesting  answer  Calvin  says :  *  — 
"  Nothing  could  have  come  to  me  more  seasonably  at  this 
time  than  your  letter,  which  I  received  two  months  after  its 
despatch."  ^  He  assures  him  that  it  was  no  little  consolation 
to  him  in  his  sore  trials  at  Geneva  to  be  assured  of  the  con- 
tinuance of  his  affection,  which,  he  was  told,  had  been  inter- 

1    Opera,  XIV.  368 ;   Corp.  Ref.,  VII.  1085. 

-  "  Quia  et  judicium  titiim  magni  facio,  et  scio  integritatem  animi  et  candorem 
in  te  snmmuin  esse." 

^  uffwep  6vos  iv  <T(f>T]Klais. 

*  Bonnet-Constable,  IL  360-366;   Opera,  XIV.  415-418. 

^  Nowadays  a  letter  from  Wittenberg  will  reach  Geneva  in  less  than  two 
days. 


§  90.    CALVIN   AND   MELANCHTHON.  397 

rupted  by  the  letter  of  remonstrance  above  referred  to.  "  I 
have  learned  the  more  gladly  that  our  friendship  remains 
safe,  which  assuredly,  as  it  grew  out  of  a  heartfelt  love  of 
piety,  ought  to  remain  forever  sacred  and  inviolable." 

In  the  unfortunate  affair  of  Servetus,  Melanchthon  fully 
approved  Calvin's  conduct  (1554).^  But  during  the  eucha- 
ristic  controversy  excited  by  Westphal,  he  kept  an  ominous 
silence,  which  produced  a  coolness  between  them.  In  a 
letter  of  Aug.  3,  1557,  Calvin  complains  that  for  three  years 
he  had  not  heard  from  him,  but  expresses  satisfaction  that 
he  still  entertained  the  same  affection,  and  closes  with  the 
wish  that  he  may  be  permitted  "  to  enjoy  on  earth  a  most 
delightful  interview  with  you,  and  feel  some  alleviation  of 
my  grief  by  deploring  along  with  you  the  evils  which  we 
cannot  remedy."^ 

That  wish  was  not  granted.  In  a  letter  of  Nov.  19, 1558,^ 
he  gives  him,  while  still  suffering  from  a  quartan  ague,  a 
minute  account  of  his  malady,  of  the  remedies  of  the  doctors, 
of  the  formidable  coalition  of  the  kings  of  France  and  Spain 
against  Geneva,  and  concludes  with  these  words :  — 

"Let  us  cultivate  with  sincerity  a  fraternal  affection  towards  each  other, 
the  ties  of  which  no  wiles  of  the  devil  shall  ever  burst  asunder.  .  .  .  By  no 
slight  shall  my  mind  ever  be  alienated  from  that  holy  friendship  and  respect 
which  I  have  vowed  to  you.  .  .  .  Farewell,  most  illustrious  light  and  dis- 
tinguished doctor  of  the  Church.  May  the  Lord  always  govern  you  by  his 
Spirit,  preserve  you  long  in  safety,  increase  your  store  of  blessings.  In  your 
turn,  diligently  commend  us  to  the  protection  of  God,  as  you  see  us  exposed 
to  the  jaws  of  the  wolf.  My  colleagues  and  an  innumerable  crowd  of  pious 
men  salute  you." 

On  the  19th  of  April,  1560,  Melanchthon  was  delivered 

from  "  the  fury  of  the  theologians  "  and  all  his  troubles.     A 

year  after  his  death  Calvin,  who  had  to  fight  the  battle  of 

faith  four  years  longer,  during  the  renewed  fury  of  the  eu- 

charistic  controversy  with  the  fanatical  Heshusius,  addressed 

this  touching  appeal  to  his  sainted  friend  in  heaven  :  — 

1  See  below,  §  139,  pp.  706  sqq.  ^  Opera,  XVI.  556-558. 

3  Opera,  XVII.  384-386. 


398         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

"O  Philip  Melanclithon!  I  appeal  to  thee  who  now  livest  with  Christ  in 
the  bosom  of  God,  and  there  art  waiting  for  us  till  we  shall  be  gathered  with 
thee  to  that  blessed  rest.  A  hundred  times,  when  worn  out  with  labors  and 
oppressed  with  so  many  troubles,  didst  thou  repose  thy  head  familiarly  on 
my  breast  and  say,  '  Would  that  I  could  die  in  this  bosom ! '  Since  then 
I  have  a  thousand  times  wished  that  it  had  been  granted  to  us  to  live  together ; 
for  certainly  thou  wouldst  thus  have  had  more  courage  for  the  inevitable 
contest,  and  been  stronger  to  despise  envy,  and  to  count  as  nothing  all  accu- 
sations. In  this  manner,  also,  the  malice  of  many  would  have  been  restrained 
who,  from  thy  gentleness  which  they  call  weakness,  gathered  audacity  for 
their  attacks."  i 

Who,  in  view  of  this  friendship  which  was  stronger  than 
death,  can  charge  Calvin  with  want  of  heart  and  tender 
affection  ? 

§  91.    Calvin  and  Sadolet.     The    Vindication  of  the 
Reformation. 

Sadoleti  :  Epistola  ad  Genevenses  {Cal.  Apr.,  i.e.  March  18,  1539) .  —  Calvini  : 
Responsio  ad  Sadoletum  (Sept.  1,  15S9),  Argentorati  ap.  Wendelinum  Siche- 
lium  excusa.  In  Calv.  Opera,  vol.  V.  385-416.  Calvin  translated  it  into 
French,  1540  (republished  at  Geneva,  1860).  English  translation  of  both 
by  Henry  Beveridge  in  John  Calvin's  Tracts  relating  to  the  Beformation, 
Edinburgh  (Calvin  Translation  Society),  1844,  pp.  3-68.  —  Beza,  Vita  C, 
Opera,  XXI.  129. 

Henry,  vol.  I.  ch.  XL  — Dyer,  102  sq.  —  Stahelin,  I.  291-304.  — Kamp- 
SCHULTE,  I.  354  sq.  (only  a  brief  but  important  notice). — Merle 
d'Aubign£,  bk.  XI.  ch.  XVI.,  and  vol.  VI.  570-594. 

"  Another  evil,  of  a  more  dangerous  kind,  arose  in  the 
year  1539,  and  was  at  once  extinguished  by  the  diligence  of 
Calvin.  The  bishop  of  Carpentras,  at  that  time,  was  James 
Sadolet,  a  man  of  great  eloquence,  but  he  perverted  it 
chiefly  in  suppressing  the  light  of  truth.  He  had  been 
appointed  a  cardinal  for  no  other  reason  than  in  order  that 
his  moral  respectability  might  serve  to  put  a  kind  of  gloss 
on  false  religion.  Observing  his  opportunity  in  the  circum- 
stances which  had  occurred,  and  thinking  that  he  would 
easily  ensnare  the  flock  when  deprived  of  its  distinguished 
pastors,  he  sent,  under  the  pretext  of  neighborhood  (for  the 

1   Opera,  IX.  461. 


§  91.    CALVIN   AND    SADOLET.  "  399 

city  of  Carpentras  is  in  Dauphiny,  which  again  bounds  on 
Savoy),  a  letter  to  his  so-styled  'most  Beloved  Senate,  Council, 
and  People  of  Geneva,'  omitting  nothing  which  might  tend  to 
bring  them  both  into  the  lap  of  the  Romish  Harlot.^  There 
was  nobody  at  that  time  in  Geneva  capable  of  writing  an 
answer,  and  it  is,  therefore,  not  unlikely,  that,  had  the  letter 
not  been  written  in  a  foreign  tongue  (Latin),  it  would,  in 
the  existing  state  of  affairs,  have  done  great  mischief  to  the 
city.  But  Calvin,  having  read  it  at  Strasbourg,  forgot  all 
his  injuries,  and  forthwith  answered  it  with  so  much  truth 
and  eloquence,  that  Sadolet  immediately  gave  up  the  whole 
affair  as  desperate." 

This  is  Beza's  account  of  that  important  and  interesting 
controversy  which  occurred  in  the  German  period  of  Calvin's 
life,  and  left  a  permanent  impression  on  history. 

The  interregnum  in  Geneva  furnished  an  excellent  oppor- 
tunity for  PieiTe  de  la  Baume,  who  had  been  made  a  cardi- 
nal, to  recover  his  lost  bishopric.  In  this  respect  he  only 
followed  the  example  of  dispossessed  princes.  He  brought 
about,  with  the  help  of  the  pope,  a  consultation  of  the  bishops 
of  the  neighboring  dioceses  of  Lyons,  Vienne,  Lausanne, 
Besangon,  Turin,  Langres,  and  Carpentras.  The  meeting 
was  held  at  Lyons  under  the  presidency  of  the  cardinal  of 
Tournon,  then  archbishop  of  Lyons,  and  known  as  a  bigoted 
persecutor  of  the  Waldenses.  Jean  Philippe,  the  chief  author 
of  the  banishment  of  Calvin,  aided  in  the  scheme.  The 
bishop  of  Carpentras,  a  town  on  the  borders  of  Savoy,  was 
selected  for  the  execution.  A  better  choice  could  not  have 
been  made. 

Jacopo  Sadoleto  (born  at  Modena,  1477,  died  at  Rome, 
1547)  was  one  of  the  secretaries  of  Pope  Leo  X.,  bishop  of 
Carpentras  in  Dauphiny  since  1517,  secretary  of   Clement 

^  "  In  Bomance  illius  meretricis  gremium,"  a  frequent  polemical  designation 
of  the  Roman  Church,  derived  from  a  misinterpretation  of  the  apocalyptic 
harlot  which  means  heathen  Rome  (Rev.  17  :  5). 


400         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

VII.  in  1523,  a  cardinal  since  1536.  He  was  frequently  em- 
ployed in  diplomatic  peace  negotiations  between  the  pope, 
the  king  of  France,  and  the  emperor  of  Germany.  He  had 
a  high  reputation  as  a  scholar,  a  poet,  and  a  gentleman  bf 
irreproachable  character  and  devout  piety.  He  best  repre- 
sents the  Italian  Renaissance  in  its  leaning  towards  a  moder- 
ate semi-evangelical  reform  within  the  Catholic  Church.  He 
was  an  admirer  of  Erasmus  and  Melanchthon,  and  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  Oratory  at  Rome  for  purposes  of  mutual  edi- 
fication. He  acted,  like  Contarini,  as  a  mediator  between 
the  Roman  and  Protestant  parties,  but  did  not  please  either. 
In  his  commentary  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  he  ex- 
pressed opinions  on  di\"ine  grace  and  free-will  which  gave 
offence  in  Rome  and  in  Spain.  His  colleague.  Cardinal 
Bembo,  warned  him  against  the  study  of  St.  Paul,  lest  it 
might  spoil  his  classical  style.  Sadolet  prevented  the  spread 
of  Calvinism  in  his  diocese,  but  was  opposed  to  violent  per- 
secution. He  kindly  received  the  fugitive  Waldenses  after 
the  terrible  massacre  of  Mdrindol  and  Cabrieres,  in  1545,  and 
besought  the  clemency  of  Francis  I.  in  their  behalf.  He 
was  grieved  and  disgusted  with  the  nepotism  of  Pope  Paul 
III.,  and  declined  the  appointment  to  preside  over  the  Coun- 
cil of  Trent  as  papal  delegate,  on  the  score  of  extreme 
poverty. 

This  highly  respectable  dignitary  of  the  papal  hierarchy 
made  a  ver}-  able  and  earnest  effort  to  win  back  the  orphan 
Church  of  Geneva  to  the  sheepfold  of  Rome.  He  thereby 
came  involuntarily  into  a  literary  conflict  with  Calvin,  in 
which  he  was  utterly  defeated.  Fresh  from  a  visit  to  the 
pope,  he  addressed  a  letter  of  some  twenty  or  more  octavo 
pages  "  to  his  dearly  beloved  Brethren,  the  Magistrates,  Sen- 
ate, and  Citizens  of  Geneva."  It  is  written  in  elegant  Latin, 
and  with  persuasive  eloquence,  of  which  he  was  a  consum- 
mate master. 

He  assumes  the  air  of  authority  as  a  cardinal  and  papal 


§  91.     CALVIN   AND   SADOLET.  4Ul 

legate,  and  begins  with  an  apostolic  greeting :  "  Very  dear 
Brethren  in  Christ,  —  Peace  to  3-ou  and  with  us,  that  is,  with 
the  Catholic  Church,  the  mother  of  all,  both  of  us  and  you, 
love  and  concord  fi'om  God,  the  Father  Almighty,  and  from 
his  Son  Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord,  together  with  the  Holy  Spirit, 
perfect  Unity  in  Trinity ;  to  whom  te  praise  and  dominion 
for  ever  and  ever."  He  flatters  the  Genevese  by  praising 
their  noble  city,  the  order  and  form  of  their  republic,  the 
worth  of  their  citizens,  and  especially  their  ''hospitality  to 
strangers  and  foreigners,"  but  he  casts  suspicion  on  the  char- 
acter and  motives  of  the  Reformers.  This  uncharitable  and 
ungentlemanly  reflection  mars  the  beauty  and  dignity  of  his 
address,  and  weakened  its  effect  upon  the  citizens  of  Geneva 
who,  whatever  were  their  religious  views,  had  no  doubt  about 
the  honesty  and  earnestness  of  Fg-rel,  Viret,  and  Cahdn. 

After  this  introduction  Sadolet  gives  a  very  plausible  ex- 
position of  the  principle  of  the  Catholic  doctrines,  but  ignores 
the  Bible.  He  admits  that  man  is  saved  by  faith  alone,  but 
adds  the  necessity  of  good  works.  He  then  asks  the  Gene- 
vese to  decide,  '•  Whether  it  be  more  expedient  for  their 
salvation  to  believe  and  follow  what  the  Catholic  Church  has 
approved  with  general  consent  for  more  than  fifteen  hundred 
years,  or  innovations  introduced  within  these  twenty-five 
years  by  crafty  men."  He  then  adduces  the  stock  argu- 
ments of  antiquit)',  universality,  units',  and  inerrancy,  wliile 
the  Protestants  were  already  broken  uj)  into  warring  sects  — 
a  manifest  indication  of  falsehood.  For  "truth,"  he  says, 
"  is  always  one,  while  error  is  varied  and  multiform ;  that 
which  is  straight  is  simple,  that  which  is  crooked  has  many 
turns.  Can  any  one  who  confesses  Christ,  fail  to  perceive 
that  such  teacliing  of  the  holy  Church  is  the  proper  work  of 
Satan,  and  not  of  God?  What  does  God  demand  of  us? 
What  does  Christ  enjoin?     That  we  be  all  one  in  him." 

He  closes  with  an  earnest  exhortation,  and  assures  the 
Genevese  :  "  Whatever  I  possibly  can  do,  although  it  is  very 


402         THE    REFORMATION    IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

little,  still  if  I  have  in  me  any  talent,  skill,  authority,  indus- 
try, I  offer  them  all  to  you  and  your  interests,  and  will 
regard  it  as  a  great  favor  to  myself  should  you  be  able  to 
reap  any  fruit  and  advantage  from  my  labor  and  assistance 
in  things  human  and  divine." 

The  Council  of  Geneva  politely  acknowledged  the  receipt 
of  the  cardinal's  letter  with  thanks  for  the  compliments 
paid  to  the  Genevese,  and  promised  a  full  repl)^  in  due  time. 
This  was  March  27.  On  the  next  day  a  number  of  citizens, 
under  the  lead  of  Frangois  Chamois,  entered  a  protest  against 
the  ordinance  by  which  the  Confession  of  Faith  had  been 
adopted,  July  29,  1537,  and  asked  to  be  released  from  the 
oath.  The  Romanists  took  courage.  No  one  could  be  found 
in  Geneva  who  was  able  to  answer  the  cardinal's  letter,  and 
silence  might  be  construed  into  consent. 

Calvin  received  a  copy  of  the  appeal  through  Sulzer,  a 
minister  of  Bern,  wrote  an  answer  of  more  than  twice  its 
length  in  six  days,  and  despatched  it  to  Geneva  in  time  to 
neutralize  the  mischief  (Sept.  1).  Though  not  mentioned 
by  name,  he  was  indirectly  assailed  by  the  cardinal  as  the 
chief  among  those  who  had  been  denounced  as  misleaders  and 
disturbers  of  the  peace  of  Geneva.  He  therefore  felt  it  his 
duty  to  take  up  the  pen  in  defence  of  the  Reformation. 

He  begins  by  paying  a  just  tribute  to  the  cardinal  for  his 
"  excellent  learning  and  admirable  eloquence,"  which  raised 
him  to  a  place  among  the  first  scholars  of  the  age.  Nor  did 
he  impeach  his  motives.  "  I  will  give  you  credit,"  he  says, 
"  for  having  written  to  the  Genevese  with  the  purest  inten- 
tion as  becomes  one  of  your  learning,  prudence,  and  gravity, 
and  for  having  in  o^ood  faith  advised  them  to  the  course 
which  you  believed  to  be  to  their  interest  and  safety."  He 
was,  therefore,  reluctant  to  oppose  him,  and  he  did  so  only 
under  an  imperative  sense  of  duty.  We  let  him  speak  for 
himself.^ 

1  In  the  following  extracts  I  make  use  of  the  translation  of  Henry  Bever- 
idge,  with  a  few  slight  changes. 


§  91.    CALVIN   AND   SADOLET.  403 

"  I  profess  to  be  one  of  those  whom,  with  so  much  enmity,  you  assail  and 
stigmatize.  For  though  religion  was  already  established,  and  the  form  of  the 
Church  corrected,  before  I  was  invited  to  Geneva,  yet  having  not  only 
approved  by  my  suffrage,  but  studied  as  much  as  in  me  lay  to  preserve  and 
confirm  what  had  been  done  by  Viret  and  Farel,  I  cannot  separate  my  case 
from  theirs.  Still,  if  you  had  attacked  me  in  my  private  character,  I  could 
easily  have  forgiven  the  attack  in  consideration  of  your  learning,  and  in  honor 
of  letters.  But  when  I  see  that  my  ministry,  which  I  feel  assured  is  supported 
and  sanctioned  by  a  call  from  God,  is  wounded  through  my  side,  it  would  be 
perfidy,  not  patience,  were  I  here  to  be  silent  and  connive. 

"In  that  Church  I  have  held  the  office,  first  of  Doctor,  and  then  of  Pastor. 
In  my  own  right  I  maintain  that,  in  undertaking  these  offices,  I  had  a  legiti- 
mate vocation.  How  faithfully  and  religiously  I  have  performed  them,  there 
is  no  occasion  for  now  showing  at  length.  Perspicuity,  erudition,  prudence, 
ability,  or  even  industry,  I  will  not  claim  for  myself,  but  that  I  certainly 
labored  with  the  sincerity  which  became  me  in  the  work  of  the  Lord,  I  can 
in  conscience  appeal  to  Christ,  my  Judge,  and  all  his  angels,  while  all  good 
men  bear  clear  testimony  in  my  favor.  This  ministry,  therefore,  when  it 
shall  appear  to  have  been  of  God  (as  it  certainly  shall  appear  after  the  cause 
has  been  heard),  were  I  in  silence  to  allow  you  to  tear  and  defame,  who 
would  not  condemn  such  silence  as  treachery  ?  Every  person,  therefore,  now 
sees  that  the  strongest  obligations  of  duty  —  obligations  which  I  cannot  evade 
—  constrain  me  to  meet  your  accusations,  if  I  would  not  with  manifest  per- 
fidy desert  and  betray  a  cause  with  which  the  Lord  has  intrusted  me.  For 
though  I  am  for  the  present  relieved  of  the  charge  of  the  Church  of  Geneva, 
that  circumstance  ought  not  to  prevent  me  from  embracing  it  with  paternal 
affection  —  God,  when  he  gave  it  to  me  in  charge,  having  bound  me  to  be 
faithful  forever." 

He  repels  with  modest  dignity  the  frivolous  charge  of 
having  embraced  the  cause  of  the  Reformation  from  dis- 
appointed ambition. 

"I  am  unwilling  to  speak  of  myself,  but  since  you  do  not  permit  me  to  be 
altogether  silent,  I  will  say  what  I  can  consistently  with  modesty.  Had  I 
wished  to  consult  my  own  interest,  I  would  never  have  left  your  party.  I  will 
not,  indeed,  boast  that  there  the  road  to  preferment  had  been  easy  to  me. 
I  never  desired  it,  and  I  could  never  bring  my  mind  to  catch  at  it ;  although 
I  certainly  know  not  a  few  of  my  own  age  who  have  crept  up  to  some 
eminence  —  among  them  some  whom  I  might  have  equalled,  and  others  out- 
stripped. This  only  I  will  be  contented  to  say,  it  would  not  have  been  diffi- 
cult for  me  to  reach  the  summit  of  my  wishes,  viz.,  the  enjoyment  of  literary 
ease  with  something  of  a  free  and  honorable  station.  Therefore,  I  have  no 
fear  that  any  one  not  possessed  of  shameless  effrontery  will  object  to  me,  that 
out  of  the  kingdom  of  the  pope  I  sought  for  any  personal  advantage  which 
was  not  there  ready  to  my  hand." 


404         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

The  Reformer  follows  the  cardinal's  letter  step  by  step, 
and  defeats  him  at  every  point.  He  answers  his  assertions 
with  facts  and  arguments.  He  destroys,  like  a  cobweb,  his 
beautiful  picture  of  an  ideal  Catholicism  by  a  description  of 
the  actual  papacy  of  those  days,  with  its  abuses  and  corrup- 
tions, which  were  the  real  cause  of  the  Reformation.  He 
gives  a  very  dark  account,  indeed,  but  it  is  fully  confirmed 
by  what  is  authentically  known  of  the  lives  of  such  popes  as 
Alexander  VI.  and  Leo  X.,  by  the  invectives  of  Savonarola, 
by  the  observations  of  Erasmus  and  Luther  on  their  expe- 
rience in  Rome,  by  such  impartial  witnesses  as  Machiavelli, 
who  says  that  religion  was  almost  destroyed  in  Italy  owing 
to  the  bad  example  set  by  the  popes,  and  even  by  the  testi- 
mony of  an  exceptionally  good  and  pious  pope,  Adrian  VI., 
who,  with  all  his  abhorrence  of  the  Lutheran  heresy,  officially 
confessed  the  absolute  necessity  of  a  moral  reform  in  the 
head  and  members  of  the  hierarchy. 

"  We  deny  not,"  says  Calvin,  "  that  those  over  whom  you  preside  are 
churches  of  Christ,  but  we  maintain  that  the  Roman  pontiff,  with  his  whole 
herd  of  pseudo-bishops,  who  have  seized  upon  the  pastor's  office,  are  ravening 
wolves,  whose  only  study  has  hitherto  been  to  scatter  and  trample  upon  the 
kingdom  of  Christ,  filling  it  with  ruin  and  devastation.  Nor  are  we  the  first 
to  make  the  complaint.  With  what  vehemence  does  Bernard  thunder  against 
Eugenius  and  all  the  bishops  of  his  own  age  ?  Yet  how  much  more  tolerable 
was  its  condition  than  now  ? 

"For  iniquity  has  reached  its  height,  and  now  those  shadowy  prelates,  by 
whom  you  think  the  Church  stands  or  perishes,  and  by  whom  we  say  that 
she  has  been  cruelly  torn  and  mutilated,  and  brought  to  the  very  brink  of 
destruction,  can  bear  neither  their  vices  nor  the  cure  of  them.  Destroyed 
the  Church  would  have  been,  had  not  God,  with  singular  goodness,  prevented. 
For  in  all  places  where  the  tyranny  of  the  Roman  pontiff  prevails,  you 
scarcely  see  as  many  stray  and  tattered  vestiges  as  will  enable  you  to  per- 
ceive that  these  Churches  lie  half  buried.  Nor  should  you  think  this  absurd, 
since  Paul  tells  you  that  Antichrist  would  have  his  seat  in  no  other  place 
than  in  the  midst  of  God's  sanctuary  (2  Thess.  2:4).   .  .  . 

"But  whatever  the  character  of  the  men,  still,  you  say,  it  is  written, '  What 
they  tell  you,  do.'  No  doubt,  if  they  sit  in  the  chair  of  Moses.  But  when, 
from  the  chair  of  verity,  tliey  intoxicate  the  people  with  folly,  it  is  written, 
'  Beware  of  the  leaven  of  the  Pharisees  '  (Matt.  12  :  G).  .  .  . 

"  Let  your  jiontiff  boast  as  he  may  of  the  succession  of  Peter :  even  if  he 
should  make  good  his  title  to  it,  he  will  establish  nothing  more  than  that 


§  91.    CALVIN   AND   SADOLET.  405 

obedience  is  due  to  him  from  the  Christian  people  so  long  as  he  himself  main- 
tains his  fidelity  to  Christ,  and  does  not  deviate  from  the  purity  of  the  gospel. 
...  A  prophet  should  be  judged  by  the  congregation  (1  Cor.  14:29). 
Whoever  exempts  himself  from  this  must  first  expunge  his  name  from  the 
list  of  the  prophets.  .  .   . 

"  As  to  your  assertion,  that  our  only  aim  in  shaking  off  this  tyrannial  yoke 
was  to  set  ourselves  free  for  unbridled  licentiousness  after  (so  help  us !)  cast- 
ing away  all  thoughts  of  future  life,  let  judgment  be  given  after  comparing 
our  conduct  with  yours.  We  abound,  indeed,  in  numerous  faults ;  too  often 
do  we  sin  and  fall.  Still,  though  truth  would,  modesty  will  not,  permit  me 
to  boast  how  far  we  excel  you  in  every  respect,  unless,  perchance,  you  except 
Rome,  that  famous  abode  of  sanctity,  which  having  burst  asunder  the  cords 
of  pure  discipline,  and  trodden  all  honor  under  foot,  has  so  overflowed  with 
all  kinds  of  iniquity,  that  scarcely  anything  so  abominable  has  ever  been 
before." 

At  the  close  of  his  letter,  Sadolet  had  cited  the  Reformers 
as  criminals  before  the  judgment-seat  of  God,  in  an  imaginary 
confession  to  the  effect  that  they  had  been  actuated  by  base 
motives  of  pride  and  disappointed  ambition  in  their  assaults 
upon  the  holy  Church  and  the  vicegerent  of  Christ,  and 
become  guilty  of  "  great  seditions  and  schisms." 

Calvin  takes  up  the  challenge  by  a  counter-confession, 
which  introduces  us  into  the  very  heart  of  the  great  religious 
struggle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  is  perhaps  the  ablest 
vindication  of  the  Reformation  to  be  found  in  the  controver- 
sial literature  of  that  time.  He  puts  that  movement  on  the 
ground  of  the  Word  of  God  against  the  commandments  of 
men,  and  justifies  it  by  the  protests  of  the  Hebrew  prophets 
against  the  corruptions  of  the  Levitical  priesthood,  and 
Christ's  fearful  denunciations  of  the  Pharisees  and  Saddu- 
cees,  who  nailed  the  Saviour  to  the  cross.  The  same  con- 
fession contains  also  an  incidental  account  of  the  spiritual 
experience  and  conversion  of  the  author,  who  speaks  for 
himself  as  well  as  his  colleagues.     We  give  it  in  full. 

"  Consider  now  what  serious  answer  you  are  to  make  for  yourself  and 
your  party.  Our  cause,  as  it  is  supported  by  the  truth  of  God,  will  be  at  no 
loss  for  a  complete  defence.  I  am  not  speaking  of  our  persons  ;  their  safety 
will  be  found  not  in  defence,  but  in  humble  confession  and  suppliant  depre- 
cation. But  in  so  far  as  our  ministry  is  concerned,  there  is  none  of  us  who 
will  not  be  able  thus  to  speak  :  — 


406         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

"  '  0  Lord,  I  have,  indeed,  experienced  how  difficult  and  grievous  it  was 
to  bear  the  invidious  accusations  with  which  I  was  harassed  on  the  earth; 
but  with  the  same  confidence  with  which  I  then  appealed  to  Thy  tribunal, 
I  now  appear  before  Tliee,  because  I  know  that  in  Tliy  judgment  truth  always 
reigns  —  that  truth  by  whose  assurance  supported  I  first  ventured  to  attempt 
—  with  whose  assistance  provided  I  was  able  to  accomplish  whatever  I  have 
achieved  in  Thy  Church. 

"  '  They  charged  me  with  two  of  the  worst  of  crimes  —  heresy  and  schism. 
And  the  heresy  was,  that  I  dared  to  protest  against  dogmas  which  they 
received.  But  what  could  I  have  done  1  I  heard  from  Thy  mouth  that 
there  was  no  other  light  of  truth  which  could  direct  our  souls  into  the  way  of 
life,  than  that  which  was  kindled  by  Thy  Word.  I  heard  that  whatever  human 
minds  of  themselves  conceive  concerning  Thy  Majesty,  the  worship  of  Thy 
Deity,  and  the  mysteries  of  Thy  religion,  was  vanity.  I  heard  that  their 
introducing  into  the  Church  instead  of  Thy  Word,  doctrines  sprung  from  the 
human  brain,  was  sacrilegious  presumption. 

" '  But  when  I  turned  my  eyes  towards  men,  I  saw  very  different  principles 
prevailing.  Those  who  were  regarded  as  the  leaders  of  faith,  neither  under- 
stood Thy  Word,  nor  greatly  cared  for  it.  They  only  drove  unhappy  people 
to  and  fro  with  strange  doctrines,  and  deluded  them  with  I  know  not  what 
follies.  Among  the  people  themselves,  the  highest  veneration  paid  to  Thy 
Word  was  to  revere  it  at  a  distance,  as  a  thing  inaccessible,  and  abstain  from 
all  investigation  of  it. 

" '  Owing  to  this  supine  state  of  the  pastors,  and  this  stupidity  of  the  peo- 
ple, every  place  was  filled  with  pernicious  errors,  falsehoods,  and  superstition. 
They,  indeed,  called  Thee  the  only  God,  but  it  was  while  transferring  to 
others  the  glory  which  thou  hast  claimed  for  Thy  Majesty.  They  figured 
and  had  for  themselves  as  many  gods  as  they  had  saints,  whom  they  chose 
to  worship.  Thy  Christ  was  indeed  worshipped  as  God,  and  retained  the 
name  of  Saviour;  but  where  He  ought  to  have  been  honored,  He  was  left  almost 
without  honor.  For,  spoiled  of  His  own  virtue,  He  passed  unnoticed  among 
the  crowd  of  saints,  like  one  of  the  meanest  of  them.  There  was  none  who 
duly  considered  that  one  sacrifice  which  He  offered  on  the  cross,  and  by  which 
He  reconciled  us  to  Thyself  —  none  who  ever  dreamed  of  thinking  of  His 
eternal  priesthood,  and  the  intercession  depending  upon  it  —  none  who  trusted 
in  His  righteousness  only.  That  confident  hope  of  salvation  which  is  both 
enjoined  by  Thy  Word,  and  founded  upon  it,  had  almost  vanished.  Nay,  it 
was  received  as  a  kind  of  oracle,  that  it  was  foolish  arrogance,  and,  as  they 
termed  it,  presumption  for  any  one  trusting  to  Thy  goodness,  and  the  right- 
eousness of  Thy  Son,  to  entertain  a  sure  and  unfaltering  hope  of  salvation. 

" '  Not  a  few  profane  opinions  plucked  up  by  the  roots  the  first  principles 
of  that  doctrine  which  Thou  hast  delivered  to  us  in  Thy  Word.  The  true 
meaning  of  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  also,  was  corrupted  by  numerous 
falsehoods.  And  then,  when  all,  with  no  small  insult  to  Thy  mercy,  put 
confidence  in  good  works,  when  by  good  works  they  strove  to  merit  Thy 
favor,  to  procure  justification,  to  expiate  their  sins,  and  make  satisfaction  to 
Thee  (each  of  these  things  obliterating  and  making  void  the  virtue  of  Christ's 


§  91.    CALVIN   AND    SADOLET.  407 

cross),  they  were  yet  altogether  ignorant  wherein  good  works  consisted.  For, 
just  as  if  tlaey  were  not  at  all  instructed  in  righteousness  by  Thy  law,  they 
had  fabricated  for  themselves  many  useless  frivolities,  as  a  means  of  procur- 
ing Thy  favor,  and  on  these  they  so  plumed  themselves,  that,  in  compari- 
son of  them,  they  almost  contemned  the  standard  of  true  righteousness  which 
Thy  law  recommended,  —  to  such  a  degree  had  human  desires,  after  usurping 
the  ascendancy,  derogated,  if  not  from  the  belief,  at  least  from  the  authority, 
of  Thy  precepts  therein  contained. 

" '  That  I  might  perceive  these  things,  Thou,  O  Lord,  didst  shine  upon 
me  with  the  brightness  of  Thy  Spirit ;  that  I  might  comprehend  how  impious 
and  noxious  they  were.  Thou  didst  bear  before  me  the  torch  of  Thy  Word ; 
that  I  might  abominate  them  as  they  deserved,  Thou  didst  stimulate  my 
soul. 

"'But  in  rendering  an  account  of  my  doctrine.  Thou  seest  (what  my  own 
conscience  declares)  that  it  was  not  my  intention  to  stray  beyond  those  limits 
which  I  saw  had  been  fixed  by  all  Thy  servants.  Whatever  I  felt  assured  that 
I  had  learned  from  Thy  mouth,  I  desired  to  dispense  faithfully  to  the  Church. 
Assuredly,  the  thing  at  which  I  chiefly  aimed,  and  for  which  I  most  diligently 
labored,  was,  that  the  glory  of  Thy  goodness  and  justice,  after  dispersing  the 
mists  by  which  it  was  formerly  obscured,  might  shine  forth  conspicuous,  that 
the  virtue  and  blessings  of  Thy  Christ  (all  glosses  being  wiped  away)  might 
be  fully  displayed.  For  I  thought  it  impious  to  leave  in  obscurity  things 
which  we  were  born  to  ponder  and  meditate.  Nor  did  I  think  that  truths, 
whose  magnitude  no  language  can  express,  were  to  be  maliciously  or  falsely 
declared. 

" '  I  hesitated  not  to  dwell  at  greater  length  on  topics  on  which  the  salva- 
tion of  my  hearers  depended.  For  the  oracle  could  never  deceive  which 
declares  (John  17:3):  "This  is  eternal  life  to  know  Thee  the  only  true 
God,  and  Jesus  Christ,  whom  Thou  hast  sent." 

"'As  to  the  charge  of  forsaking  the  Church,  which  they  were  wont  to 
bring  against  me,  there  is  nothing  of  which  my  conscience  accuses  me,  unless, 
indeed,  he  is  to  be  considered  a  deserter,  who,  seeing  the  soldiers  routed  and 
scattered,  and  abandoning  the  ranks,  raises  the  leader's  standard,  and  recalls 
them  to  their  posts.  For  thus,  O  Lord,  were  all  thy  servants  dispersed,  so 
that  they  could  not,  by  any  possibility,  hear  the  command,  but  had  almost 
forgotten  their  leader,  and  their  service,  and  their  military  oath.  In  order  to 
bring  them  together,  when  thus  scattered,  I  raised  not  a  foreign  standard,  but 
that  noble  banner  of  Thine  which  we  must  follow,  if  we  would  be  classed 
among  Thy  people.  Then  I  was  assailed  by  those  who,  when  they  ought  to 
have  kept  others  in  their  ranks,  had  led  them  astray,  and  when  I  determined 
not  to  desist,  opposed  me  with  violence.  On  this  grievous  tumults  arose,  and 
the  contest  blazed  and  issued  in  disruption. 

" '  With  whom  the  blame  rests  it  is  for  Thee,  0  Lord,  to  decide.  Always, 
both  by  word  and  deed,  have  I  protested  how  eager  I  was  for  unity.  Mine, 
however,  was  a  unity  of  the  Church,  which  should  begin  with  Thee  and  end 
in  Thee.  For  as  oft  as  Thou  didst  recommend  to  us  peace  and  concord,  Thou, 
at  the  same  time,  didst  show  that  Thou  wert  the  only  bond  for  preserving  it. 


408         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

" '  But  if  I  desired  to  be  at  peace  with  those  who  boasted  of  being  the 
heads  of  the  Church  and  pillars  of  faith,  I  behoved  to  purchase  it  with  the 
denial  of  Th}-^  truth.  I  thought  that  anything  was  to  be  endured  sooner  than 
stoop  to  such  a  nefarious  compact.  For  Thy  Anointed  Himself  hath  declared, 
that  though  heaven  and  earth  should  be  confounded,  yet  Thy  Word  must 
endure  forever  (Matt.  24:35). 

"'Nor  did  I  think  that  I  dissented  from  Thy  Church  because  I  was  at  war 
with  those  leaders ;  for  Tliou  hast  forewarned  me,  both  by  Thy  Son,  and  by 
the  apostles,  that  that  place  would  be  occupied  by  persons  to  whom  I  ought 
by  no  means  to  consent.  Christ  had  predicted  not  of  strangers,  but  of  men 
who  should  give  themselves  out  for  pastors,  that  they  would  be  ravenous 
wolves  and  false  prophets,  and  had,  at  the  same  time,  cautioned  me  to  beware 
of  them.  Where  Christ  ordered  me  to  beware,  was  I  to  lend  my  aid  ?  And  the 
apostles  declared  that  there  would  be  no  enemies  of  Thy  Church  more  pesti- 
lential than  those  from  within  who  should  conceal  themselves  under  the  title 
of  pastors  (Matt.  7.15;  Acts  20 :  29 ;  2  Pet.  2  : 1 ;  1  John  2  :  18). 

" '  Why  should  I  have  hesitated  to  separate  myself  from  persons  whom 
they  forewarned  me  to  hold  as  enemies  ?  I  had  before  my  eyes  the  examples 
of  Thy  prophets,  who  I  saw  had  a  similar  contest  with  the  priests  and  false 
prophets  of  their  day,  though  these  were  undoubtedly  the  rulers  of  the 
Church  among  the  Israelitish  people.  But  Thy  prophets  are  not  regarded  as 
schismatics,  because,  when  they  wished  to  revive  religion,  which  had  fallen 
into  decay,  they  desisted  not,  although  opposed  with  the  utmost  violence. 
They  still  remained  in  the  unity  of  the  Church,  though  they  were  doomed  to 
perdition  by  wicked  priests,  and  deemed  unworthy  of  a  place  among  men,  not 
to  say  saints. 

" '  Confirmed  by  their  example,  I,  too,  persisted.  Though  denounced  as  a 
deserter  of  the  Church,  and  threatened,  I  was  in  no  respect  deterred  or  induced 
to  proceed  less  firmly  and  boldly  in  opposing  those,  who,  in  the  character  of 
pastors,  wasted  Thy  Church  with  a  more  than  impious  tyranny.  My  conscience 
told  me  how  strong  the  zeal  was  with  which  I  burned  for  the  unity  of  Thy 
Church,  provided  Thy  truth  were  made  the  bond  of  concord.  As  the  com- 
motions which  followed  were  not  excited  by  me,  so  there  is  no  ground  for 
imputing  them  to  me.  Thou,  0  Lord,  knowest,  and  the  fact  itself  has  testified 
to  men,  that  the  only  thing  I  asked  was,  that  all  controversies  should  be 
decided  by  Thy  Word,  that  thus  both  parties  might  unite  with  one  mind  to 
establish  Thy  kingdom ;  and  I  declined  not  to  restore  peace  to  the  Church 
at  the  expense  of  my  head,  if  I  were  found  to  have  been  unnecessarily  the 
cause  of  tumult. 

'"But  what  did  our  opponents  ■?  Did  they  not  instantly,  and  like  madmen 
fly  to  fires,  swords,  and  gibbets  ■?  Did  they  not  decide  that  their  only  security 
was  in  arms  and  cruelty  ?  Did  they  not  instigate  all  ranks  to  the  same  fury  ? 
Did  they  not  spurn  at  all  methods  of  pacification  ?  To  this  it  is  owing  that  a 
matter,  which  might  at  one  time  have  been  settled  amicably,  has  blazed  into 
such  a  contest.  But  although,  amidst -the  great  confusion,  the  judgments 
of  men  were  various,  I  am  freed  from  all  fear,  now  that  we  stand  at  Thy 
tribunal,  where  equity,  combined  with  truth,  cannot  but  decide  in  favor  of 
innocence.' 


§  91.     CALVIN   AND   SADOLET.  409 

"Such,  Sadolet,  is  our  pleading,  not  the  fictitious  one  which  you,  in  order 
to  aggravate  our  case,  were  pleased  to  devise,  but  that  the  perfect  truth  of 
which  is  known  to  the  good  even  now,  and  will  be  made  manifest  to  all 
creatures  on  that  day.  Nor  will  those  who,  instructed  by  our  preaching,  have 
adhered  to  our  cause,  be  at  loss  what  to  say  for  themselves,  since  each  will  be 
ready  with  this  defence  :  — 

"'I,  0  Lord,  as  I  had  been  educated  from  a  boy,  always  professed  the 
Christian  faith.  But  at  first  I  had  no  other  reason  for  ray  faith  than  that 
which  then  everywhere  prevailed.  Thy  Word,  which  ought  to  have  shone  on 
all  Thy  people  like  a  lamp,  was  taken  away,  or  at  least  suppressed  as  to  us. 
And  lest  any  one  sliould  long  for  greater  light,  an  idea  had  been  instilled  into 
the  minds  of  all,  that  the  investigation  of  that  hidden  celestial  philosophy  was 
better  delegated  to  a  few,  whom  the  others  might  consult  as  oracles  —  that 
the  highest  knowledge  befitting  plebeian  minds  was  to  subdue  themselves  into 
obedience  to  the  Church.  Then,  the  rudiments  in  which  I  had  been  instructed 
were  of  a  kind  which  could  neither  properly  train  me  to  the  legitimate  wor- 
ship of  Thy  Deity,  nor  pave  the  way  for  me  to  a  sure  hope  of  salvation,  nor 
train  me  aright  for  the  duties  of  the  Christian  life.  I  had  learned,  indeed,  to 
worship  Thee  only  as  my  God,  but  as  the  true  method  of  worshipping  was 
altogether  unknown  to  me,  I  stumbled  at  the  very  threshold.  I  believed,  as 
I  had  been  taught,  that  I  was  redeemed  by  the  death  of  Thy  Son  from  the 
liability  to  eternal  death,  but  the  redemption  I  thought  of  was  one  whose 
virtue  could  never  reach  me.  I  anticipated  a  future  resurrection,  but  hated 
to  think  of  it,  as  being  an  event  most  dreadful.  And  this  feeling  not  only 
had  dominion  over  me  in  private,  but  was  derived  from  the  doctrine  which 
was  then  uniformly  delivered  to  the  people  by  their  Christian  teachers. 

"'They,  indeed,  preached  of  Thy  clemency  towards  men,  but  confined  it 
to  those  who  should  show  themselves  deserving  of  it.  They,  moreover, 
placed  this  desert  in  the  righteousness  of  works,  so  that  he  only  was  received 
into  Thy  favor  who  reconciled  himself  to  Thee  by  works.  Nor,  meanwhile, 
did  they  disguise  the  fact  that  we  are  miserable  sinners,  that  we  often  fall 
through  infirmity  of  the  flesh,  and  that  to  all,  therefore,  Thy  mercy  behoved 
to  be  the  common  haven  of  salvation ;  but  the  method  of  obtaining  it,  which 
they  pointed  out,  was  by  making  satisfaction  to  Thee  for  offences.  Then  the 
satisfaction  enjoined  was,  first,  after  confessing  all  our  sins  to  a  priest,  sup- 
pliantly  to  ask  pardon  and  absolution  ;  and,  secondly,  by  good  to  efface  from 
Thy  remembrance  our  bad  actions.  Lastly,  in  order  to  supply  what  was  still 
wanting,  we  were  to  add  sacrifices  and  solemn  expiations.  Then,  because 
Thou  wert  a  stern  judge  and  strict  avenger  of  iniquity,  they  showed  how 
dreadful  Thy  presence  must  be.  Hence  they  bade  us  flee  first  to  the  saints, 
that  by  their  intercession  Thou  mightest  be  rendered  exorable  and  propitious 
to  us. 

"'When,  however,  I  had  performed  all  these  things,  though  I  had  some 
intervals  of  quiet,  I  was  still  far  off  from  true  peace  of  conscience ;  for, 
whenever  I  descended  into  myself,  or  raised  my  mind  to  Thee,  extreme  terror 
seized  me  —  terror  which  no  expiations  or  satisfactions  could  cure.  And  the 
more  closely  I  examined  myself,  the  sharper  the  stings  with  which  my  con- 


410    THE  REFORMATION  IN  FRENCH  SWITZERLAND. 

science  was  pricked,  so  that  the  only  solace  which  remained  to  me  was  to 
delude  myself  by  obliviousness.  Still,  as  nothing  better  offered,  I  continued 
the  course  which  I  had  begun,  when,  lo !  a  very  different  form  of  doctrine 
started  up,  not  one  which  led  us  away  from  the  Christian  profession,  but  one 
which  brought  it  back  to  its  fountain-head,  and,  as  it  were,  clearing  away  the 
dross,  restored  it  to  its  original  purity. 

"'Offended  by  the  novelty,  I  lent  an  unwilling  ear,  and  at  first,  I  confess, 
strenuously  and  passionately  resisted ;  for  (such  is  the  firmness  or  effrontery 
with  which  it  is  natural  to  men  to  persist  in  the  course  which  they  have  once 
undertaken)  it  was  with  the  greatest  difficulty  I  was  induced  to  confess  that 
I  had  all  my  life  long  been  in  ignorance  and  error.  One  thing,  in  particular, 
made  me  averse  to  those  new  teachers,  viz.  reverence  for  the  Church. 

" '  But  when  once  I  opened  my  ears,  and  allowed  myself  to  be  taught,  I 
perceived  that  this  fear  of  derogating  from  the  majesty  of  the  Church  was 
groundless.  For  they  reminded  me  how  great  the  difference  is  between  schism 
from  the  Church,  and  studying  to  correct  the  faults  by  which  the  Church 
herself  was  contaminated.  They  spoke  nobly  of  the  Church,  and  showed  the 
greatest  desire  to  cultivate  unity.  And  lest  it  should  seem  they  quibbled  on 
the  term  Church,  they  showed  it  was  no  new  thing  for  Antichrists  to  preside 
there  in  place  of  pastors.  Of  this  they  produced  not  a  few  examples,  from 
•which  it  appeared  they  aimed  at  nothing  but  the  edification  of  the  Church, 
and  in  that  respect  were  similarly  circumstanced  with  many  of  Christ's  ser- 
vants whom  we  ourselves  included  in  the  catalogue  of  saints. 

" '  For  inveighing  more  freely  against  the  Roman  Pontiff,  who  was  rev- 
erenced as  the  Vicegerent  of  Christ,  the  Successor  of  Peter,  and  the  Head  of 
the  Church,  they  excused  themselves  thus :  Such  titles  as  those  are  empty 
bugbears,  by  which  the  eyes  of  the  pious  ought  not  to  be  so  blinded  as  not  to 
venture  to  look  at  them  and  sift  the  reality.  It  was  when  the  world  was 
plunged  in  ignorance  and  sloth,  as  in  a  deep  sleep,  that  the  pope  had  risen  to 
such  an  eminence ;  certainly  neither  appointed  head  of  the  Church  by  the 
Word  of  God,  nor  ordained  by  a  legitimate  act  of  the  Church,  but  of  his  own 
accord,  self -elected.  Moreover,  the  tyranny  which  he  let  loose  against  the 
people  of  God  was  not  to  be  endured,  if  we  wished  to  have  the  kingdom  of 
Christ  amongst  us  in  safety. 

" '  And  they  wanted  not  most  powerful  arguments  to  confirm  all  their 
positions.  First,  they  clearly  disposed  of  everything  that  was  then  commonly 
adduced  to  establish  the  primacy  of  the  pope.  When  they  had  taken  away 
all  these  props,  they  also,  by  the  Word  of  God,  tumbled  him  from  his  lofty 
height.  On  the  whole,  they  make  it  clear  and  palpable,  to  learned  and 
unlearned,  that  the  true  order  of  the  Church  had  then  perished,  —  that  the 
keys  under  which  the  discipline  of  the  Church  is  comprehended  had  been 
altered  very  much  for  the  worse ;  that  Christian  liberty  had  fallen,  —  in  short, 
that  the  kingdom  of  Christ  was  prostrated  when  this  primacy  was  reared  up. 
They  told  me,  moreover,  as  a  means  of  pricking  my  conscience,  that  I  could 
not  safely  connive  at  these  things  as  if  they  concerned  me  not;  that  so  far 
art  Thou  from  patronizing  any  voluntary  error,  that  even  he  who  is  led  astray 
by  mere   ignorance  does  not  err  with  impunity.     This  they  proved  by  the 


§  91      CALVIN   AND   SADOLET.  411 

testimony  of  Thy  Son  (Matt.  15:  U)  :  "If  the  blind  lead  the  blind,  both  shall 
fall  into  the  ditch." 

"  •  My  mind  being  now  prepared  for  serious  attention,  I  at  length  perceived, 
as  if  light  had  broken  in  upon  me,  in  what  a  stye  of  error  I  had  wallowed, 
and  how  much  pollution  and  impurity  I  had  thereby  contracted.  Being 
exceedingly  alarmed  at  the  misery  into  which  I  had  fallen,  and  much  more 
at  that  which  threatened  me  in  the  view  of  eternal  death,  I,  as  in  duty  bound, 
made  it  my  first  business  to  betake  myself  to  Thy  way,  condemning  my  past 
life,  not  without  groans  and  tears. 

" '  And  now,  O  Lord,  what  remains  to  a  wretch  like  me,  but,  instead  of 
defence,  earnestly  to  supplicate  Thee  not  to  judge  according  to  its  deserts 
that  fearful  abandonment  of  Thy  Word,  from  which,  in  Thy  wondrous  good- 
ness, Thou  hast  at  last  delivered  me.' 

"  Now,  Sadolet,  if  you  please,  compare  this  pleading  with  that  which  you 
have  put  into  the  mouth  of  your  plebeian.  It  will  be  strange  if  you  hesitate 
■which  of  the  two  you  ought  to  prefer.  For  the  safety  of  that  man  hangs  by 
a  thread  whose  defence  turns  wholly  on  this  —  that  he  has  constantly  adhered 
to  the  religion  handed  down  to  him  from  his  forefathers.  At  this  rate,  Jews 
and  Turks  and  Saracens  would  escape  the  judgment  of  God. 

"  Away,  then,  with  this  vain  quibbling  at  a  tribunal  which  will  be  erected, 
not  to  approve  the  authority  of  man,  but  to  condemn  all  flesh  of  vanity  and 
falsehood,  and  vindicate  the  truth  of  God  only." 

Calvin  descends  to  repel  with  just  indignation  the  ground- 
less charge  of  avarice  and  greed  which  Sadolet  was  not 
ashamed  to  cast  upon  the  Reformers,  who  might  have  easily 
reached  the  dignity  and  wealth  of  bishops  and  cardinals,  but 
who  preferred  to  live  and  die  in  poverty  for  the  sake  of  their 
•  sacred  convictions. 

"  Would  not,"  he  asked,  "  the  shortest  road  to  riches  and  honors  have  been 
to  accept  the  terms  which  were  offered  at  the  very  first  ?  How  much  would 
your  pontiff  then  have  paid  to  many  for  their  silence  f  How  much  would  he 
pay  for  it  even  at  the  present  day  ?  If  they  were  actuated  in  the  least  degree 
by  avarice,  why  do  they  cut  off  all  hope  of  improving  their  fortune,  and 
prefer  to  be  thus  perpetually  wretched,  rather  than  enrich  themselves  without 
difficulty  and  in  a  moment  ? 

"  But  ambition,  forsooth,  withholds  them  !  What  ground  you  had  for  this 
other  insinuation  I  see  not,  since  those  who  first  engaged  in  this  cause  could 
expect  nothing  else  than  to  be  spurned  by  the  whole  world,  and  those  who 
afterwards  adhered  to  it,  exposed  themselves  knowingly  and  willingly  to 
endless  insults  and  revilings  from  every  quarter." 

He  then  answers  to  "  the  most  serious  charge  of  all " :  that 
the  Reformers  had  "  dismembered  the  Spouse  of  Christ," 
while  in  fact  they  attempted  "  to  present  her  as  a  chaste 


412         THE  KEFORMATION    IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

virgin  of  Christ,"  and,  "•  seeing  her  polluted  b}^  base  seducers, 
to  recall  her  to  conjugal  fidelity,"  after  having  been  defiled 
by  the  idolatry  of  image-worship  and  numberless  supersti- 
tions. Peace  and  unity  can  only  be  found  in  Christ  and  his 
truth.     He  concludes  with  the  wish :  — 

"  May  the  Lord  grant,  Sadolet,  that  you  and  all  your  party  may  at  length 
perceive  that  the  only  true  bond  of  Church  unity  is  Christ  the  Lord,  who  has 
reconciled  us  to  God  the  Father,  and  will  gather  us  out  of  our  present  disper- 
sion into  the  fellowship  of  His  body,  that  so,  through  His  one  Word  and 
Spirit,  we  may  grow  together  into  one  heart  and  one  soul." 

Such  is  a  summary  of  that  remarkable  Answer  —  a  master- 
piece of  dignified  and  gentlemanly  theological  controversy. 
There  is  scarcely  a  parallel  to  it  in  the  literature  of  that  age, 
which  teems  with  uncharitable  abuse  and  coarse  invective. 
Melanchthon  might  have  equalled  it  in  courtesy  and  good 
taste,  but  not  in  adroitness  and  force.  No  wonder  that  the 
old  lion  of  Wittenberg  was  delighted  with  this  triumphant 
vindication  of  the  evangelical  Reformation  by  a  young 
Frenchman,  who  was  to  carry  on  the  conflict  which  he  him- 
self had  begun  twenty  years  before  by  his  Theses  and  his 
heroic  stand  at  the  Diet  of  Worms.  "  This  answer,"  said 
Luther  to  Cruciger,  who  had  met  Cahdn  at  the  Colloquies 
in  Worms  and  Regensburg,  "  has  hand  and  foot,  and  I  rejoice 
that  God  raises  up  men  who  wdll  give  the  last  blow  to  popery, 
and  finish  the  war  asrainst  Antichrist  which  I  becan."  ^ 

^  See  vol.  VI.  659.  Kampschulte's  impartial  judgment  on  the  Answer  to 
Sadolet  is  worth  quoting  (I.  354)  :  "£"«  ist  in  Wahrheit  eine  der  gldnzendsten 
Streitsckriften,  die  je  aus  seiner  Fede?-  (jeflossen,  and  audi  wer  seine  Anschauungen 
nicht  theilt,  wird  ihm  in  diesem  Streite  die  Palme  zuerkennen  miissen.  .  .  .  Er 
entwickelt  in  der  Vortheidigung  des  neuen  Glaubenssgstems  eine  Kraft  der  Rede, 
eine  Gewandtheit  der  Beiveisfdhrung  und  eine  F'dUe  der  Gedanken,  welche  die  rhetor- 
ischen,  sentimentalen,  oft  aurh  inhaltsarmen  Phrasen  des  Gegners  um  so  mehr  in 
Hirer  Schiodche  zeigen.  Den  Glanzpunkt  der  Schrift  Calvin's  bildet  aber  vielleicht 
seine  eigene  Vertheidigung.  Mil  Recht  durfte  er  den  versteckten  Angriffen  des  Car- 
dinals gegenUber  auf  sein  vergangenes  Leben  hinweisen,  um  den  Beweis  zu  lie/em, 
dass  nicht  die  Aussicht  auf  irdischen  Gewinn  oder  aussere  Ehren,  sondern  seine 
ernste  Ueberzeugung  seine  Schritte  geleitet,  dass  er  erst  nack  schweren  Kdmpfen  von 
der  katholischen  Kirche  sich  losgesagt.     Diese  Schrift  war  es,  welche  auch  Luther's 


§  92.    CALVIN'S   MARRIAGE   AND   HOME   LIFE.  413 

The  Answer  made  a  deep  and  lasting  impression.  It  was 
widely  circulated,  with  Sadolet's  Letter,  in  manuscript, 
printed  in  Latin,  first  at  Sti-assburg,  translated  into  French, 
and  published  in  both  languages  by  the  Council  of  Geneva  at 
the  expense  of  the  city  (1540).  The  prelates  who  had  met 
at  Lyons  lost  courage  f  the  papal  party  in  Geneva  gave  up 
all  hope  of  restoring  the  mass.  Three  years  afterwards 
Cardinal  Pierre  de  la  Baume  died  —  the  last  bishop  of 
Geneva. 

§  92.    Calvin's  Marriage  and  Home  Life. 

Calvin's  Letters  to  Farel  and  Viret  quoted  below. 

Jules  Bonnet:  Idelette  de  Bure,  femme  de   Calvin.     In  the  "Bulletin  de  la 

Societe'  de  I'liistoire  du  protestantisme  fran(,'ais."    Quatrieme  annee.    Paris, 

1850.     pp.  036-046.  — D.  Lknoir, /6/V/.     1860.     p.  26.     (A  brief  note.) 
Henry,  I.  407  sqq.  —  Dyer,  99  sqq.  —  Stahelin,  I.  272  sqq.  —  Merle  d'Au- 

BiGXE,  bk.  Xr.  ch.  XVII.  (vol.  VI.  601-608).  — Stricker,  I.e.  42-50.— 

(Kampschllte  is  silent  on  this  topic.) 

The  most  important  event  in  Calvin's  private  life  during  his 
sojourn  in  Germany  was  his  marriage,  which  took  place  early 
in  August,  1540.^  He  expresses  his  views  on  marriage  in 
his  comments  on  Ephesians  5  :  28-33.  "  It  is  a  thing  against 
nature,"  he  remarks,  "  that  any  one  should  not  love  his  wife, 
for  God  has  ordained  marriage  in  order  that  two  may  be 
made  one  person  —  a  result  which,  certainly,  no  other  alli- 
ance can  bring  about.  When  Moses  says  that  a  man  shall 
leave  father  and  mother  and  cleave  unto  his  wife,  he  shows 
that  a  man  ought  to  prefer  marriage  to  every  other  union,  as 
being  the  holiest  of  all.  It  reflects  our  union  with  Christ, 
who  infuses  his  very  life  unto  us ;  for  we  are  flesh  of  his 

Her z  fur  den  wdlschen  Rivalen  erwarmte.    Damals  konnte  Melanchlhon  nach  Strass- 
burg  melden,  dass  Calvin  in   Wittenberg  '  hoch  in  Gnaden  stehe.' " 

1  The  precise  day  is  not  known.  Before  Aug.  17  he  was  a  married  man, 
and  received  congratulations  and  greetings  to  his  wife  from  Libertet  (Opera, 
XI.  Ep.  2o4,  fol.  77).  Merle  d'Aubigne  wrongly  puts  his  marriage  at  the  end 
of  August ;  Bonnet  and  Stahelin,  in  September. 


414         THE    KEFOIIMATION   IN    FKENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

liesh,  and  bone  of  his  bone.  This  is  a  great  mystery,  the 
dignity  of  which  camiot  be  expressed  in  words." 

He  himself  was  in  no  hurry  to  get  married,  and  put  it  off 
till  he  was  over  thirty.  He  rather  boasted  that  people  could 
not  charge  him  with  having  assailed  Rome,  as  the  Greeks 
besieged  Troy,  for  the  sake  of  a  woman.  What  led  him  first 
to  think  of  it,  was  the  sense  of  loneliness  and  the  need  of 
proper  care,  that  he  might  be  able  the  better  to  serve  the 
Church.  He  had  a  housekeeper,  with  her  son,  a  woman  of 
violent  temper  who  sorely  tried  his  patience.  At  one  time 
she  abused  his  brother  so  violently  that  he  left  the  house, 
and  then  she  ran  away,  leaving  her  son  behind.  The  dis- 
turbance made  him  sick.^ 

He  was  often  urged  by  his  friend  Farel  (who  himself  found 
no  time  to  think  of  marrying  till  his  old  age),  and  by  Bucer, 
to  take  a  wife,  that  he  might  enjoy  the  comforts  of  a  well- 
ordered  home.  He  fii'st  mentions  the  subject  in  a  letter  to 
Farel,  from  Strassbui-g,  May  19,  1539,  in  which  he  says :  "  I 
am  none  of  those  insane  lovers  who,  when  once  smitten  with 
the  fine  figure  of  a  woman,  embrace  also  her  faults.  This 
only  is  the  beauty  which  allures  me,  if  she  be  chaste,  obliging, 
not  fastidious,  economical,  patient,  and  careful  for  my  health.^ 
Therefore,  if  you  think  well  of  it,  set  out  immediately,  lest 
some  one  else  [Bucer?]  gets  the  start  of  you.  But  if  you 
think  otherwise  we  will  let  it  pass."  It  seems  Farel  could 
not  find  a  person  that  combined  all  these  qualities,  and  the 
matter  was  dropped  for  several  months. 

In  Feb.  6,  1540,  Calvin,  in  a  letter  to  the  same  friend, 
touched  again  upon  the  subject  of  matrimony,  but  only  inci- 
dentally, as  if  it  were  a  subordinate  matter.    After  informing 


^  He  tells  the  story  to  Farel,  September,  1540,  shortly  after  his  marriage. 
Opera,  XI.  Ep.  238  (fol.  83  sq.),  and  Hermiujard,  VI.  313. 

-  "  Hmc  sola  est  quce  me  illectat  pulchritudo,  si  pttdica  est,  si  morigera,  si  non 
fastuosa,  si  parca,  si  patiens,  si  spes  est  de  mea  valetudine  fore  solicitam."  Her- 
minjard,  V.  314. 


§  92;  Calvin's  makkiage  and  jiume  life.         415 

him  about  his  trouble  with  Caroli,  his  discussion  with  Her- 
mann, an  Anabaptist,  the  good  understanding  of  Charles  V. 
and  Francis  I.,  and  the  alarm  of  the  Protestant  princes  of 
Germany,  he  goes  on  to  say :  "  Nevertheless,  in  the  midst 
of  such  commotions  as  these,  I  am  so  much  at  my  ease  as  to 
have  the  audacity  to  think  of  taking  a  wife.  A  certain  dam- 
sel of  noble  rank  has  been  proposed  to  me,^  and  with  a 
fortune  above  my  condition.  Two  considerations  deterred 
me  from  that  connection  —  because  she  did  not  understand 
our  language,  and  because  I  feared  she  might  be  too  mindful 
of  her  family  and  education."  - 

He  sent  his  brother  for  another  lady,  who  was  highly 
recommended  to  him.  He  expected  to  get  married  March 
10,  and  invited  Farel  to  celebrate  the  wedding.  But  this 
project  also  failed,  and  he  thought  of  abandoning  all  further 
attempts. 

At  last  he  married  a  member  of  his  congregation,  Idclette 
de  Bure,  the  widow  of  Jean  Stordeur  (or  Storder)  of  Liege,^ 
a  prominent  Anabaptist  whom  he  had  converted  to  the 
orthodox  faith,*  and  who  had  died  of  the  pestilence  in  the 
previous  February.  She  was  probably  the  daughter  of  Lam- 
bert de  Bure  who,  witii  six  of  his  fellow-citizens,  had  been 
deprived  of  his  property  and  banished  forever,  after  having 
been  legally  convicted  of  heresy  in  1533.^  She  was  the  mother 
of  several  children,  poor,  and  in  feeble  health.  She  lived  in 
retirement,  devoted  to  the  education  of  her  children,  and 
enjoyed  the  esteem  of  her  friends  for  her  good  qualities  of 

^  Probably  by  Bucor.  She  was  of  a  patrician  family  of  Strassburg,  and 
her  brother  a  great  admirer  of  Calvin  and  anxious  for  the  match. 

-  Ilerminjard,  VL  107  sq.  It  seems  that  the  lady  had  no  disposition  to 
learn  French,  and  asked  time  for  consideration. 

8  Not  of  "  line  petite  ville  de  la  Gueldre,"  as  Bonnet  states  {I.e.,  p.  039).  Bcza 
calls  him  "  Storder  Leodinensis." 

*  Florimond  de  Rajmond:  "  Calvin  €pousa  la  veuve  de  Jean  Lestordeur,  natif 
de  Liege,  de  religion  anabaptiste  :  il  I'a  chantjee  a  son  opinion  :  elle  e'tait  appelc'e 
Idelette  de  Bure." 

^  Accordmg  to  Lenoir  of  Lii'ge,  m  "  Bulletin,"  etc.,  1800,  p.  20. 


416         THE    REFOEJVIATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

head  and  heart.  Calvin  visited  her  frequently  as  pastor, 
and  was  attracted  by  her  quiet,  modest,  gentle  character. 
He  found  in  her  what  he  desired  —  firm  faith,  devoted  love, 
and  domestic  helpfulness.  He  calls  her  "  the  excellent  com- 
panion of  my  life,"  "  the  ever-faithful  assistant  of  my  minis- 
try," and  a  "  rare  woman."  ^  Beza  speaks  of  her  as  "  a  grave 
and  honorable  lady."  ^ 

Calvin  lived  in  happy  wedlock,  but  only  for  nine  years. 
His  wife  was  taken  from  him  at  Geneva,  after  a  protracted 
illness,  early  in  April,  1549.  He  felt  the  loss  very  deeply, 
and  found  comfort  only  in  his  work.  He  turned  from  the 
coffin  to  his  study  table,  and  resumed  the  duties  of  his  office 
with  quiet  resignation  and  conscientious  fidelity  as  if  nothing 
had  happened.  He  remained  a  widower  the  remaining  fifteen 
vears  of  his  life.  "  My  wife,  a  woman  of  rare  qualities,"  he 
wrote,  "  died  a  year  and  a  half  ago,  and  I  have  now  willingly 
chosen  to  lead  a  solitary  life." 

We  know  much  less  of  Calvin's  domestic  life  than  of 
Luther's.  He  was  always  reticent  concerning  himself  and 
his  private  affairs,  while  Luther  was  very  frank  and  demon- 
strative. In  selecting  their  wives  neither  of  the  Reformers 
had  any  regard  to  the  charms  of  beauty  and  wealth  which 
attract  most  lovers,  nor  even  to  intellectual  endowment ; 
they  looked  only  to  moral  worth  and  domestic  virtue. 
Luther  married  at  the  age  of  forty-one,  Calvin  at  the  age  of 
thirty-one.  Luther  married  a  Catholic  ex-nun,  after  having 
vainly  recommended  her  to  his  friend  Amsdorf,  whom  she 
proudly  refused,  looking  to  higher  distinction.  He  married 
her  under  a  sudden  impulse,  to  the  consternation  of  liis 
friends,  in  the  midst  of  the  disturbances  of  the  Peasants'  War, 
that  he  might  please  his  father,  tease  the  pope,  and  vex  the 

1  "  Optima  socia  vitce":  "fida  ministerii  me  iadjutrix"  (letter  to  Viret,  April 
7,  1549)  ;  "  singularis  exempli  femina,"  etc. 

2  Vita  Cali\  (Opera,  XXI.  130):  "Viduam  Idelletam  nomine,  gravem  honest- 
amque  feminam ,  Caivinus  ex  Buceri  consilio  uxorem  duxit." 


§  92.   Calvin's  marriage  and  home  life.        417 

devil.  Calvin  married,  like  Zwingli,  a  Protestant  widow 
with  several  children;  he  married  from  esteem  rather  than 
affection,  after  due  reflection  and  the  solicitation  of  friends. 

Katherine  Luther  cut  a  prominent  figure  in  her  husband's 
personal  history  and  correspondence,  and  survived  him 
several  years,  which  she  spent  in  poverty  and  affliction. 
Idelette  de  Bure  lived  in  modest  retirement,  and  died  in 
peace  fifteen  years  before  Calvin.  Luther  submitted  as  "  a 
willing  servant "  to  the  rule  of  his  "  Lord  Kathe,"  but  he  loved 
her  dearly,  played  with  his  children  in  childlike  simplicity, 
addressed  to  her  his  last  letters,  and  expressed  his  estimate 
of  domestic  happiness  in  the  beautiful  sentence :  "  The  great- 
est gift  of  God  to  man  is  a  pious,  kindly,  God-fearing,  domes- 
tic wife."  1 

Luther's  home  life  was  enlivened  and  cheered  by  humor, 
poetry,  and  song ;  Calvin's  was  sober,  quiet,  controlled  by 
the  fear  of  God,  and  regulated  by  a  sense  of  duty,  but  none 
the  less  happy.  Nothing  can  be  more  unjust  than  the  charge 
that  Calvin  was  cold  and  unsympathetic.^ 

His  whole  correspondence  proves  the  reverse.  His  letters 
on  the  death  of  his  wife  to  his  dearest  friends  reveal  a  deep 
fountain  of  tenderness  and  affection.  To  Farel  he  wrote, 
April2,  1549:  — 3 

^  "Die  Welt  hat  nach  Gottes  Woi-t  keinen  Uehlicheren  Schatz  auf  Erden,  denn 
den  heiligen  Ehestand.  Gottes  hochste  Gabe  ist  ein  fromni,  freundlich,  yottesfiirchtig 
und  kduslich  Gemahl  habeyi,  mit  der  du  friedlich  lebest,  der  du  darfst  alle  dein  Gut, 
ja  dein  Leib  und  Leben  vertrauen,  mit  der  du  Kinderlein  zeugest."  See  Kcistlin, 
Luthe7-'s  Leben,  p.  578,  and  Schaff,  History  of  the  Chr.  Church,  VI.  §§  77  and 
78,  pp.  454  sqq. 

2  "  Calvin,"  says  J.  Bonnet,  in  his  sketch  of  Idelette  de  Bure  (I.e.,  p.  637) 
"Jilt  grand  sans  cesser  d'etre  bon  ;  il  unit  les  qualite's  du  cceur  aux  dons  du  ge'nie  ; 
il  ressentit  et  il  inspira  les  plus  pures  amities,-  il  connut,  enjin,  les  f^licites  domestiques 
dans  une  union  trap  courte,  dont  le  mystere,  a  demi  revile  par  sa  correspondance, 
r€pand  un  jour  me'lancolique  et  doux  sur  sa  vie."  —  "  There  was  in  Calvin,"  says 
Merle  d'Aubigne  (VI.  602),  "a  lofty  intellect,  a  sublime  genius,  but  also  that 
love  of  kindred,  those  affections  of  the  heart,  which  complete  the  great  man." 

3  Opera,  Ep.  1171  (fol.  228).  The  letter  is  wrongly  dated  April  11  by 
Henry  and  Bonnet  (II.  20;l),  who  mistook  11  for  Roman  figures. 


418    THE  REFORMATION  IN  FRENCH  SWITZERLAND. 

"  Intellio'ence  of  my  wife's  death  has  perhaps  reached  you  before  now. 
I  do  what  I  can  to  keep  myself  from  being  overwhelmed  with  grief.  My 
friends  also  leave  nothing  undone  that  may  administer  relief  to  my  mental 
sufferino-.  When  your  brother  left,  her  life  was  all  but  despaired  of.  When 
the  brethren  were  assembled  on  Tuesday,  they  thought  it  best  that  we  should 
join  together  in  prayer.  This  was  done.  When  Abel,  in  the  name  of  the 
rest,  exhorted  her  to  faith  and  patience,  she  briefly  (for  she  was  now  greatly 
worn)  stated  her  frame  of  mind.  I  afterwards  added  an  exhortation,  which 
seemed  to  me  appropriate  to  the  occasion.  And  then,  as  she  had  made  no 
allusion  to  her  children,  I,  fearing  that,  restrained  by  modesty,  she  might  be 
feeling  an  anxiety  concerning  them,  which  would  cause  her  greater  suffering 
than  the  disease  itself,  declared  in  the  presence  of  the  brethren,  that  I  should 
henceforth  care  for  them  as  if  they  were  my  own.  She  replied,  'I  have 
already  committed  them  to  the  Lord.'  When  I  replied,  that  that  was  not  to 
hinder  me  from  doing  my  duty,  she  immediately  answered,  '  If  the  Lord  shall 
care  for  them,  I  know  they  will  be  commended  to  you.'  Her  magnanimity 
was  so  great,  that  she  seemed  to  have  already  left  the  world.  About  the 
sixth  hour  of  the  day,  on  which  she  yielded  up  her  soul  to  the  Lord,  our 
brother  Bourgouin  addressed  some  pious  words  to  her,  and  while  he  was 
doing  so,  she  spoke  aloud,  so  that  all  saw  that  her  heart  was  raised  far  above 
the  world.  For  these  were  her  words  :  '  O  glorious  resurrection !  O  God  of 
Abraham,  and  of  all  our  fathers,  in  thee  have  the  faithful  trusted  during  so 
many  past  ages,  and  none  of  them  have  trusted  in  vain.  I  also  will  hope.' 
These  short  sentences  were  rather  ejaculated  than  distinctly  spoken.  This  did 
not  come  from  the  suggestion  of  others,  but  from  her  own  reflections,  so  that 
she  made  it  obvious  in  few  words  what  were  her  own  meditations.  I  had  to 
go  out  at  six  o'clock.  Having  been  removed  to  another  apartment  after 
seven,  she  immediately  began  to  decline.  When  she  felt  her  voice  suddenly 
failing  her  she  said :  '  Let  us  pray ;  let  us  pray.  All  pray  for  me.'  I  had  now 
returned.  She  was  unable  to  speak,  and  her  mind  seemed  to  be  troubled.  I, 
having  spoken  a  few  words  about  the  love  of  Christ,  the  hope  of  eternal  life, 
concerning  our  married  life,  and  her  departure,  engaged  in  prayer.  In  full 
possession  of  her  mind,  she  both  heard  the  prayer,  and  attended  to  it.  Before 
eight  she  expired,  so  calmly,  that  those  present  could  scarcely  distinguish 
between  her  life  and  her  death.  I  at  present  control  my  sorrow  so  that  my 
duties  may  not  be  interfered  with.  But  in  the  meanwhile  the  Lord  has  sent 
other  trials  upon  me.  Adieu,  brother,  and  very  excellent  friend.  May  the 
Lord  Jesus  strengthen  you  by  His  Spirit ;  and  may  He  support  me  also  under 
this  heavy  affliction,  which  would  certainly  have  overcome  me,  had  not  He, 
who  raises  up  the  prostrate,  strengthens  the  weak,  and  refreshes  the  weary, 
stretched  forth  His  hand  from  heaven  to  me.  Salute  all  the  brethren  and 
your  whole  family." 

To  Viret  he  wrote   a  few  days  later,  April  7,  1549,  as 

follows :  — 

"Although  the  death  of  my  wife  has  been  exceedingly  painful  to  me.  yet 
I  subdue  my  grief  as  well  as  I  can.     Friends,  also,  are  earnest  in  their  duty  to 


§  92.    CALVIN'S   MARRIAGE   AND   HOME   LIFE.  419 

me.  It  might  be  wished,  indeed,  that  they  could  profit  me  and  themselves 
more ;  yet  one  can  scarcely  say  how  much  I  am  supported  by  their  attentions. 
But  you  know  well  enough  how  tender,  or  rather  soft,  my  mind  is.  Had  not 
a  powerful  self-control,  therefore,  been  vouchsafed  to  me,  I  could  not  have 
borne  up  so  long.  And  truly  mine  is  no  common  source  of  grief.  I  have 
been  bereaved  of  the  best  companion  of  my  life,  of  one  who,  had  it  been  so 
ordered,  would  not  only  have  been  the  willing  sharer  of  my  exile  and  poverty, 
but  even  of  my  death.i  During  her  life  she  was  ike  faithful  helper  of  my 
ministry. 

"From  her  I  never  experienced  the  slightest  hindrance.  She  was  never 
troublesome  to  me  throughout  the  entire  course  of  her  illness;  she  was  more 
anxious  about  her  children  than  about  herself.  As  I  feared  these  private  cares 
might  annoy  her  to  no  purpose,  I  took  occasion,  on  the  third  day  before  her 
death,  to  mention  that  I  would  not  fail  in  discharging  my  duty  to  her  children. 
Taking  up  the  matter  immediately,  she  said,  'I  have  already  committed  them 
to  God.'  "When  I  said  that  that  was  not  to  prevent  me  from  caring  for  them, 
she  replied,  '  I  know  you  will  not  neglect  what  you  know  has  been  committed 
to  God.'  Lately,  also,  when  a  certain  woman  insisted  that  she  should  talk 
with  me  regarding  these  matters,  I,  for  the  first  time,  heard  her  give  the 
following  brief  answer:  'Assuredly  the  principal  thing  is  that  they  live  a 
pious  and  holy  life.  My  husband  is  not  to  be  urged  to  instruct  them  in  relig- 
ious knowledge  and  in  the  fear  of  God.  If  they  be  pious,  I  am  sure  he  will 
gladly  be  a  father  to  them ;  but  if  not,  they  do  not  deserve  that  I  should  ask 
for  aught  in  their  behalf.'  This  nobleness  of  mind  will  weigh  more  with  me 
than  a  hundred  recommendations.    Many  thanks  for  your  friendly  consolation. 

"Adieu,  most  excellent  and  honest  brother.  May  the  Lord  Jesus  watch 
over  and  direct  yourself  and  your  wife.  Present  my  best  wishes  to  her  and 
to  the  brethren." 

In  reply  to  this  letter,  Viret  wrote  to  Calvin,  April  10, 
1549:  — 

"Wonderfully  and  incredibly  have  I  been  refreshed,  not  by  empty  rumors 
alone,  but  especially  by  numerous  messengers  who  have  informed  me  how 
you,  with  a  heart  so  broken  and  lacerated,  have  attended  to  all  your  duties 
even  better  than  hitherto,  .  .  .  and  that,  above  all,  at  a  time  when  grief  was 
so  fresh,  and  on  that  account  all  the  more  severe,  might  have  prostrated  your 
mind.  Go  on  then  as  you  have  begun,  .  .  .  and  I  pray  God  most  earnestly, 
that  you  may  be  enabled  to  do  so,  and  that  you  may  receive  daily  greater 
comfort  and  be  strengthened  more  and  more." 

Calvin's  character  shines  in  the  same  favorable  light  at  the 
loss  of  liis  only  son  who  died  in  infancy  (1542).  He  thanked 
Viret  and  his  wife  (he  always  sends  greetings  to  Viret's  wife 

1  "  QuiB  si  quid  accidisset  diirius,  non  exilii  tantum  ac  inopice  voluntaria  comes, 
sed  mortis  qunque  futitra  erat."     Opera,  VIII.  Ep.  1173  (fol.  2.'>0). 


420         THE   KEF0K:MATI0N   IN^   FREXCH   SWITZERLAND. 

and  daughter)  for  their  tender  sympathy  Avith  him  in  this 
bereavement,  stating  that  Idelette  would  write  hei"self  also 
but  for  her  grief.  "  The  Lord,"  he  says,  "  has  dealt  us  a 
severe  blow  in  taking  from  us  om-  infant  son ;  but  it  is  oui- 
Father  who  knows  what  is  best  for  his  children."  ^  He  found 
compensation  for  his  want  of  offspring  in  the  multitude  of 
his  spiritual  children.  "  God  has  given  me  a  little  son.  and 
taken  liim  away :  but  I  have  myriads  of  childi-en  in  the  whole 
Christian  world."  "^ 

Of  Calvin's  deep  S}-mpathy  with  his  friends  in  domestic 
affliction  we  have  a  most  striking  testimony  in  a  private 
letter  which  was  never  intended  for  publication.  It  is  the 
best  proof  of  his  extraordinary  fidelity  as  a  pastor.  Wliile 
he  was  in  attendance  at  Ratisbon,  the  pestilence  carried  away, 
among  other  friends,  Louis  de  Richebourg,  who  together 
with  his  older  brother,  Chaiies,  lived  in  his  house  at  Strass- 
burg  as  a  student  and  pensionnaire,  under  the  tutoi-sliip  of 
Claude  F^ray,  Calvin's  dearly  beloved  assistant.  On  hearing 
the  sad  intelligence,  early  in  April,  1541,  he  wrote  to  his 
father — a  gentleman  from  Xormandy,  probably  the  lord  of 
the  ^-illage  de  Richebourg  between  Rouen  and  Beauvais.  but 
otherwise  unknown  to  us — a  long  letter  of  condolence  and 
comfort,  from  which  we  sfive  the  foUowinsr  extixictsr^  — 

1  Aug.  19,  lbi-2,  at  the  close.     Operxi,  XI.  4:30. 

-  "  Dr'iierat  mihi  Detis  ^liliolum,  abstuUt ;  hoc  quoqtie  recenset  [Balduin  or 
Baudouin,  a  jurisconsult]  inter  probra  liberis  me  carere.  Atqui  mihi  jiiiorum  sunt 
myriades  in  toto  orhe  Christiana."  (^Besponsio  ad  Balduini  Convitia,  Geneva, 
15(31.)  Roman  writers  speak  of  the  sterility  of  his  marriage  as  a  reproach 
and  judgment.  Audin  corrects  them,  but  adds  ^^ch.  XIX.)  that  Calvin  "shed 
no  tears  "  over  the  loss  of  his  son,  and  that  "  God  did  not  permit  him  to 
become  a  father  a  second  time ! "  Bonnet  asserts  (I.e.  643)  that  Calvin  had 
two  other  children,  a  daughter  and  a  son,  who  died  likewise  in  infancy,  and 
refers  to  a  letter  of  Calvin  to  Viret  of  1-S44 ;  but  this  is  a  mistake,  for  Calvin, 
long  after  the  death  of  his  wife,  speaks  only  of  one  infant  son  (  n/iWi/s).  and 
CoUadon,  in  his  biography,  says  (Opera,  XXI.  61)  that  Idelette  de  Bure  had 
one  son  from  him  (tUe  eut  unjilsdehii). 

^  The  letter  w.hs  written  in  French  and  translated  into  Latin  by  Beza  in 
his  edititm  of  C<ilciHi  Epistoltr,  Geneva?,  1575,  p.  2S0  (under  the  wrong  date  of 


§  92.   Calvin's  marriage  and  homk  likk.        4"21 

"  K.vTisnox  (Month  of  April),  loll. 

"  AYlicn  I  first  received  the  intelligence  of  the  death  of  Clande  and  of 
your  son  Louis,  I  was  so  utterly  overpowered  {tout  csiieniu  it  roii/us  en  won 
csjirit)  that  for  many  days  I  was  fit  for  notliing  but  to  weep;  nnd  althougli 
I  was  somehow  upheld  before  the  Lord  by  those  aids  wherewith  He  sustains 
our  souls  in  affliction,  yet  among  men  1  was  almost  a  nonentity  ;  so  far  at 
least  as  regards  my  discharge  of  duty,  I  appeared  to  myself  quite  as  unfit 
for  it  as  if  I  had  been  half  dead  (i/»i  homme  dcmi-mort).  On  the  one  hand, 
I  was  sadly  grieved  that  a  most  excellent  and  faithful  friend  [Claude  Feray] 
had  been  snatched  away  from  me  —  a  friend  with  whom  I  was  so  familiar, 
that  none  could  be  more  closely  united  than  we  were;  on  the  other  liand, 
there  arose  another  cause  of  grief,  when  I  saw  the  young  man,  your  son, 
taken  away  in  the  very  flower  of  his  age,  a  youth  of  most  excellent  promise, 
whom  I  loved  as  a  son,  because,  on  his  part,  he  showed  that  respectful  alTec- 
tion  toward  me  as  he  would  to  another  father. 

"  To  this  grievous  sorrow  was  still  added  the  heavy  and  distressing  anxiety 
we  experienced  about  those  wliom  the  Lord  liad  spared  to  us.  I  heard  that 
the  whole  household  were  scattered  here  and  there.  The  danger  of  Malherbe  ' 
caused  me  very  great  misery,  as  well  as  the  cause  of  it,  and  warned  me  also 
as  to  the  rest.  I  considered  that  it  could  not  be  otherwise  but  tiiat  my  wife 
must  be  very  much  disma3'ed.  Your  Charles,-  I  assure  you,  was  continually 
recurring  to  my  thoughts;  for  in  proportion  as  he  was  endowed  with  that 
goodness  of  disposition  which  had  always  appeared  in  him  towards  his  brother 
as  well  as  his  preceptor,  it  never  occurred  to  me  to  doubt  but  that  lie  would 
be  steeped  in  sorrow  and  soaked  in  tears.  One  single  consideration  somewhat 
relieved  me,  that  he  had  my  brother  along  with  him,  who,  I  hoped,  would 
prove  no  small  comfort  in  this  calamity- ;  even  that,  however,  I  could  not 
reckon  upon,  when  at  the  same  time  I  recollected  that  both  were  in  jeopardy, 
and  neither  of  them  were  3"et  beyond  the  reach  of  danger.  Thus,  until  the 
letter  arrived  which  informed  me  that  Malherbe  was  out  of  danger,  and  that 
Charles  and  my  brother,  together  with  my  wife  and  the  others,  were  safe,"  I 
would  have  been  all  but  utterly  cast  down,  unless,  as  I  liave  already  men- 
tioned, my  heart  was  refreshed  in  prayer  and  private  meditations,  which 
are  suggested  bj^  His  Word.  .  .  . 

"  The  son  whom  the  Lord  had  lent  you  for  a  season,  He  has  taken  away. 
There  is  no  ground,  therefore,  for  those  silly  and  wicked  complaints  of  fool- 
ish men :  O  blind  death  !     O  hard  fate !     0  implacable  daughters  of  Destiny  ! 

1540).  See  O/xth,  XI.  188  sqq. ;  Ilerminjard,  VII.  G()-7;5 ;  Bonnet-Constable, 
I.  222-229.  I  have  used  Constable's  translation  after  comparing  it  with  the 
French  original.  The  concluding  part,  however,  is  only  extant  in  Beza's 
Latin  version. 

1  Probably  the  youngest  of  Feray's  pupils,  a  native  of  Normandy.  Her- 
minjard,  VII.  55,  note  G. 

2  The  older  son  of  M.  de  Richebourg. 

8  "  Cfiarles  et  mon  frere,  avec  ma  fetnvie  et  les  auti-es  se  portoyent  bien."  This 
explains  why  Calvin  did  not  hurry  back  to  Strassburg  earlier  than  he  did. 


422         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

0  cruel  fortune !  The  Lord  who  had  lodged  him  here  for  a  season,  at  this 
stage  of  his  career  has  called  him  away.  What  the  Lord  has  done,  we  must, 
at  the  same  time,  consider  has  not  been  done  rashly,  nor  by  chance,  neither 
from  having  been  impelled  from  without,  but  by  that  determinate  counsel, 
whereby  He  not  only  foresees,  decrees,  and  executes  nothing  but  what  is  just 
and  upright  in  itself,  but  also  nothing  but  what  is  good  and  wholesome  for  us. 
Where  justice  and  good  judgment  reign  paramount,  there  it  is  impious  to 
remonstrate.  When,  however,  our  advantage  is  bound  up  with  that  goodness, 
how  great  would  be  the  degree  of  ingratitude  not  to  acquiesce,  with  a  calm 
and  well-ordered  temper  of  mind,  in  whatever  is  the  wish  of  our  Father.  .  .  . 

"  It  is  God  who  has  sought  back  from  you  your  son,  whom  He  had  com- 
mitted to  you  to  be  educated,  on  the  condition  that  he  might  alwaj's  be  His 
own.  And,  therefore,  He  took  him  away,  because  it  was  both  of  advantage 
to  him  to  leave  this  world,  and  by  this  bereavement  to  humble  you,  or  to 
make  trial  of  your  patience.  If  you  do  not  understand  the  advantage  of  this, 
without  delay,  first  of  all,  setting  aside  every  other  object  of  consideration, 
ask  of  God  that  He  may  show  you.  Should  it  be  His  will  to  exercise  you 
still  farther,  by  concealing  it  from  you,  submit  to  that  will,  that  you  may  be- 
come wiser  than  the  weakness  of  thine  own  understanding  can  ever  attain  to. 

"In  what  regards  your  son,  if  you  bethink  yourself  how  difficult  it  is,  in 
this  most  deplorable  age  to  maintain  an  upright  course  through  life,  you  will 
judge  him  to  be  blessed,  who,  before  encountering  so  many  coming  dangers 
which  already  were  hovering  over  him,  and  to  be  encountered  in  his  day  and 
generation,  was  so  early  delivered  from  them  all.  He  is  like  one  who  has  set 
sail  upon  a  stormy  and  tempestuous  sea,  and  before  he  has  been  carried  out 
into  the  deeps,  gets  in  safety  to  the  secure  haven.  Nor,  indeed,  is  long  life 
to  be  reckoned  so  great  a  benefit  of  God,  that  we  can  lose  anything,  when 
separated  only  for  the  space  of  a  few  years,  we  are  introduced  to  a  life  which 
is  far  better.  Now,  certainly,  because  the  Lord  Himself,  who  is  the  Father 
of  us  all,  had  willed  that  Louis  should  be  put  among  the  children  as  a  son  of 
His  adoption.  He  bestowed  this  benefit  upon  you,  out  of  the  multitude  of  His 
mercies,  that  you  might  reap  the  excellent  fruit  of  your  careful  education 
before  his  death ;  whence  also  you  might  know  your  interest  in  the  blessings 
that  belonged  to  you,  'I  will  be  thy  God,  and  the  God  of  thy  seed.' 

"From  his  earliest  boyhood,  so  far  as  his  years  allowed,  Louis  was 
grounded  in  the  best  studies,  and  had  already  made  such  a  competent  profi- 
ciency and  progress,  that  we  entertained  great  hope  of  him  for  the  future. 
His  manners  and  behavior  had  met  with  the  approval  of  all  good  men.  If  at 
any  time  he  fell  into  error,  he  not  only  patiently  suffered  the  word  of  admo- 
nition, but  also  that  of  reproof,  and  proved  himself  teachable  and  obedient, 
and  willing  to  hearken  to  advice.  .  .  .  That,  however,  which  we  rate  most 
highly  in  him  was,  that  he  had  imbibed  so  largely  the  principles  of  piety, 
that  he  had  not  merely  a  correct  and  true  understanding  of  religion,  but  had 
also  been  faithfully  imbued  with  the  unfeigned  fear  and  reverence  of  God. 

"  This  exceeding  kindness  of  God  toward  your  offspring  ought  with  good 
reason  to  prevail  more  effectually  with  you  in  soothing  the  bitterness  of 
death,  than  death  itself  have  power  to  inflict  grief  upon  you. 


§  92.     CALVIN'S   MARRIAGE   AND    HOME   LIFE.  423 

"  With  reference  to  my  own  feelings,  if  your  sons  had  never  come  hither 
at  all,  I  should  never  have  been  grieved  on  account  of  the  death  of  Claude 
and  Louis.  Never,  however,  shall  this  most  crushing  sorrow,  which  I  suffer 
on  account  of  both,  so  overcome  me,  as  to  reflect  with  grief  upon  that  day  on 
which  they  were  driven  hither  by  the  hand  of  God  to  us,  rather  than  led  by 
any  settled  purpose  of  their  own,  when  that  friendship  commenced  which  has 
not  only  continued  undiminished  to  the  last,  but  which,  from  day  to  day,  was 
rather  increased  and  confirmed.  Whatever,  therefore,  may  have  been  tlie 
kind  or  model  of  education  they  were  in  search  of,  I  rejoice  that  they  lived 
under  the  same  roof  with  me.  And  since  it  was  appointed  them  to  die,  I 
rejoice  also  that  they  died  under  my  roof,  where  they  rendered  back  their 
souls  to  God  more  composedly,  and  in  greater  circumstances  of  quiet,  than 
if  they  had  happened  to  die  in  those  places  where  they  would  have  experi- 
enced greater  annoyance  from  the  importunity  of  those  by  whom  they  ought 
to  have  been  assisted,  than  from  death  itself.  On  the  contrary,  it  was  in  the 
midst  of  pious  exhortations,  and  while  calling  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord, 
that  these  sainted  spirits  fled  from  the  communion  of  their  brethren  here  to 
the  bosom  of  Christ.  Nor  would  I  desire  now  to  be  free  from  all  sorrow  at 
the  cost  of  never  having  known  them.  Their  memory  will  ever  be  sacred 
to  me  to  the  end  of  my  days,  and  I  am  persuaded  that  it  will  also  be  sweet 
and  comforting. 

"But  what  advantage,  you  will  say,  is  it  to  me  to  have  had  a  son  of  so 
much  promise,  since  he  has  been  torn  away  from  me  in  the  first  flower  of  his 
youth  ■?  As  if,  forsooth,  Christ  had  not  merited,  by  His  death,  the  supreme 
dominion  over  the  living  and  the  dead !  And  if  we  belong  to  Him  (as  we 
ought),  why  may  He  not  exercise  over  us  the  power  of  life  and  of  death"? 
However  brief,  therefore,  either  in  your  opinion  or  in  mine,  the  life  of  your 
son  may  have  been,  it  ought  to  satisfy  us  that  he  has  finished  the  course 
which  the  Lord  had  marked  out  for  him. 

"Moreover,  we  may  not  reckon  him  to  have  perished  in  tlie  flower  of  his 
age,  who  had  grown  ripe  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord.  For  I  consider  all  to  have 
arrived  at  maturity  who  are  summoned  away  by  death  ;  unless,  perhaps,  one 
would  contend  with  Him,  as  if  He  can  snatch  away  any  one  before  his  time. 
This,  indeed,  holds  true  of  every  one ;  but  in  regard  to  Louis,  it  is  yet  more 
certain  on  another  and  more  peculiar  ground.  For  he  had  arrived  at  that 
age,  when,  by  true  evidences,  he  could  prove  himself  a  member  of  the  body 
of  Christ :  having  put  forth  this  fruit,  he  was  taken  from  us  and  transplanted. 
Yes,  instead  of  this  transient  and  vanishing  shadow  of  life,  he  has  regained 
the  real  immortality  of  being. 

"Nor  can  you  consider  yourself  to  have  lost  him,  whom  you  will  recover 
in  the  blessed  resurrection  in  the  kingdom  of  God.  For  they  had  both  so 
lived  and  so  died,  that  I  cannot  doubt  but  they  are  now  with  the  Lord.  Let 
us,  therefore,  press  forward  toward  this  goal  which  they  have  reached.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  but  that  Christ  will  bind  together  both  them  and  us  in  the 
same  inseparable  society,  in  that  incomparable  participation  of  His  own  glory. 
Beware,  therefore,  that  you  do  not  lament  your  son  as  lost,  whom  you  ac- 
knowledge to  be  preserved  by  the  Lord,  that  he  may  remain  yours  forever, 


424         THE   EEFOEMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

who,  at  the  pleasure  of  His  own  will,  lent  him  to  you  only  for  a  sea- 
son. .  .  , 

"  Neither  do  I  insist  upon  your  laying  aside  all  grief.  Nor,  in  the  school  of 
Christ,  do  we  learn  any  such  philosophy  as  requires  us  to  put  off  that  common 
humanity  with  which  God  has  endowed  us,  that,  being  men,  we  should  be 
turned  into  stones.^  These  considerations  reach  only  so  far  as  this,  that  you 
do  set  bounds,  and,  as  it  were,  temper  even  j'our  most  reasonable  sadness , 
that,  having  shed  those  tears  which  were  due  to  nature  and  to  fatherly  affec- 
tion, j'ou  by  no  means  give  way  to  senseless  wailing.  Nor  do  I  by  any  means 
interfere  because  I  am  distrustful  of  j'our  prudence,  firmness,  or  high-minded- 
ness ;  but  only  lest  I  might  here  be  wanting,  and  come  short  in  my  duty  to 
you. 

"  Moreover,  I  have  requested  Melanchthon  and  Bucer  that  they  would  also 
add  their  letters  to  mine,  because  I  entertained  the  hope  that  it  would  not 
be  unacceptable  that  they  too  should  afford  some  evidence  of  their  good-will 
toward  you. 

"Adieu,  most  distinguished  sir,  and  my  much-respected  in  the  Lord.  May 
Christ  the  Lord  keep  you  and  your  family,  and  direct  you  all  with  His  own 
Spirit,  until  you  may  arrive  where  Louis  and  Claude  have  gone  before." 

1  "  Neque  hanc  philosophiam  discimus  in  schola  Christi,  ut  earn  quam  nobis 
indidit  humanitatem  exuendo,  ex  hominibus  lapides  Jiamus."  This  shows  how  far 
Calvin  was  from  heathen  stoicism. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

CALVIN'S  SECOND  SOJOURN  AND  LABORS   AT   GENEVA. 

1541-1564. 

The  sources  on  this  and  the  following  cliapters  in  §  81,  p.  347. 

§  93.    Tlie  State  of  G-eneva  after  the  expulsion  of  the 
Reformers, 

I.  The  correspondence  in  Opera,  vols.  X.  and  XI.,  and  Herminjard,  vols.  V., 

VI.,  and  VII.  — ^H«a/.  Calv.,  XXI.  235-282.  — The  Chronicles  of  Koset 
and  BoNivARD ;  the  histories  of  Spon,  Gabekel,  Roget,  etc. 

II.  Henet,  I.  ch.  XIX.  — Stahelin,  I.  283-299.  — Dyer,  113-123.  — Kamp- 
scHULTE,  I.  342  sqq.  —  Merle  d'Aubigne,  bk.  XI.  chs.  XVIII.  (vol.  VI. 
610  sqq.)  and  XIX.  (vol.  VII.  1  sqq.). 

C.  A.  Cornelius  (Cath.)  :  Die  Buckkehr  Calvins  nach  Genf.  Miinchen,  1889. 
Continuation  of  his  essay.  Die  Verbannung  Calvins  aus  Genf.  Miinchen, 
1886.     Both  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Bavarian  Academy  of  Sciences. 

The  answer  to  Sadolet  was  one  of  the  means  of  saving 

o 

Geneva  from  the  grasp  of  popery,  and  endearing  Calvin  to 
the  friends  of  freedom.  But  there  were  other  causes  which 
demanded  his  recall.  Internal  disturbances  followed  his  ex- 
pulsion, and  brought  the  little  republic  to  the  brink  of  ruin. 

Calvin  was  right  in  predicting  a  short  regime  to  his  ene- 
mies. In  less  than  a  year  they  were  demoralized  and  split 
up  into  factions.  In  the  place  of  the  expelled  Reformers, 
two  native  preachers  and  two  from  Bern  were  elected  on  the 
basis  of  the  Bernese  customs,  but  they  were  below  medioc- 
rity, and  not  fit  for  the  crisis.  The  supremacy  of  the  State 
was  guarded.  Foreigners  who  could  not  show  a  good  practi- 
cal reason  for  their  residence  were  banished ;  among  them, 
even  Saunier  and  Cordier,  the  rectors  of  the  schools  who 

faithfully  adhered  to  the  Reformers. 

425 


426         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

There  were  three  main  parties  in  Geneva,  with  subdivis- 
ions. 

1.  The  government  party  was  controlled  by  the  syndics 
of  1538  and  other  enemies  of  the  Reformers.  They  were 
called  Articulants  or,  by  a  popular  nickname,  Artichauds,^ 
from  the  twenty-one  articles  of  a  treaty  with  Bern,  which 
had  been  negotiated  and  signed  by  three  counsellors  and 
deputies  of  the  city  —  Ami  de  Chapeaurouge,  Jean  Lullin, 
and  Monathon.  The  government  subjected  the  Church  to  the 
State,  and  was  protected  by  Bern,  but  unable  to  maintain 
order.  Tumults  and  riots  multiplied  in  the  streets ;  the 
schools  were  ruined  by  the  expulsion  of  the  best  teachers ; 
the  pulpit  lost  its  power ;  the  new  preachers  became  objects 
of  contempt  or  pity ;  pastoral  care  was  neglected ;  vice  and 
immorality  increased;  the  old  licentiousness  and  frivolities, 
dancing,  gambling,  drunkenness,  masquerades,  indecent 
songs,  adulteries,  reappeared;  persons  went  naked  through 
the  streets  to  the  sound  of  drums  and  fifes. 

Moreover,  the  treaty  with  Bern,  when  it  became  known, 
was  very  unpopular  because  it  conceded  to  Bern  the  rights 
of  sovereignty.  The  Council  of  Two  Hundred  would  not 
submit  to  it  because  it  sacrificed  their  liberties  and  good 
customs.  But  the  judges  of  Bern  decided  that  the  Genevese 
must  sign  the  treaty  and  pay  the  costs.  This  created  a,  great 
commotion.  The  people  cried  "  treason,"'  and  demanded  the 
arrest  of  the  three  deputies  who  had  been  outwitted  by  the 
diplomacy  of  Bern,  but  they  made  their  escape ;  whereupon 
they  were  condemned  to  death  as  forgers  and  rebels.  The 
discontent  extended  to  the  pastors  who  had  been  elected  in 
the  place  of  Farel  and  Calvin. 

Within  two  years  after  the  banishment  of  the  Reformers, 
the  four  syndics  who  had  decreed  it  came  to  grief.  Jean 
Philippe,  the  captain-general  of  the  city  and  most  influential 

1  Dyer,  p.  113,  miscalls  them  Artiofiokes,  because,  as  he  fancies,  they  took 
"this  plant  for  their  device." 


§  93.     GENEVA    AFTER    EXPULSION    OF    REFORMERS.       427 

leader  of  the  Artichauds,  but  a  man  of  violent  passions,  was 
beheaded  for  homicide,  and  as  a  mover  of  sedition,  June  10, 
154Q,  Two  others,  Chapeaurouge  and  Lullin,  were  con- 
demned to  death  as  forgers  and  rebels ;  the  fourth,  Rich- 
ardet,  died  in  consequence  of  an  injury  which  he  received 
in  the  attempt  to  escape  justice.  Such  a  series  of  mis- 
fortunes was  considered  a  nemesis  of  Providence,  and  gave 
the  death-blow  to  the  anti-reform  party. 

2.  The  party  of  the  Roman  Catholics  raised  its  head  after 
the  expulsion  of  the  Reformers,  and  received  for  a  short  time 
great  encouragement  from  the  banished  bishop  Pierre  de  la 
Baume,  whom  Paul  III.  had  made  a  cardinal,  and  from  the 
Letter  of  Cardinal  Sadolet.  A  number  of  priests  and  monks 
returned  from  France  and  Savoy,  but  the  Answer  of  Calvin 
destroyed  all  the  hopes  and  prospects  of  the  Romanists,  and 
the  government  showed  them  no  favor. 

3.  The  third  party  was  friendly  to  the  Reformers.  It 
reaped  all  the  benefit  of  the  blunders  and  misfortunes  of  the 
other  two  parties,  and  turned  them  to  the  best  account.  Its 
members  were  called  by  their  opponents  G-uillermains,  after 
Master  Guillaume  (Farel).  They  were  led  by  Perrin,  Por- 
ral,  Pertemps,  and  Sept.  They  were  united,  most  active, 
and  had  a  definite  end  in  view — the  restoration  of  the  Refor- 
mation. They  kept  up  a  correspondence  with  the  banished 
Reformers,  especially  with  Farel  in  Neuchatel,  who  coun- 
selled and  encouraged  them.  They  were  suspected  of  French 
sympathies  and  want  of  patriotism,  but  retorted  by  charging 
the  government  with  subserviency  to  Bern.  They  were  in- 
clined to  extreme  measures.  Calvin  exhorted  them  to  be 
patient,  moderate,  and  forgiving. 

As  the  Artichauds  declined,  the  Guillermains  increased 
in  power  over  the  people.  The  vacant  posts  of  the  late  syn- 
dics were  filled  from  their  ranks.  The  new  magistrates 
assumed  a  bold  tone  of  independence  towards  Bern,  and 
insisted  on  the  old  franchises  of  Geneva.     It  is  curious  that 


428         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

they  were  encouraged  by  a  letter  of  the  Emperor  Charles  V., 
who  thus  unwittingly  aided  the  cause  of  Calvin. ^ 

The  way  was  now  prepared  for  the  recall  of  Calvin.  The 
best  people  of  Geneva  looked  to  him  as  the  saviour  of  their  city. 
His  name  meant  order,  peace,  reform  in  Church  and  State. 

Even  the  Artichauds,  overpowered  by  public  opinion,  pro- 
posed in  a  general  assembly  of  citizens,  June  17,  1540,  the 
resolution  to  restore  the  former  status,  and  spoke  loudly 
against  poj)ery.  Two  of  the  new  preachers,  Marcourt  and 
Morland,  resigned  Aug.  10,  and  returned  to  Bern.  The 
other  two,  Henri  de  la  Mare  and  Jacques  Bernard,  humbly 
besought  the  favor  of  Calvin,  and  begged  him  to  return.  A 
remarkable  tribute  from  his  rivals  and  enemies.^ 

§  94.    CalviTi's  Recall  to  Geneva. 
Literature  in  §  93,  especially  the  Correspondence  and  Registers. 

Calvin  did  not  forget  Geneva.  He  proved  his  interest 
in  her  welfare  by  his  Answer  to  Sadolet.  But  he  had  no 
inclination  to  return,  and  could  only  be  induced  to  do  so  by 
mimistakable  indications  of  the  will  of  Providence. 

He  had  found  a  place  of  great  usefulness  in  a  city  where 
he  could  act  as  mediator  between  Germany  and  France,  and 
benefit  both  countries ;  his  Sunday  services  were  crowded ; 
his  theological  lectures  attracted  students  from  France  and 
other  countries ;  he  had  married  a  faithful  wife,  and  enjoyed 

^  "  Es  viacht  einen  eigenthiimlichen  Eindruck,"  says  Ivampschulte  (I.  365), 
"  Karl  V.  hier  fur  den  Sieg  eines  JiTannes  mitthdtig  zu  sehen,  dessen  Wirksamkeit, 
wie  kaum  eine  andere,  dazu  beigetragen  hat,  die  Grundlagen  seiner  Macht  zu 
untergraben." 

2  Bernard  wrote  a  letter  to  Calvin,  Feb.  6,  1541  (Herminjard,  VII.  23),  in 
which  he  says:  "  T'e/u'  ergo,  venerande  mi  pater  in  Christo :  noster  es  perfecto. 
Te  enim  nobis  donavit  Dominus  Deus,  Suspirant  etiam  post  te  omnes.  .  .  .  Faxit 
Dominus  Jesus,  itt  velox  adventus  tuns  sit  ad  nos!  Vale,  ecclesiceque  digneris 
succurrere  nostra;.  Alioqui  requiret  de  manu  tua  sanguinem  nostrum  Dominus  Deus. 
Dedit  enim  te  specidatorem  domui  Israel  quce  apud  nos  est."  Calvin  answered, 
March  1,  1541,  that  he  was  very  reluctant  to  return  to  Geneva,  but  would 
obey  the  voice  of  the  Church.     Herminjard,  VII.  38-40. 


§  94.   calvin's  recall  to  geneva.  429 

a  peaceful  home.  The  government  of  Strassburg  ajjpreciatecl 
him  more  and  more,  and  his  colleagues  wished  to  retain  him. 
Melanchthon  thought  he  could  spare  him  less  at  the  Collo- 
quies of  Worms  and  Ratisbon  than  anybody  else.  Looking 
to  Geneva  he  could,  from  past  experience,  expect  nothing 
but  severe  and  hard  trials.  "  There  is  no  place  in  the  world," 
he  wrote  to  Viret,  "  which  I  fear  more ;  not  because  I  hate 
it,  but  because  I  feel  unequal  to  the  difficulties  which  await 
me  there."  ^  He  called  it  an  abyss  from  which  he  shrank 
back  much  more  now  than  he  had  done  in  1536.  Indeed, 
he  was  not  mistaken  in  his  fears,  for  his  subsequent  life  was 
an  unbroken  struggle.  We  need  not  wonder  then  that  he 
refused  call  upon  call,  and  requested  Farel  and  Viret  to 
desist  from  their  efforts  to  allure  him  away.^ 

At  the  same  time,  he  was  determined  to  obey  the  will  of 
God  as  soon  as  it  would  be  made  clear  to  him  by  unmistak- 
able indications  of  Providence.  "When  I  remember,"  he 
wrote  to  Farel,  "  that  in  this  matter  I  am  not  my  own  mas- 
ter, I  present  my  heart  as  a  sacrifice  and  offer  it  up  to  the 
Lord."  ^  A  very  characteristic  sentence,  which  reveals  the 
soul  of  his  piety.  A  seal  of  Calvin  bears  this  motto,  and 
the  emblem  is  a  hand  presenting  a  heart  to  God.     Seven- 

^  March  1,  1541  (from  Ulm  on  his  journey  to  Ratisbon):  " Non  aliter 
respondeo  quam  quod  semper  solitus  sum  :  Nullum  esse  locum  sub  ccelo  quern  magis 
reforinidem,  non  quia  oderim,  sed  quoniam  tot  difficultates  illic  mihi  propositus  video, 
quibus  superandis  sentio  me  longe  esse  imparem.  Quoties  superioriim  temporitm 
subit  recordatio,  facere  nequeo  quin  toto  pectore  exhorrescam,  si  cogar  me  iterum 
antiquis  illis  certuminibus  objicere.  Si  mihi  cum  ecclesia  ilia  tantum  esset  negocium, 
animo  essem  quietiore ;  certe  nunus  terrerer.  Sed  vicinos  [allusion  to  Bern]  cogito, 
qui  mihi  oUm  tantum  molestiie  exhibuerunt."  Opera,  XI.  167;  Herniinjard, 
VII.  43. 

2  Dyer  (p.  121)  and  Kampschulte  (I.  370)  suspect,  without  any  reason, 
that  Calvin,  in  his  repeated  refusals,  was  influenced  by  the  unworthy  motive 
to  humble  the  pride  of  the  Genevese.  "What  more  could  they  do  than  bom- 
bard him  with  petitions  and  deputations  1  And  this  they  did  months  before 
he  accepted  the  call. 

3  "  Cor  meum  velut  mactatum  Domino  in  sacrijicium  offero."  Oct.  24,  1540. 
Opera,  XI.  100  ;  Herminjard,  VI.  339.  Henry  has  appropriately  chosen  this 
sentence  as  the  motto  for  his  biography. 


430         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

teen  years  later,  when  he  looked  back  upon  that  critical 
period  of  his  life,  he  expressed  the  same  view.  "  Although 
the  welfare  of  that  Church,"  he  says,  "  was  so  dear  to  nie, 
that  I  could  without  difficulty  sacrifice  my  life  for  it ;  yet 
my  timidity  presented  to  me  many  reasons  of  excuse  for 
declining  to  take  such  a  heavy  burden  on  my  shoulders. 
But  the  sense  of  duty  prevailed,  and  led  me  to  return  to  the 
flock  from  which  I  had  been  snatched  away.  I  did  this  with 
sadness,  tears,  and  great  anxiety  and  distress  of  mind,  the 
Lord  being  my  witness,  and  many  pious  persons  who  would 
gladly  have  spared  me  that  pain,  if  not  the  same  fear  had 
shut  their  mouth."  ^  He  mentions  especially  Martin  Bucer, 
"  that  excellent  servant  of  Christ,"  who  threatened  him  with 
the  example  of  Jonah;  as  Farel,  on  Calvin's  first  visit  to 
Geneva,  had  threatened  him  with  the  wrath  of  God. 

His  friends  in  Geneva,  the  Council  and  the  people,  were 
convinced  that  Calvin  alone  could  save  the  city  from  anarchy, 
and  they  made  every  effort  to  secure  his  return.  His  recall 
was  first  seriously  discussed  in  the  Council  early  in  1539, 
again  in  February,  1540,  and  decided  upon  Sept.  21,  1540. 
Preparatory  steps  were  taken  to  secure  the  co-operation  of 
Bern,  Basel,  Zlirich,  and  Strassburg.  On  the  13th  of  Octo- 
ber, Michel  du  Bois,  an  old  friend  of  Calvin,  was  sent  by 
the  Large  Council  with  a  letter  to  him,  and  directed  to 
press  the  invitation  by  oral  representation.  Without  wait- 
ing for  an  answer,  other  petitions  and  deputations  were 
forwarded.  On  the  19th  of  October  the  Council  of  Two 
Hundred  resolved  to  use  every  effort  for  the  attainment  of 
that  object.  Ami  Perrin  and  Louis  Dufour  were  sent  (Oct. 
21  and  22)  as  deputies,  with  a  herald,  to  Strassburg  "  to  fetch 
Master  Calvin."  Twenty  dollars  gold  (^ecus  au  soleiV)  were 
voted,  on  the  27th,  for  expenses.'-^  The  Registres  of  that 
month   are   full   of   actions   concerning   the   recall   of  "the 

1  Preface  to  his  Commentary  on  the  Psahns  (written  in  1557),  Opera, 
XXXI.  27.  2  Annul.  266  sqq. ;  Herminjard,  VI.  331-335. 


§  94.   calvin's  recall  to  geneva.  431 

learned  and  pious  Mr.  Calvin."  No  more  complete  vindica- 
tion of  the  cause  of  the  Reformers  could  be  imadned. 

Farel's  aid  was  also  solicited.  With  incomparable  self- 
denial  he  pardoned  the  ingratitude  of  the  Geuevese  in  not 
recalling  him,  and  made  every  exertion  to  secure  the  return 
of  his  younger  friend,  whom  he  had  first  compelled  by  moral 
force  to  stop  at  Geneva.  He  bombarded  him  with  letters. 
He  even  travelled  from  Neuchatel  to  Strassburg,  and  spent 
two  days  there,  pressing  him  in  person  and  trying  to  per- 
suade him,  as  well  as  Capito  and  Bucer,  of  the  absolute 
necessity  of  his  return  to  Geneva,  which,  in  his  opinion,  was 
the  most  important  spot  in  the  world. 

iDufour  arrived  at  Strassburg  in  November,  called  upon 
the  senate,  followed  Calvin  to  Worms,  where  he  was  in 
attendance  on  the  Colloquy,  and  delivered  the  formal  letter 
of  invitation,  dated  Oct.  22,  and  signed  by  the  syndics  and 
Council  of  Geneva.  It  concludes  thus :  "  On  behalf  of  our 
Little,  Great,  and  General  Councils  (all  of  which  have 
strongly  urged  us  to  take  this  step),  we  pray  you  very  affec- 
tionately that  you  will  be  pleased  to  come  over  to  us,  and  to 
return  to  your  former  post  and  ministry ;  and  we  hope  that 
by  God's  help  this  course  will  be  a  great  advantage  for  the 
furtherance  of  the  holy  gospel,  seeing  that  our  people  very 
much  desire  you,  and  we  will  so  deal  with  you  that  you 
shall  have  reason  to  be  satisfied."  The  letter  was  fastened 
with  a  seal  bearing  the  motto :    "  Post  tenehras  spero  lucem.'''' 

Calvin  was  thus  most  urgently  and  most  honorably  recalled 
by  the  united  voice  of  the  Council,  the  ministers,  and  the 
people  of  that  city  which  had  unjustly  banished  him  three 
years  before. 

He  was  moved  to  tears  by  these  manifestations  of  regard 
and  confidence,  and  began  to  waver.  But  the  deputies  of 
Strassburg  at  Worms,  under  secret  instruction  from  their  gov- 
ernment, entered  a  strong  protest  against  his  leaving.  Bucer, 
Capito,  Sturm,  and  Gryneeus,  when  asked  for  advice,  decided 


432         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

that  Calvin  was  indispensable  to  Strassburg  as  the  head  of 
the  French  Church  which  represented  Protestant  France ; 
as  a  theological  teacher  who  attracted  students  from  Ger- 
many, France,  and  Italy,  to  send  them  back  to  their  own 
countries  as  evangelists ;  and  as  a  helper  in  making  the 
Church  of  Strassburg  a  seminary  of  ministers  of  the  gospel. 
No  one  besides  Melanchthon  could  be  compared  with  him. 
Geneva  was  indeed  an  important  post,  and  the  gate  to  France 
and  Italy,  but  uncertain,  and  liable  to  be  involved  again  in 
political  complications  which  might  destroy  the  evangelical 
labors  of  Calvin.  The  pastors  and  senators  of  Strassburg, 
urged  by  the  churches  of  Ziirich  and  Basel,  came  at  last  to 
the  conclusion  to  consent  to  Calvin's  return  after  the  Collo- 
quy of  Worms,  but  only  for  a  season,  hoping  that  he  may 
soon  make  their  city  his  final  home  for  the  benefit  of  the 
whole  Church. 1 

Thus  two  cities,  we  might  almost  say,  two  nations,  were 
contending  for  the  possession  of  "the  Theologian."  His 
whole  future  life,  and  a  considerable  chapter  of  Church  his- 
tory, depended  on  the  decision.  Under  these  circumstances 
he  could  make  no  definite  promise,  except  that  he  would  pay 
a  visit  to  Geneva  after  the  close  of  the  Colloquy,  on 
condition  of  getting  the  consent  of  Strassburg  and  Bern. 
He  also  prescribed,  like  a  victorious  general,  the  terms  of 
surrender,  namely,  the  restoration  of  Church  discipline. 

He  had  previously  advised  that  Viret  be  called  from  Lau- 
sanne. This  was  done  in  Dec.  31,  1540,  with  the  permission 
of  Bern,  but  only  for  half  a  year.  Viret  arrived  in  Geneva 
Jan.  17,  1541.  His  persuasive  sermons  were  well  attended, 
and  the  magistrates  showed  great  reverence  for  the  Word  of 
God ;  but  he  found  so  much  and  such  difficult  work  in  church 


1  See  the  letters  signed  by  Capito,  Hedio,  Bucer,  Sturm,  Bedrotus, 
Grynffius  (probably  written  by  Bucer),  October  and  November,  1540,  in  Her- 
minjard,  VI.  335  and  356  sqq.,  and  the  letter  of  the  Council  of  Strassburg  to 
the  Council  of  Geneva,  Sept.  1,  1541,  vol.  VII.  227. 


§  95.   calvin's  return  to  geneva.  433 

and  school,  in  the  hospital  and  the  poorhouse,  that  he  urged 
Calvin  to  come  soon,  else  he  must  withdraw  or  perish. 

On  the  1st  of  May,  1541,  the  General  Council  recalled,  in 
due  form,  the  sentence  of  banishment  of  April  23,  1538, 
and  solemnly  declared  that  every  citizen  considered  Calvin, 
Farel,  and  Saunier  to  be  honorable  men,  and  true  servants 
of  God.^  On  the  26th  of  May  the  senate  sent  another  press- 
ing request  to  Strassburg,  Ziirich,  and  Basel  to  aid  Geneva 
in  securing  the  return  of  Calvin.^ 

It  is  astonishing  what  an  amount  of  interest  this  question 
of  Calvin's  return  excited  throughout  Switzerland  and 
Germany.  It  was  generally  felt  that  the  fate  of  Geneva 
depended  on  Calvin,  and  that  the  fate  of  evangelical  religion 
in  France  and  Italy  depended  on  Geneva.  Letters  arrived 
from  individuals  and  corporations.  Farel  continued  to  thun- 
der, and  reproached  the  Strassburgers  for  keeping  Calvin 
back.  He  was  indignant  at  Calvin's  delay.  "  Will  you 
wait,"  he   wrote   him,   '■'•  till   the   stones   call    thee  ? " 

§  95.    Calvhi's  Return  to  Geneva.     1541. 

In  the  middle  of  June,  Calvin  left  Regensburg,  before  the 
close  of  the  Colloquy,  much  to  the  regret  of  Melanchthon ; 
and  after  attending  to  his  affairs  in  Strassburg,  he  set  out  for 
Switzerland.  The  Genevese  sent  Eustace  Vincent,  a  mounted 
herald,  to  escort  him,  and  voted  thirty-six  ecus  for  expenses 
(Aug.  26). 

The  Strassburgers  requested  him  to  retain  his  right  of 
citizenship,  and  the  annual  revenues  of  a  prebend,  which  they 
had  assigned  him  as  the  salary  of  his  theological  professor- 
ship. "  He  gladly  accepted,"  says  Beza,  "  the  former  mark 
of  respect,  but  could  never  be  induced  to  accept  the  latter, 

1  "  Pour  gens  de  bien  et  de  Dieu."     Annnl.  278. 

2  See  the  letters  of  the  Council  of  Geneva  to  the  Pastors  of  Zurich  in 
Opera,  XI.  220  sqq.,  and  in  Ilerniiiijard,  VII.  129  sqq. 


434         THE   llEFOKMATION   IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

since  the  care  of  riches  occupied  his  mind  the  least  of  any- 
thing." 

Bucer,  in  the  name  of  the  pastors  of  Strassburg,  gave  him 
a  letter  to  the  Syndics  and  Council  of  Geneva,  Sept.  1,  1541, 
in  which  he  says :  "  Now  he  comes  at  last,  Calvin,  that  elect 
and  incomparable  instrument  of  God,  to  whom  no  other  in 
our  age  may  be  compared,  if  at  all  there  can  be  the  question 
of  another  alongside  of  him."  He  added  that  such  a  highly 
favored  man  Strassburg  could  only  spare  for  a  season,  on  con- 
dition of  his  certain  return.^  The  Council  of  Strassburg  wrote 
to  the  Council  of  Geneva  on  the  same  day,  expressing  the 
hope  that  Calvin  may  soon  return  to  them  for  the  benefit  of 
the  Church  universal.^  The  Senate  of  Geneva,  in  a  letter 
of  thanks  (Sept.  17,  1541),  expressed  the  determination  to 
keep  Calvin  permanently  in  their  city,  where  he  could  be  as 
useful  to  the  Church  universal  as  at  Strassburg.^ 

Calvin  visited  his  friends  in  Basel,  who  affectionately 
commended  him  to  Bern  and  Geneva  (Sept.  4).^  Bern 
was  not  very  favorable  to  Calvin  and  the  clerical  ascend- 
ency in  Geneva,  but  gave  him  a  safe-conduct  through  her 
territory. 

At  Soleure  (Solothurn)  he  learned  that  Farel  was  deposed, 
without  a  trial,  by  the  magistracy  of  Neuchatel,  because  he 
had  attacked  a  person  of  rank  from  the  pulpit  for  scanda- 
lous conduct.  He,  therefore,  turned  from  the  direct  route, 
and  spent  some  days  with  his  friend,  trying  to  relieve  him 
of  the  difficulty.  He  did  not  succeed  at  once,  but  his 
efforts   were   supported   by    Zurich,    Strassburg,   Basel,   and 

1  The  letter  is  in  Latin  with  a  French  translation  by  Viret,  Opera,  X.  271 ; 
Herminjard,  VII.  231-233.  "  Venit  tandem  ad  vos  Calvinus,  eximium  profecto 
et  rarissinium,  cui  vix  secundum,  si  tamen  secundum  ullum,  organuvi  Christi  hodie 
extat.  .  .  .  Venit  ergo,  dimissus  ratione  ea  quam  noster  senatus  perscribit,  ut 
idmirum  redeat." 

-  Herminjard,  VII.  227-230,  in  Latin  and  French. 

3  Herminjard,  VII.  253-255 ;   Opera,  XI.  268. 

4  Opera,  XI.  274. 


§  95.   Calvin's  return  to  geneva.  435 

Bern ;  and  the  seignory  of  Neuchatel  resolved  to  keep  Farel, 
who  continued  to  labor  there  till  his  death. ^ 

Calvin  wrote  to  the  Council  of  Geneva  from  Neuchatel  on 
Sept.  7,  explaining  the  reason  of  his  dela3^2  The  next  day 
he  proceeded  to  Bern  and  delivered  letters  from  Strassburg 
and  Basel. 

He  was  expected  at  Geneva  on  the  9th  of  September,  but 
did  not  arrive,  it  seems,  before  the  13th.  He  wislied  to 
avoid  a  noisy  reception,  for  which  he  had  no  taste.'*^  But 
there  is  no  doubt  that  his  arrival  caused  general  rejoicing 
among  the  people.* 

The  Council  provided  for  the  Reformer  a  house  and  gar- 
den in  the  Rue  des  Chanoines  near  St.  Peter's  Church,^  and 

^  See  tlie  correspondence  in  Herminjard,  VII.  242  sqq. 

2  Herminjard,  VII.  239.  The  letter  was  received  at  Geneva,  Sept.  12. 
See  Herminjard's  note  (>  on  p.  240. 

3  He  says,  in  the  Preface  to  liis  Commentary  on  tlie  Psalms  :  "  I  have  no 
intention  of  showing  myself,  and  making  a  noise  in  the  world."  Kampschulte 
goes  beyond  the  record  when  he  asserts  (I.  380,  381):  "  Fiir  den  Empfang 
eines  F'drsten  hdtte  nicht  mehr  Theilnahme  bewiesen  werden  konnen.  .  .  .  Am 
13""  Sept.  hielt  er  unter  dem  Jubel  der  Bevolkerung  seinen  feierlichen  Einzug  in 
Genf."  Perhaps  he  followed  here  Stiihelin,  who  says  (I.  310)  :  "  Mit  unglaidi- 
licher  Begeisterung,  wie  im  Triumphe,  ivurde  er  von  dem  Volk  und  dem  Magistrate 
empfangen."  There  is  no  record  of  such  a  triumphant  public  entrance.  See 
Beza  and  Colladon  in  the  ne.xt  note.  Roget  and  Merle  d'Aubigne  (VII. 
62  sq.)  deny  the  fact  of  a  popular  ovation. 

■*  Beza  (XXI.  131)  :  "  Caluinus  XIII.  Septembris  anno  Domini  MDXLI 
Genecam  regressus  est,  summa  cum  universi  popidi  ac  senaius  inprimis  singulare 
Dei  ergn  se  benejicium  serio  turn  agnosceiitis  congratidatione."  Colladon  (XXI. 
G4)  :  "  Calvin  fut  tellement  receu  de  singuliere  affection  par  ce  povre  peitple  recog- 
iioissarit  sa  faute,  et  qui  estoit  affam€  d'ouir  son  Jidele  Pasteur,  qu'on  ne  cessa 
point  qu'il  ne  fut  arreste  pour  tousiours." 

*  It  was  the  house  of  Sieur  de  Fresneville,  between  the  house  of  Bonivard, 
on  the  west,  and  that  of  Abbe'  de  Bonmont,  on  the  east,  where  Calvin  lived 
from  1543  till  his  death.  But  as  this  house  was  not  ready  on  his  arrival,  he 
lodged  for  a  while  in  an  adjoining  house  of  the  abbot  of  Bonmont,  which  was 
rebuilt  in  1708  (No.  13  Rue  des  Chanoines,  now  called  Rue  de  Calvin)  and 
jiassed  into  the  possession  of  Adrien  Naville,  president  of  the  Socie'te  Evan- 
gelique.  The  second  house  (No.  11)  remained  a  Reformed  parsonage  till 
1700;  in  1834  it  was  acquired  by  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy,  who  assigned 
it  to  tiie  Sisters  of  Mercy  of  Vincent  de  Paul,  but  it  is  now  owned  by  the  State. 
See  Th.  Heyer,  De  la  maison  de  Calvin,  in  the  "  Mcmoires  d'Archeologie,"  IX. 
391-408.  1  have  consulted  Mr.  Ed.  Naville  and  Mr.  Ed.  Favre  of  Geneva,  wlin 
confirmed  the  above  statements. 


436         THE    REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

promised  him  (Oct.  4),  in  consideration  of  his  great  learning 
and  hospitality  to  strangers,  a  fixed  salary  of  fifty  gold  dollars, 
or  five  hundred  florins,  besides  twelve  measures  of  wheat  and 
two  casks  of  wine.^  It  also  voted  him  a  new  suit  of  broad- 
cloth, with  furs  for  the  winter.  This  provision  was  liberal 
for  those  days,  yet  barely  sufficient  for  the  necessary  ex- 
penses of  the  Reformer  and  the  claims  on  his  hospitality. 
Hence  the  Council  made  him  occasional  presents  for  extra 
services ;  but  he  declined  them  whenever  he  could  do  without 
them.  He  lived  in  the  greatest  simplicity  compatible  with 
his  position.  A  pulpit  in  St.  Peter's  was  prepared  for  him 
upon  a  broad,  low  pillar,  that  the  whole  congregation  might 
more  easily  hear  him. 

The  Council  sent  three  horses  and  a  carriage  to  bring 
Calvin's  wife  and  furniture.  It  took  twenty-two  days  for  the 
escort  from  Geneva  to  Strassburg  and  back  (from  Sept.  17 
to  Oct.  8). 2 

On  the  13th  of  September  Calvin  appeared  before  the 
Syndics  and  the  Council  in  the  Town  Hall,  delivered  the 
letters  from  the  senators  and  pastors  of  Strassburg  and  Basel, 
and  apologized  for  his  long  delay.  He  made  no  complaint 
and  demanded  no  punishment  of  his  enemies,  but  asked  for 
the  appointment  of  a  commission  to  prepare  a  w^ritten  order 
of  church  government  and  discipline.  The  Council  complied 
with  this  request,  and  resolved  to  retain  him  permanently, 
and  to  inform  the  Senate  of  Strassburg  of  this  intention. 
Six  prominent  laymen,  four  members  of  the  Little  Council, 


^  "  Cinq  cens  florins,  douze  coppes  de  froment  et  deux  bossot  de  vin."  Annal. 
284.  Five  hundred  florins  of  Geneva  were  equivalent  to  about  four  thousand 
francs  at  the  present  standard  of  value.  This  is  the  estimate  of  Franklin  and 
of  Merle  d'Aubigne',  VII.  69.  Galiffe  {Qnelq.  pages  d'hist.  p.  89,  as  quoted  by 
Kampschulte,  I.  388,  note  3)  estimates  Calvin's  annual  income  at  9  to  10,000 
francs  of  our  money  (.$2000).  A  syndic  at  that  time  received  only  100,  a 
counsellor  25  francs,  according  to  the  same  authority. 

2  Herminjard,  VII.  289,  note :  "  Oii  paya  au  voiturier,  Emoz  Daiz,  pour 
22  jouvne'es  7  florins,  4  sols." 


§  95.   calvin's  return  to  geneva.  437 

two  members  of  the  Large  Council,  —  Pertemps,  Perrin,  Roset, 
Lambert,  Goulaz,  and  Porral,  —  were  appointed  to  draw  up 
the  ecclesiastical  ordinances  in  conference  with  the  ministers.^ 

On  Sept.  10,  Calvin  wrote  to  Farel:  "  Thy  wish  is  granted, 
I  am  held  fast  here.     May  God  give  his  blessing."  ^ 

He  desired  to  retain  Viret  and  to  secure  Farel  as  perma- 
nent co-laborers;  but  in  this  he  was  disappointed  —  Viret 
being  needed  at  Lausanne,  and  Farel  at  Neuchatel.  By  spe- 
cial permission  of  Bern,  however,  Viret  was  allowed  to  remain 
with  him  till  July  of  the  next  year.  His  other  colleagues 
were  rather  a  hindrance  than  a  help  to  him,  as  "  they  had  no 
zeal  and  very  little  learning,  and  could  not  be  trusted." 
Nearly  the  whole  burden  of  reconstructing  the  Church  of 
Geneva  rested  on  his  shoulders.     It  was  a  formidable  task. 

Never  was  a  man  more  loudly  called  by  government  and 
people,  never  did  a  man  more  reluctantly  accept  the  call, 
never  did  a  man  more  faithfully  and  effectively  fulfil  the 
duties  of  the  call  than  John  Calvin  when,  in  obedience  to 
the  voice  of  God,  he  settled  a  second  time  at  Geneva  to  live 
and  to  die  at  this  post  of  duty. 

"  Of  all  men  in  the  w^orld,"  says  one  of  his  best  biogra- 
phers and  greatest  admirers,^  "  Calvin  is  the  one  who  most 
worked,  wrote,  acted,  and  prayed  for  the  cause  which  he  had 
embraced.  The  coexistence  of  the  sovereignty  of  God  and 
the  freedom  of  man  is  assuredly  a  mystery  ;  but  Calvin  never 
supposed  that  because  God  did  all,  he  personally  had  nothing 
to  do.  He  points  out  clearly  the  twofold  action,  that  of  God 
and  that  of  man.     '  God,'  said  he,  '  after  freely  bestowing  his 

1  Beg.  du  Conseil,  vol.  XXXV.  324,  quoted  in  Annal.  282,  and  by  Hermin- 
jard;  Calvin's  letter  to  Farel,  Sept.  16,  1541,  in  Opera,  XI.  281,  and  Hermin- 
jard,  VII.  249-250. 

2  "  Quod  bene  vertat  Deus,  hie  retentus  sum,  ut  volebas.  Superest  ut  Viretxtm 
quoque  mecum  retineam,  quern  a  me  avelli  nidlo  modo  patiar.  Tuoe  quoque  omni- 
umque  fratrum  partes  me  hie  adjuvare,  nisi  vultis  me  frustra  excruciari,  ac  sine 
commodo  esse  miserrimiim."     Herminjard,  VII.  249. 

3  Merle  d'Aubigne,  VII.  70. 


438         THE   EEFOKMATION   IN   FEENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

grace  on  us,  forthwith  demands  of  us  a  reciprocal  acknowl- 
edgment. When  he  said  to  Abraham,  "  I  am  thy  God,"  it 
was  an  offer  of  his  free  goodness ;  but  he  adds  at  the  same 
time  what  he  required  of  him :  "  Walk  before  me,  and  be 
thou  perfect.''  This  condition  is  tacitly  annexed  to  all  the 
promises.  They  are  to  be  to  us  as  spurs,  inciting  us  to  pro- 
mote the  glory  of  God.'  And  elsewhere  he  says,  '  This 
doctrine  ought  to  create  new  vigor  in  all  your  members, 
so  that  you  may  be  fit  and  alert,  with  might  and  main,  to 
follow  the  call  of  God.'  "  i 

§  96.    The  First  Years  after  the  Return. 

Calvin  entered  at  once  upon  his  labors,  and  continued 
them  without  interruption  for  twenty-three  years  —  till  his 
death.  May  27,  1564. 

The  first  years  were  full  of  care  and  trial,  as  he  had  antici- 
pated. His  duties  were  more  numerous  and  responsible 
than  during  his  first  sojourn.  Then  he  was  supported  by 
the  older  Farel ;  now  he  stood  at  the  head  of  the  Church  at 
Geneva,  though  yet  a  young  man  of  thirty-two.  He  had 
to  reorganize  the  Church,  to  introduce  a  constitution  and 
order  of  worship,  to  preach,  to  teach,  to  settle  controversies, 
to  conciliate  contending  parties,  to  provide  for  the  instruc- 
tion of  youth,  to  give  advice  even  in  purely  secular  affairs. 
No  wonder  that  he  often  felt  discouraged  and  exhausted,  but 
trust  in  God,  and  a  sense  of  duty  kept  him  up. 

Viret  was  of  great  service  to  him,  but  he  was  called  back 
to  Lausanne  in  July,  1542.  His  other  colleagues  —  Jacques 
Bernard,  Henri  de  la  Mare,  and  Aim^  Champereau  —  were 
men  of  inferior  ability,  and  not  reliable.  In  1542  four 
new  pastors  were  appointed,  —  Pierre  Blanchet,  Matthias  de 
Geneston,  Louis  Trappereau,  and  Philippe  Ozias  (or  Ozeas). 
In  1544  Geneva  had  twelve  pastors,  six  of  them  for  the 
county  Churches.    Calvin  gradually  trained  a  corps  of  enthu- 

1  Comments  on  2  Cor.  7:1;  Gen.  17  :  1. 


§  96.     THE   FIRST   YEARS   AFTER   THE   RETURN.  439 

siastic  evangelists.  Farel  and  Viret  visited  Geneva  on  im- 
portant occasions.  For  his  last  years,  he  had  a  most  able  and 
learned  colleague  in  his  friend  Theodore  Beza. 

He  pursued  a  wise  and  conciliatory  course,  which  is  all 
the  more  creditable  to  him  when  we  consider  the  stern  sever- 
ity of  his  character  and  system.  He  showed  a  truly  Chris- 
tian forbearance  to  his  former  enemies,  and  patience  with 
the  weakness  of  his  colleagues.^ 

"I  will  endeavor,"  he  wrote  to  Bucer,  in  a  long  letter,  Oct.  15,  1541,  "to 
cultivate  a  good  understanding  and  harmony  with  my  neighbors,  and  also 
brotherly  kindness  (if  they  will  allow  me),  with  as  much  fidelity  and  diligence 
as  I  possibly  can.  So  far  as  it  depends  on  me,  I  shall  give  no  ground  of 
offence  to  any  one.  ...  If  in  any  way  I  do  not  answer  your  expectation, 
you  know  that  I  am  in  your  power,  and  subject  to  your  authority.  Admon- 
ish me,  chastise  me,  exercise  towards  me  all  the  authority  of  a  father  over 
his  son.  Pardon  my  haste.  ...  I  am  entangled  in  so  many  employments 
that  I  am  almost  beside  myself."  - 

To  Myconius  of  Basel  he  wrote,  March  14,  1542 :  — 

"  I  value  the  public  peace  and  concord  so  highly,  that  I  lay  restraint 
upon  myself ;  and  this  praise  even  the  adversaries  are  compelled  to  award 
to  me.3  This  feeling  prevails  to  such  an  extent,  that,  from  day  to  day,  those 
who  were  once  open  enemies  have  become  friends ;  others  I  conciliate  by 
courtesy,  and  I  feel  that  I  have  been  in  some  measure  successful,  although 
not  everywhere  and  on  all  occasions. 

"  On  my  arrival  it  was  in  my  power  to  have  disconcerted  our  enemies  most 
triumphantly,  entering  with  full  sail  among  the  whole  of  that  tribe  who  had 
done  the  mischief.  I  have  abstained;  if  I  had  liked,  I  could  daily,  not 
merely  with  impunity,  but  with  the  approval  of  very  many,  have  used  sharp 
reproof.  I  forbear ;  even  with  tlie  most  scrupulous  care  do  I  avoid  every- 
thing of  the  kind,  lest  even  by  some  slight  word  I  should  appear  to  persecute 
any  individual,  much  less  all  of  them  at  once.  May  the  Lord  confirm  me  in 
this  disposition  of  mind."* 

^  "  Diese  milde,  versohnliche  HaJtung  nacli  seiner  Riickkehr  hildet  eines  cler 
sclwmten  Blatter  in  der  Geschichte  Calvin's."  So  says  Kampschulte  (I.  390),  but 
he  unjustly  diminishes  the  praise  by  adding:  " Noch  hoher  wilrde  die  Nach- 
welt  sein  Verdienst  anschlaqen,  ivenn  er  sich  selbst  desselhen  iveniger  bewusst 
geicesen  ware."  How  could  he  be  unconscious  of  his  intention'?  And  he 
spoke  of  it  not  boastingly,  but  modestly,  like  Paul. 

'^  Herminjard,  VII,  293;  Opera,  XI.  299;  Bonnet-Constable,  I.  269. 

3  "  Tanti  enim  mihi  est  publica  pax  et  concordia,  ut  manum  mihi  injiciam  : 
atque  hanc  laitdem  mihi  adversarii  ipsi  tribuere  coguntur." 

*  Herminjard,  VII.  439 ;  Bonnet-Constable,  I.  291. 


440  THE    KEFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    S^Y1TZERLAND. 

He  met  at  first  with  no  opposition,  but  hearty  co-operation 
among  the  people.  About  a  fortnight  after  his  arrival  he 
presented  a  formula  of  the  ecclesiastical  order  to  the  Small 
Council.  Objection  was  made  to  the  monthly  celebration  of 
the  Lord's  Supper,  instead  of  the  custom  of  celebrating  it 
only  four  times  a  year.  Calvin,  who  strongly  favored  even 
a  more  frequent  celebration,  yielded  his  better  judgment  "in 
consideration  of  the  weakness  of  the  times,"  and  for  the  sake 
of  harmony.  With  this  modification,  the  Small  Council 
adopted  the  constitution  Oct.  27  ;  the  Large  Council  con- 
firmed it  Nov.  9 ;  and  the  general  assembly  of  the  citizens 
ratified  it,  by  a  very  large  majority,  in  St.  Peter's  Church, 
the  20th  of  November,  1541.  The  small  minority,  however, 
included  some  of  the  leading  citizens  who  were  opposed  to 
ecclesiastical  discipline.  The  Articles,  after  the  insertion  of 
some  trifling  amendments  and  additions,  were  definitely 
adopted  by  the  three  councils,  Jan.  2,  1542.^ 

This  was  a  great  victory  ;  for  the  ecclesiastical  ordinances, 
which  we  shall  consider  afterwards,  laid  a  solid  foundation 
for  a  strong  and  well-regulated  evangelical  church. 

Calvin  preached  at  St.  Peter's,  Viret  at  St.  Gervais.  The 
first  services  were  of  a  penitential  character,  and  their  solem- 
nity was  enhanced  by  the  fearful  ravages  of  the  pestilence 
in  the  neighboring  cities.  An  extraordinary  celebration  of 
the  holy  communion  on  the  first  Sunday  in  November,  and 
a  weekly  day  of  humiliation  and  prayer  were  appointed  to 
invoke  the  mercy  of  God  upon  Geneva  and  the  whole  Church. 

The  second  year  after  his  return  was  very  trying.  The 
pestilence,  which  in  1541  had  been  raging  in  Strassburg  and 

1  Rpgisters,  Oct.  25  and  27,  Nov.  9  and  20,  1541 ;  and  Jan.  2,  1542.  Opera, 
X.  15;  XI.  379;  XXI.  287,  289,  290.  The  Begisters  dii  Conseil  of  Jan.  2,  1542 
(vol.  XXXV.  f.  449),  record  as  follows:  "  Ordonnances  sus  le'glise  :  lesquelles 
hont  este  passe  par  petit  grand  et  ge'ne'ral  conseijl  touteffoys  hont  estes  corri'ge's,  et 
avant  quil  soyent  mys  a  limprymerie  Resoluz  que  en  ung  conseyl  exti'aordinaire 
lesdictes  ordonnances  soyent  vehues  \yues'\  affin  que  telle  quest  passe  par  le  ge'ne'ral 
ne  soyt  change'."     Annal.,  XXI.  289  sq. 


§   96.     THE    FIRST    YEARS    AFTER    THE    RETURN.  441 

all  along  the  Rhine,  crept  into  Switzerland,  diminishing  the 
population  of  Basel  and  Ziirich,  and  reached  Geneva  in  the 
autumn,  1542.  To  the  pestilence  was  added  the  scourge  of 
famine,  as  is  often  the  case.  The  evil  was  aggravated  by  the 
great  influx  of  strangers  who  were  attracted  by  Calvin's 
fame  and  sought  refuge  from  persecution  under  his  shelter. 
The  pest-house  outside  of  the  city  was  crowded.  Calvin 
and  Pierre  Blanchet  offered  their  services  to  the  sick,  while 
the  rest  of  the  ministers  shrank  back.^  The  Council  refused 
to  let  Calvin  go,  because  the  Church  could  not  spare  him.^ 
Blanchet  risked  his  life,  and  fell  a  victim  to  his  philanthrophy 
in  eight  or  nine  months.  Calvin,  in  a  letter  dated  October, 
1542,  gives  the  following  account  to  Viret,  who,  in  July,  had 
left  for  Lausanne  :  ^  — 

"  The  pestilence  also  begins  to  rage  here  with  greater  violence,  and  few 
who  are  at  all  affected  by  it  escape  its  ravages.  One  of  our  colleagues  was  to 
be  set  apart  for  attendance  upon  the  sick.  Because  Peter  [Blanchet]  offered 
himself  all  readily  acquiesced.  If  anything  happens  to  him,  I  fear  that  I 
must  take  the  risk  upon  myself,  for,  as  you  observe,  because  we  are  debtors 
to  one  another,  we  must  not  be  wanting  to  those  who,  more  than  any  others, 
stand  in  need  of  our  ministry.  And  yet  it  is  not  my  opinion,  that  while  we 
wish  to  provide  for  one  portion  we  are  at  liberty  to  neglect  the  body  of  the 
Church  itself.  But  so  long  as  we  are  in  this  ministry,  I  do  not  see  that  any 
pretext  will  avail  us,  if,  through  fear  of  infection,  we  are  found  wanting  in 
the  discharge  of  our  duty  when  there  is  most  need  of  our  assistance." 

Farel,  on  a  like  occasion,  visited  the  sick  daily,  rich  and 
poor,  friend  and  foe,  without  distinction.*  We  must  judge 
Calvin  by  his  spirit  and  motive.  He  had  undoubtedly 
the  spirit  of  a  martyr,  but  felt  it  his  duty  to  obey  the  magis- 
trates, and  to  spare  his  life  till  the  hour  of  necessity.  We 
may  refer  to  the  example  of  Cyprian,  who  fled  during  the 

^  They  said  that  they  would  rather  go  " au  diahle"  than  to  the  pest-house. 

2  That  Calvin  offered  himself  is  asserted  not  only  by  Beza  (XXXI.  134), 
but  also  by  Roset  and  Savion.  See  Bonnet,  I.  334,  note.  Castellio,  who  was 
not  a  minister,  though  he  wished  to  become  one,  also  offered  his  services,  but 
changed  his  mind  when  the  lot  fell  on  him. 

3  Bonnet-Constable,  I.  334. 

*  Kirchhofer,  Leben  Farels,  II.  33. 


442         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Decian  persecution,  but  died  heroically  as  a  martyr  in  the 
Valerian  persecution. 

In  1545  Geneva  was  again  visited  b}^  a  pestilence,  which 
some  Swiss  soldiers  brought  from  France.  The  horrors  were 
aggravated  b}'  a  diabolical  conspiracy  of  wicked  persons, 
including  some  women,  connected  with  the  pest-house,  for 
spreading  the  plague  by  artificial  means,  to  gain  spoils  from 
the  dead.  The  conspirators  used  the  infected  linen  of  those 
who  had  died  of  the  disease,  and  smeared  the  locks  of  the 
houses  with  poison.  A  woman  confessed,  under  torture,  that 
she  had  killed  eighteen  men  by  her  infernal  arts.  The  rav- 
ages were  fearful ;  Geneva  was  decimated ;  two  thousand 
died  out  of  a  population  of  less  than  twenty  thousand.  Seven 
men  and  twenty-one  women  were  burned  alive  for  this  offence. 
The  physician  of  the  lazaretto  and  two  assistants  were  quar- 
tered. 

Calvin  formed  a  modest  estimate  of  his  labors  during  the 

first  years,  as  may  be  seen  from  his  letters.     He  wrote  to 

Myconius,  the  first  minister  of  Basel,  March  14,  1542 :  ^  — 

"  The  present  state  of  our  affairs  I  can  give  you  in  a  few  words.  For  the 
first  month  after  resuming  the  ministry,  I  had  so  much  to  attend  to,  and  so 
many  annoyances,  that  I  was  almost  worn  out ;  such  a  work  of  labor  and  diffi- 
culty has  it  been  to  upbuild  once  more  a  fallen  edifice  {collapsum  edificium 
instaurare).  Although  certainly  Viret  had  already  begun  successfully'  to 
restore,  yet,  nevertheless,  because  he  had  deferred  the  complete  form  of  order 
and  discipline  until  my  arrival,  it  had,  as  it  were,  to  be  commenced  anew. 
"When,  having  overcome  tliis  labor,  I  believed  that  there  would  be  breiitiiing- 
time  allowed  me,  lo !  new  cares  presented  themselves,  and  those  of  a  kind 
not  much  lighter  than  the  former.  This,  however,  somewliat  consoles  and 
refreshes  me,  that  we  do  not  labor  altogether  in  vain,  without  some  fruit 
appearing ;  which,  altliough  it  is  not  so  plentiful  as  we  could  wish,  yet  neither 
is  it  so  scanty  but  that  there  does  appear  some  change  for  the  better.  There 
is  a  brighter  prospect  for  the  future  if  Viret  can  be  left  here  with  me;  on 
which  account  I  am  all  the  more  desirous  to  express  to  you  my  most  thank- 
ful acknowledgment,  because  you  share  with  me  in  my  an.xiety  that  the  Ber- 
nese may  not  call  him  away ;  and  I  earnestly  pray,  for  the  sake  of  Christ, 
that  you  would  do  your  utmost  to  bring  that  about;  for  whenever  the  thought 
of  his  going  away  presents  itself,  I  faint  and  lose  courage  entirely.  .  .  .     Our 

1  Herminjard,   VII.   437    sq.  ;    Opera,  XI.  376   sq. ;    Bonnet-Constable,  I. 

289  sq. 


§  97.    SURVEY    OF   CALVIN'S    ACTIVITY.  443 

other  colleagues  are  rather  a  hindrance  than  a  help  to  us ;  they  are  rude  and 
self-conceited,  have  no  zeal  and  less  learning.  But  what  is  worst  of  all, 
I  cannot  trust  them,  even  although  I  very  much  wish  that  I  could  ;  for  by 
many  evidences  they  show  their  estrangement  from  us,  and  give  scarcely  any 
indication  of  a  sincere  and  trustworthy  disposition.  1  bear  with  them,  how- 
ever, or  rather  I  humor  them,  with  the  utmost  lenity ;  a  course  from  which 
I  shall  not  be  induced  to  depart,  even  by  their  bad  conduct.  But  if,  in  the 
long  run,  the  sore  need  a  severer  remedy,  I  shall  do  my  utmost,  and  sliall  see 
to  it  by  every  method  I  can  think  of,  to  avoid  disturbing  the  peace  of  the 
Church  with  our  quarrels;  for  I  dread  the  factions  which  must  always  neces- 
sarily arise  from  the  dissensions  of  ministers.  On  my  first  arrival  I  might 
have  driven  them  away  had  I  wished  to  do  so,  and  that  is  also  even  now  in 
my  power.  I  shall  never,  however,  repent  the  degree  of  moderation  which 
I  have  observed,  since  no  one  can  justly  complain  that  I  have  been  too 
severe.  These  things  I  mention  to  you  in  a  cursory  way,  that  you  may  the 
more  clearly  perceive  how  wretched  I  shall  be  if  Viret  is  taken  away  from  me." 

A  month  later  (April  17, 1542),  he  wrote  to  Myconius:^  — 

"In  what  concerns  the  private  condition  of  this  Church,  I  somehow,  along 
with  Viret,  sustain  the  burden  of  it.  If  he  is  taken  away  from  me,  my  situa- 
tion will  be  more  deplorable  than  I  can  describe  to  you,  and  even  should  he 
remain,  there  is  some  hazard  that  very  much  may  not  be  obtained  in  the 
midst  of  so  much  secret  animosity  [between  Geneva  and  Bern].  But  that 
I  may  not  torment  myself  beforehand,  the  Lord  will  see  to  it,  and  provide 
some  one  on  whom  I  am  compelled  to  cast  this  care." 

In  February,  1543,  he  wrote  to  Melanchthon :  — 

"  As  to  our  own  affairs,  there  is  much  that  I  might  write,  but  the  sole 
cause  which  imposes  silence  upon  me  is,  that  I  could  find  no  end.  I  labor 
here  and  do  my  utmost,  but  succeed  indifferently.  Nevertheless,  all  are 
astonished  that  my  progress  is  so  great  in  the  midst  of  so  many  impediments, 
the  greater  part  of  which  arise  from  the  ministers  themselves.  This,  how- 
ever, is  a  great  alleviation  of  my  troubles,  that  not  only  this  Church,  but  also 
the  whole  neighborhood,  derive  some  benefit  from  my  presence.  Besides  that, 
somewhat  overflows  from  hence  upon  France,  and  even  spreads  as  far  as  Italy. "  ^ 

§  97.    Survey  of  Calvin  s  Activity. 
Calvin    combined    the    offices    of    theological    professor, 
preacher,    pastor,    church-ruler,    superintendent   of    schools, 
with  the  extra  labors  of  equal,  yea,  greater,  importance,  as 

1  Herminjard,  VII.  453;   Ojoera,  XI.  384  ;  Bonnet-Constable,  I.  297. 

2  Bonnet-Constable,  I.  351 ;  Opera,  XI.  516.  The  last  sentence,  "as  far  as 
Italy,"  is  confirmed  by  a  most  grateful  letter  of  evangelical  believers  in 
Venice,  Vicenza,  and  Treviso,  "  to  the  saints  of  tlie  Church  of  God  in  Ge- 
neva," dated  Venice,  8  Id.  December,  1542.     See  Opera,  XI.  472-474. 


444  THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

author,  correspondent,  and  leader  of  the  expanding  move- 
ment of  the  Reformation  in  Western  Europe.  He  was  in- 
volved in  serious  disciplinary  and  theological  controversies 
with  the  Libertines,  Romanists,  Pelagians,  Antitrinitarians, 
and  Lutherans.  He  had  no  help  except  from  one  or  more 
young  men,  whom  he  kept  in  his  house  and  employed  as 
clerks.  When  unwell  he  dictated  from  his  bed.  He  had 
an  amazing  power  for  work  notwithstanding  his  feeble 
health.  When  interrupted  in  dictation,  he  could  at  once 
resume  work  at  the  point  where  he  left  off.^  He  indulged 
in  no  recreation  except  a  quarter  or  half  an  hour's  walk  in 
his  room  or  garden  after  meals,  and  an  occasional  game  of 
quoits  or  la  clef  with  intimate  friends.  He  allowed  himself 
very  little  sleep,  and  for  at  least  ten  years  he  took  but  one 
meal  a  day,  alleging  his  bad  digestion.^  No  wonder  that  he 
undermined  his  health,  and  suffered  of  headache,  ague,  dys- 
pepsia, and  other  bodily  infirmities  which  terminated  in  a 
premature  death. 

Luther  and  Zwingii  were  as  indefatigable  workers  as 
Calvin,  but  they  had  an  abundance  of  flesh  and  blood,  and 
enjoyed  better  health.  Luther  liked  to  play  with  his 
children,  and  to  entertain  his  friends  with  his  humorous 
table-talk.  Zwingii  also  found  recreation  in  poetry  and 
music,  and  played  on  several  instruments. 

A  few  years  before  his  death,  Calvin  was  compelled  to  speak 
of  his  work  in  self-defence  against  the  calumnies  of  an  un- 
grateful student  and  amanuensis,  Francois  Baudouin,  a 
native  of  Arras,  who  ran  away  with  some  of  Calvin's  papers, 

^  Beza  (XXI.  169)  :  "  Ut  .  .  .  inter  dictandum  scepe  aliquot  horas  interturba- 
tus  statim  ad  dictata  nulla  commonefaciente  rediret." 

2  Beza  (XXI.  160)  :  "Per  decern  minimum  annos  prandio  ahstinuit,  ut  nullum 
omnino  cibum  extra  statam  ccence  horam  sumeret,  ut  eum  mirum  sit  phthisim  effugere 
tam  din  potnisse."  Farther  on  (fol.  169)  Beza  says  of  Calvin  :  "  Victu  sic 
temperato,  lit  a  sordibus  et  ab  omni  luxu  longissime  abesset  :  cibi  parcissimi,  ut  per 
multos  annos  semel  qnotidie  cibum  snmpserit,  ventriculi  imbecilliiatem  caitsatus." 
Sometimes  he  abstained  for  thirty-six  hours  from  all  food.  At  the  advice  of 
his  physician,  he  ate  an  egg  and  drank  a  glass  of  wine  at  noon. 


§  97.   SURVEY  OF  Calvin's  activity.  445 

turned  a  Romanist,  and  publicly  abused  his  benefactor.  "  I 
will  not,"  he  saj^s,  "enumerate  the  pleasures,  conveniences, 
and  riches  I  have  renounced  for  Christ.  I  will  only  say  that, 
had  I  the  disposition  of  Baudouin,  it  would  not  have  been 
very  difficult  for  me  to  procure  those  things  which  he  has 
always  sought  in  vain,  and  which  he  now  but  too  greedily 
gloats  upon.  But  let  that  pass.  Content  with  my  humble 
fortune,  my  attention  to  frugality  has  prevented  me  from 
being  a  burden  to  anybod}^  I  remain  tranquil  in  my  station, 
and  have  even  given  up  a  part  of  the  moderate  salary  assigned 
to  me,  instead  of  asking  for  any  increase.  I  devote  all  my 
care,  labor,  and  study  not  only  to  the  service  of  this  Church, 
to  which  I  am  peculiarly  bound,  but  to  the  assistance  of  all 
the  Churches  by  every  means  in  my  power.  I  so  discharge 
my  office  of  a  teacher,  that  no  ambition  may  ajipear  in  my 
extreme  faithfulness  and  diligence.  I  devour  numerous 
griefs,  and  endure  the  rudeness  of  many ;  but  my  liberty  is 
uncontrolled  by  the  power  of  any  man.  I  do  not  indulge 
the  great  by  flattery ;  I  fear  not  to  give  offence.  No  pros- 
13erity  has  hitherto  inflated  me ;  whilst  I  liave  intrepidly 
borne  the  many  severe  storms  by  Avhich  I  have  been  tossed, 
till  by  the  singular  mercy  of  God  I  emerged  from  them. 
I  live  affably  with  my  equals,  and  endeavor  faithfully  to 
preserve  my  friendships."  ^ 

Beza,  his  daily  companion,  thus  describes  "  the  ordinary 
labors  "  of  Calvin,  as  he  calls  them :  "  During  the  week  he 
preached  every  alternate,  and  lectured  every  third  day ;  on 
Thursday  he  presided  in  the  meetings  of  Presbytery  (Con- 
sistory) ;  and  on  Friday  he  expounded  the  Scripture  in  the 
assembly  which  we  call  '  the  Congregation.'     He  illustrated 

1  Responsio  ad  Balduini  Convicia  (Geneva,  1562),  in  Opera,  vol.  IX.  561- 
580.  Baudouin  was  an  able  lawyer,  but  a  turncoat  in  religion.  He  died  in 
1573.  On  this  personal  controversy  see  Responsio,  etc.,  Opera,  VIII.  321  A, 
and  Henry,  vol.  III.  549  sqq.  Luther  had  a  similar  experience  with  John 
Agricola  (Eisleben),  his  pupil  and  trusted  friend,  who  publicly  attacked  him, 
and  stirred  up  the  Antinomian  controversy. 


4A*}         THE   P.EFOK\LATIO:S^   ZS    FRENCH    SWITZF.KT.  AXD. 

^cvc-ixil   sa-ered  Kx>ks  with  most  learned  eommeniaries.  be- 
sides answering  The  enemies  of  religion,  and  mainTaining  an 
extensive  correspondence  on  matters   of   great   importance. 
Anv  one  who  reads  these  auentively,  will  be  astonished  how- 
one  little  man  (^m*uVm*  hontHH^uln^^  could  be  nt  for  labors 
so  numerous  and  great-     He  availed  himself  much  of  the 
aid  of  Farel  and  Viret,^  while,  at  the  same  time,  he  confeired 
crreater  benefits  on  them.     Their  friendship   and  intimaej 
was  not  less  hateful  to  the  wicked  than  delightful  to  all  the 
pious ;  and.  in  truth,  it  was  a  most  pleasing  spectacle  to  see 
and  hear  those  three  distinguished  men  cariying  on  the  work 
of  Grod  in  the  Church  so  harmoniously,  with  such  a  varietv 
of  orifts.     Farel  excelled  in  a  certain  sublimity  of  mind,  so 
that  nobody  could  either  hear  his   thunders  without  tienft- 
bHnij,  or  listen  to  his  most  fervent  prayers  without  being 
almost  carried  up  to  heaven.     Viret  possessed  such  suavity 
of  eloquence,  that  his  hearers  were  compelled  to  hang  upon 
his  lips.     Calvin  filled  the  mind  of  the  hearers  with  as  many 
weighiy  sentiments  as    he   uttered  words.      I    have    often 
thought  that  a  j»reacher  compounded  of  the  three  would  be 
absolutely  perfect.     In  addition  to  these  emplovments,  Cal- 
vin had  manv  others,  arising  out  of  circumstances  domestic 
and  foreign.     The  Lord  so  Uessed  his  ministry  that  persons 
flocked  to  him  fn:>m  all  parts  of  the  Christian  world;  some 
to  take  his  advice  in  matters  of  religion,  and  others  to  heai 
him.     Hence,   we   have   seen   an   Italian,  an   English,  and, 
finally,   a    Spanish    Church   at    Geneva,   one   city  seeming 
searcelv  sufficient  to  entertain  so  many  guests.     But  though 
at  home  he  was  courted  by  the  good  and  feared  by  the  bad. 
and  matters  had  been  admirably  arranged,  yet  there  were 
not  wantinsT  individuals   who   gave   him   great   annoyance. 
We  will  unfold  these  contests  separately,  that  posterity  may 

1  WIm  came  to  GeneTa  occasKwllT,  tbe  faswmet  from  Xmrhitf;!,  tbe  laoer 
from  Laasune. 


$  97.  siKVEY  OF  Calvin's  Acnvirv.  447 

be  pi^^ienied  with  a  siugular  extuuple  of  fortitude,  Nvhich 
each  may  imitate  aooonliug  to  his  ability."  * 

We  shall  now  consider  this  astounding  activity  of  the 
Reformer  in  detail :  his  Church  polity,  his  theological  system. 
his  controversies,  and  his  relation  to,  and  influence  on, 
foreign  churches. 

1  TTJti  GWr-  in  (>fvnj.  XXI.  1S2. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

CONSTITUTION   AND   DISCIPLINE   OF   THE   CHURCH   OF 

GENEVA. 

§  98.    Literature. 

I.  Calvin's  Institutio  Christ.  Relir/ionis,  the  fourth  book,  which  treats  of  the 

Church  and  the  Sacraments.  —  Les  \  ordinances  |  ecclesiastiques  de  \  I'^glise 
de  Geneve.  (  Item  |  I'ordre  des  escoles  |  de  la  dite  cite'.  \  Gen.,  1541.  92  pp. 
4°;  another  ed.,  1562, 110  pp.  Reprinted  in  Opera,  X.  fol.  15-30.  (Pr-jet 
d'ordinances  ecclesiastiques,  1541).  The  same  vol.  contains  also  Uordre 
du  College  de  Geneve;  Leges  academicce  (1559),  fol.  65-90;  and  Les 
ordinances  eccle'siastiques  de  15G1,  fol.  91-124.  Comp.  the  Prolegomena, 
IX.  sq.,  and  also  the  earliest  document  on  the  organization  and  worship 
of  the  Church  of  Geneva,  1537,  fol.  5-14. 

II.  Dr.  Georg  Weber  :  Geschichtliche  Darstellung  des  Calvinismus  im  Verhdlt- 
niss  zum  Staat  in  Genf  ttnd  Frankreich  bis  zur  Anfhehung  des  Edikts  von 
Nantes,  Heidelberg,  1836  (pp.  372).  The  first  two  chapters  only  (pp. 
1-32)  treat  of  Calvin  and  Geneva;  the  greater  part  of  the  book  is  a  liis- 
tory  of  the  French  Reformation  till  1685. — C.  B.  Hundeshagen:  Ueher 
den  Einjiuss  des  Calvinismus  aiif  die  Ideen  von  Staat,  und  staats-bilrgerlicher 
Freiheit,  Hern,  1842. — *Amedee  Roget  :  LVglise  et  I'e'tat  a  Geneve  du 
vivant  de  Calvin.  Etude  d'histoire  politico-eccle'siastique,  Geneve,  1867  (pp. 
92).  Comp.  also  his  Histoire  du  peuple  de  Geneve  depuis  la  reforme 
jusqu'a  I'escalade  (1536-1602),  1870-1883,  7  vols. 

ni.  Henry,  Part  II.  chs.  III.-VI.  Comp.  his  small  biography,  pp.  165-196. 
—  Dyer,  ch.  III.  — Stahelin,  bk.  IV.  (vol.  I.  319  sqq.).  — Kamp- 
SCHULTE,  I.  385-480.  This  is  the  end  of  his  work ;  vols.  II.  and  III. 
were  prevented  by  his  premature  death  (Dec.  3,  1872),  and  intrusted  to 
Professor  Cornelius  of  Munich  (a  friend  and  colleague  of  the  late  Dr. 
Dollinger),  but  he  has  so  far  only  published  a  few  papers  on  special 
points,  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Munich  Academy.  See  p.  230.  — 
Merle  d'Aubigne,  bk.  XI.  chs.  XXII.-XXIV.  (vol.  VII.  73  sqq.). 
These  are  his  last  chapters  on  Calvin,  coming  down  to  February,  1542; 
the  continuation  was  prevented  by  his  death  in  1872. 

§  99.    Calvin'' s  Idea  of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church. 

During   his   sojourn  at   Strassburg,  Calvin    matured   his 
views  on  the  Church  and  the  Sacraments,  and  embodied  them 
448 


§  09.  Calvin's  idea  ov  the  holy  catholic  church.  449 

in  the  fourth  book  of  the  .second  edition  of  his  Iiisliiulcs, 
whieh  appeared  in  the  same  year  as  his  Coninientaiy  on  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans  (15-J9).  His  ideal  was  high  and  com- 
prehensive, far  beyond  what  he  was  able  to  realize  in  the 
little  district  of  (xeneva.  *'  In  no  respect,  perhaps,"  says  a 
distinguished  Scotch  Presl)yterian  scholar,^  "are  the  In.sti- 
tutett  more  remarkable  than  in  a  certain  comprehensiveness 
and  cathoUclty  of  tone,  which  to  many  will  appear  strangely 
associated  with  his  name.  But  Calvin  was  far  too  enlight- 
ened not  to  recognize  the  grandeur  of  the  (Catholic  idea 
which  had  descended  through  so  many  ages ;  this  idea  had, 
in  truth,  for  such  a  mind  as  his,  special  attractions,  and  his 
own  system  mainly  sought  to  give  to  the  same  idea  a  new 
and  higlier  form.  The  narrowness  and  intolerance  of  his 
ecclesiastical  rule  did  not  so  much  spring  out  of  tlie  general 
principles  laid  down  in  the  Institutes,  as  from  his  special 
interpretation  and  application  of  these  principles.'" 

AN'hen  Paul  was  a  prisoner  in  Rome,  chained  to  a  heathen 
soldier,  and  when  Christianity  was  confined  to  a  small  band 
of  humble  believers  scattered  through  a  hostile  world,  he 
described  to  tlie  Ephesians  his  sublime  conception  of  the 
Church  as  the  mystical  "  body  of  Christ,  the  fulness  of  Him 
who  filleth  all  in  all."  Yet  in  the  same  and  other  epistles 
he  finds  it  necessary  to  warn  the  members  of  this  lioly  l)rotli- 
erhood  even  against  such  vulgar  vices  as  theft,  inteni[)er- 
ance,  and  fornication.  The  contradiction  is  only  appai'ent, 
and  disappears  in  the  distinction  between  the  ideal  and  the 
real,  the  essential  and  the  phenomenal,  the  Churcli  as  it  is 
in  the  mind  of  ( 'lirist  and  the  Church  as  it  is  in  the  masses 
of  nominal  Christians. 

The  same  apparent  contradiction  we  find  in  Calvin,  in 
Luther,  and  other  Reformers.  They  cherished  the  deepest 
respect  for  the  holy  Catholic  Church  of  Christ,  and  yet  felt 

1  Principal  Tuiloch  of  tlu«  University  of  St.  Andrews,  in  Luther  and  other 
Leaders  of  the  Jteformatiou,  p.  203  (3(1  ed.  188.'}). 


450         THE   KEFORJMATION   IX   FKENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

it  their  duty  to  protest  with  all  their  might  against  the 
abuses  and  corruptions  of  the  actual  Church  of  their  age, 
and  especially  against  the  papal  hierarchy  which  ruled  it 
with  despotic  power.  We  may  go  further  back  to  the  pro- 
test of  the  Hebrew  Prophets  against  the  corrupt  priesthood. 
Christ  himself,  who  recognized  the  divine  economy  of  the 
history  of  Israel,  and  came  to  fulfil  the  Law  and  the  Prophets, 
attacked  with  withering  severity  the  self-righteousness  and 
hypocrisy  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  who  sat  in  Moses' 
seat,  and  was  condemned  by  the  high  priest  and  the  Jewish 
hierarchy  to  the  death  of  the  cross.  These  scriptural  ante- 
cedents help  very  much  to  understand  and  to  justify  the 
course  of  the  Reformers. 

Nothing  can  be  more  truly  Catholic  than  Calvin's  descrip- 
tion of  the  historic  Church.  It  reminds  one  of  the  finest 
passages  in  St.  Cyprian  and  St.  Augustin.  After  explaining 
the  meaning  of  the  article  of  the  Apostles'  Creed  on  the  holy 
Catholic  Church,  as  embracing  not  only  the  visible  Church, 
but  all  God's  elect,  living  and  departed,  he  thus  speaks  of 
the  visible  or  historic  Catholic  Church  c^  — 

"  As  our  present  design  is  to  treat  of  the  risible  Church,  we  may  learn 
even  from  the  title  of  mother,  how  useful  and  even  necessary  it  is  for  us  to 
know  her;  since  there  is  no  other  way  of  entrance  into  life,  unless  we  are 
conceived  by  her,  born  of  her,  nourished  at  her  breast,  and  continually  pre- 
served under  her  care  and  government  till  we  are  divested  of  this  mortal 
flesh  and  become  'like  the  angels  '  (Matt.  22  :  30).  For  our  infirmity  will  not 
admit  of  our  dismission  from  her  school ;  we  must  continue  under  her  instruc- 
tion and  discipline  to  the  end  of  our  lives.  It  is  also  to  be  remarked  that 
out  of  her  bosom  there  can  be  no  hope  of  remission  of  sins,  or  any  salvation, 
according  to  the  testimony  of  Isaiah  (37  :  32)  and  Joel  (2  :  32)  ;  which  is  con- 
firmed by  Ezekiel  (13:  9),  when  he  denounces  that  those  whom  God  excludes 
from  the  heavenly  life  shall  not  be  enrolled  among  his  people.  So,  on  the 
contrary,  those  who  devote  themselves  to  the  service  of  God  are  said  to  in- 
scribe their  names  among  the  citizens  of  Jerusalem.  For  which  reason  the 
Psalmist  says,  '  Remember  me,  O  Lord,  with  the  favor  that  thou  bearest  unto 
thy  people:  O  visit  me  with  thy  salvation,  that  I  may  see  the  prosperity  of 
thy  chosen,  that  I  may  rejoice  in  the  gladness  of  thy  nation,  that  I  may 
glory  with  thine  inheritance'  (Ps.  106:4,  5).     In  these  words  the  paternal 

"  1  Inst.  IV.  ch.  I.  §  4;  comp.  §§  2  and  3. 


§  99.  Calvin's  idea  of  the  holy  catholic  church.  451 

favor  of  God,  and  the  peculiar  testimony  of  the  spiritual  life,  are  restricted 
to  his  flock,  to  teach  us  that  it  is  always  fatally  dangerous  to  be  separated 
from  the  Church. "  i 

So  strong  are  the  claims  of  the  visible  Church  upon  us 
that  even  abounding  corruptions  cannot  justify  a  secession. 
Reasoning  against  the  Anabaptists  and  other  radicals  who 
endeavored  to  build  up  a  new  Church  of  converts  directly 
from  the  Bible,  without  any  regard  to  the  intervening  histor- 
ical Church,  he  says  :  ^  — 

"  Dreadful  are  those  descriptions  in  which  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Joel,  Habak- 
kuk,  and  others,  deplore  the  disorders  of  the  Church  at  Jerusalem.  There 
was  such  general  and  extreme  corruption  in  the  people,  in  the  magistrates, 
and  in  the  priests  that  Isaiah  does  not  hesitate  to  compare  Jerusalem  to 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah.  Religion  was  partly  despised,  partly  corrupted. 
Their  manners  were  generally  disgraced  by  thefts,  robberies,  treacheries, 
murders,  and  similar  crimes. 

"Nevertheless,  the  Prophets  on  this  account  neither  raised  themselves 
new  churches,  nor  built  new  altars  for  the  oblation  of  separate  sacrifices  ;  but 
whatever  were  the  characters  of  the  people,  yet  because  they  considered  that 
God  had  deposited  his  word  among  that  nation,  and  instituted  the  ceremonies 
in  which  he  was  there  worshipped,  they  lifted  up  pure  hands  to  him  even  in 
the  congregation  of  the  impious.  If  they  had  thought  that  they  contracted 
any  contagion  from  these  services,  surely  they  would  have  suffered  a  hundred 
deaths  rather  than  have  permitted  themselves  to  be  dragged  to  them. 
There  was  nothing,  therefore,  to  prevent  their  departure  from  them,  but  the 
desire  of  preserving  the  unity  of  the  Church. 

"  But  if  the  holy  Prophets  were  restrained  by  a  sense  of  duty  from  forsak- 
ing the  Church  on  account  of  the  numerous  and  enormous  crimes  which  were 
practiced,  not  by  a  few  individuals,  but  almost  by  the  whole  nation,  it  is 
extreme  arrogance  in  us,  if  we  presume  immediately  to  withdraw  from  the 
communion  of  a  Church,  where  the  conduct  of  all  the  members  is  not  compat- 
ible either  with  our  judgment  or  even  with  the  Christian  profession. 

"  Now  what  kind  of  an  age  was  that  of  Christ  and  his  Apostles  ?  Yet  the 
desperate  impiety  of  the  Pharisees,  and  tlie  dissolute  lives  everywhere  led  by 
the  people,  could  not  prevent  them  from  using  the  same  sacrifices,  and 
assembling  in  the  same  temple  with  others,  for  the  public  exercises  of  religion. 
How  did  this  happen,  but  from  a  knowledge  that  the  society  of  the  wicked 
could  not  contaminate  those  who,  with  pure  consciences,  united  with  them  in 
the  same  solemnities. 

"  If  any  one  pay  no  deference  to  the  Prophets  and  the  Apostles,  let  him  at 
least  acquiesce  in  the  authority  of  Christ.    Cyprian  has  excellently  remarked : 

1  "  Ut  semper  exkialis  sit  ab  ecclesia  discessio." 

2  Ibid.  IV.  ch.  1,  §§  18,  19. 


452         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

'Altliough  tares,  or  impure  vessels,  are  found  in  the  Church,  yet  this  is  not 
a  reason  why  we  should  withdraw  from  it.  It  only  behooves  us  to  labor  that 
we  may  be  the  wheat,  and  to  use  our  utmost  endeavors  and  exertions  that 
we  may  be  vessels  of  gold  or  of  silver.  But  to  break  in  pieces  the  vessels  of 
earth  belongs  to  the  Lord  alone,  to  whom  a  rod  of  iron  is  also  given.  Nor 
let  any  one  arrogate  to  himself  what  is  the  exclusive  province  of  the  Son  of 
God,  by  pretending  to  fan  the  floor,  clear  away  the  chaff,  and  separate  all  the 
tares  by  the  judgment  of  man.  This  is  proud  obstinac}',  and  sacrilegious 
presumption,  originating  in  a  corrupt  frenzy.' 

"  Let  these  two  points,  then,  be  considered  as  decided :  first,  that  he  who 
voluntarily  deserts  the  external  communion  of  the  Church  where  the  Word 
of  God  is  preached,  and  the  sacraments  are  administered,  is  without  any 
excuse ;  secondly,  that  the  faults  either  of  few  persons  or  of  many  form  no 
obstacles  to  a  due  profession  of  our  faith  in  the  use  of  the  ceremonies  insti- 
tuted by  God ;  because  the  pious  conscience  is  not  wounded  by  the  unworthi- 
ness  of  any  other  individual,  whether  he  be  a  pastor  or  a  private  person ;  nor 
are  the  mysteries  less  pure  and  salutary  to  a  holy  and  upright  man,  because 
they  are  received  at  the  same  time  by  the  impure." 


How,  then,  with  such  high  churchly  views,  could  Calvin 
justify  his  separation  from  the  Roman  Church  in  which  he 
was  born  and  trained?  He  vindicated  his  position  in  the 
Answer  to  Sadolet,  from  which  we  have  given  large  extracts.^ 
He  did  it  more  fully  in  his  masterly  work,  "  On  the  Neces- 
sity of  Reforming  the  Church,"  which,  "  in  the  name  of  all 
who  wish  Christ  to  reign,"  he  addressed  to  the  Emperor 
Charles  V.  and  the  Diet  to  be  assembled  at  Speier  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1544.  It  is  replete  with  weighty  arguments  and  accu- 
rate learning,  and  by  far  one  of  the  ablest  controversial 
books  of  that  age.'^  The  following  is  a  passage  bearing  upon 
this  point :  ^  — 


1  See  §  91,  pp.  404  sqq. 

^  Supple.r  exhortatio  ad  Ccesarem  Carolum  V.  de  necessitate  reformandce 
Ecclesiai,  1543,  in  Opera,  VI.  453—534.  English  Version  by  Henry  Beveridge, 
Calvin's  Tracts,  I.  123-237.  The  Strassburg  editors  call  it  a  "  libellus  et  ab 
argumenti  gravitate  et  a  stili  elegantia  prce  cceteris  commendandus,  hodieque  lectu 
dignissimus."  Proleg.,  p.  xxviii.  Calvin  wrote  this  book  at  the  request  of 
Bucer,  who  urged  him  to  do  so  in  a  letter  of  Oct.  25,  1543.  It  appeared  also 
in  French. 

3  Opera,  VI.  518  sqq. ;  Beveridge,  I.e.,  211  sqq.  Compare  the  Institutes,  IV. 
oh.  II.  §§  6-12. 


§  99.  Calvin's  idea  of  the  holy  catholic  church.  453 

"  The  last  and  principal  charge  which  they  bring  against  us  is,  that  we 
have  made  a  schism  in  the  Churcli.  And  here  they  fiercely  maintain  against 
us,  that  for  no  reason  is  it  lawful  to  break  the  unity  of  the  Church.  How  far 
they  do  us  injustice  the  books  of  our  authors  bear  witness.  Now,  however, 
let  them  take  this  brief  reply  —  that  we  neither  dissent  from  tiie  Church,  nor 
are  aliens  from  her  communion.  But,  as  by  this  specious  name  of  Church, 
they  are  wont  to  cast  dust  in  the  eyes  even  of  persons  otherwise  pious  and 
right-hearted,  I  beseech  your  Imperial  Majesty,  and  you.  Most  Illustrious 
Princes,  first,  to  divest  yourselves  of  all  prejudice,  that  you  may  give  an  im- 
partial ear  to  our  defence ;  secondlj^  not  to  be  instantly  terrified  on  hearing 
the  name  of  Church,  but  to  remember  that  the  Prophets  and  Apostles  had, 
with  the  pretended  Church  of  their  days,  a  contest  similar  to  that  which  you 
see  us  have  in  the  present  day  with  the  Roman  pontiff  and  liis  whole  train. 
When  they,  by  the  command  of  God,  inveighed  freely  against  idolatry,  super- 
stition, and  the  profanation  of  the  temple,  and  its  sacred  rites,  against  the 
carelessness  and  lethargy  of  priests,  and  against  the  general  avarice,  cruelty, 
and  licentiousness,  they  were  constantly  met  with  the  objection  which  our 
opponents  have  ever  in  their  mouths — that  by  dissenting  from  the  common 
opinion,  they  violated  the  unity  of  the  Church.  The  ordinary  government 
of  the  Church  was  then  vested  in  the  priests.  They  had  not  presumptuously 
arrogated  it  to  themselves,  but  God  had  conferred  it  upon  them  by  his  law. 
It  would  occupy  too  much  time  to  point  out  all  the  instances.  Let  us,  there- 
fore, be  contented  with  a  single  instance,  in  the  case  of  Jeremiah. 

"  He  had  to  do  with  the  whole  college  of  priests,  and  the  arms  with  which 
they  attacked  him  were  these  :  '  Come,  and  let  us  devise  devices  against 
Jeremiah ;  for  the  law  shall  not  perish  from  the  priest,  nor  counsel  from  the 
wise,  nor  the  word  from  the  prophet'  (Jer.  18 :  18).  They  had  among  them 
a  high  priest,  to  reject  whose  judgment  was  a  capital  crime,  and  they  had 
the  whole  order  to  which  God  himself  had  committed  the  government  of  the 
Jewish  Church  concurring  with  them.  If  the  unity  of  the  Church  is  violated 
by  him,  who,  instructed  solely  by  Divine  truth,  opposes  himself  to  ordinary 
authority,  the  Prophet  must  be  a  schismatic ;  because,  not  at  all  deterred  by 
such  menaces  from  warring  with  the  impiety  of  the  priests,  he  steadily 
persevered. 

"That  the  eternal  truth  of  God  preached  by  the  Prophets  and  Apostles, 
is  on  our  side,  we  are  prepared  to  show,  and  it  is  indeed  easy  for  any  man  to 
perceive.  But  all  that  is  done  is  to  assail  us  with  this  battering-ram, 
'  Nothing  can  excuse  withdrawal  from  the  Church.'  We  deny  out  and  out 
that  we  do  so.  With  what,  then,  do  they  urge  us  ?  With  nothing  more  than 
this,  that  to  them  belongs  the  ordinary  government  of  the  Church.  But  how 
much  better  right  had  the  enemies  of  Jeremiah  to  use  this  argument  ?  To 
them,  at  all  events,  there  still  remained  a  legal  priesthood,  instituted  by  God ; 
so  that  their  vocation  was  unquestionable.  Those  who  in  the  present  day 
have  the  name  of  prelates,  cannot  prove  their  vocation  by  any  laws,  human 
or  divine.  Be  it,  however,  that  in  this  respect  both  are  on  a  footing,  still, 
unless  they  previously  convict  the  holy  Prophet  of  schism,  they  will  prove 
nothing  against  us  by  that  specious  title  of  Church. 


454         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

"  I  have  thus  mentioned  one  Prophet  as  an  example.  But  all  the  others 
declare  that  they  had  the  same  battle  to  fight — wicked  priests  endeavoring 
to  overwhelm  them  by  a  perversion  of  this  term  Church.  And  how  did  the 
Apostles  act  ?  Was  it  not  necessary  for  them,  in  professing  themselves  the 
servants  of  Christ,  to  declare  war  upon  the  synagogue  1  And  yet  the  oflBce 
and  dignity  of  the  priesthood  were  not  then  lost.  But  it  will  be  said  that, 
though  the  Prophets  and  Apostles  dissented  from  wicked  priests  in  doctrine, 
they  still  cultivated  communion  with  them  in  sacrifices  and  prayers.  I 
admit  they  did,  provided  they  were  not  forced  into  idolatry.  But  which 
of  the  Prophets  do  we  read  of  as  having  ever  sacrificed  in  Bethel  ?  Which 
of  the  faithful,  do  we  suppose,  communicated  in  impure  sacrifices,  when 
the  temple  was  polluted  by  Antiochus,  and  profane  rites  were  introduced 
into  it  ? 

"  On  the  whole,  we  conclude  that  the  servants  of  God  never  felt  them- 
selves obstructed  by  this  empty  title  of  Church,  when  it  was  put  forward  to 
support  the  reign  of  impiety.  It  is  not  enough,  therefore,  simply  to  throw 
out  the  name  of  Church,  but  judgment  must  be  used  to  ascertain  which  is  the 
true  Church,  and  what  is  the  nature  of  its  unity.  And  the  thing  necessary  to 
be  attended  to,  first  of  all,  is,  to  beware  of  separating  the  Church  from  Christ, 
its  Head.  When  I  say  Christ,  I  include  the  doctrine  of  his  gospel  which  he 
sealed  with  his  blood.  Our  adversaries,  therefore,  if  they  would  persuade  us 
that  they  are  the  true  Church  must,  first  of  all,  show  that  the  true  doctrine 
of  God  is  among  them ;  and  this  is  the  meaning  of  what  we  often  repeat,  viz. 
that  the  uniform  characteristics  of  a  well-ordered  Church  are  the  preaching 
of  sound  doctrine,  and  the  pure  administration  of  the  Sacraments.  For, 
since  Paul  declares  (Eph.  2  :  20)  that  the  Church  is  '  built  upon  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Apostles  and  Prophets,'  it  necessarily  follows  that  any  church  not 
resting  on  this  foundation  must  immediately  fall. 

"  I  come  now  to  our  opponents. 

"They,  no  doubt,  boast  in  lofty  terms  that  Christ  is  on  their  side.  As 
soon  as  they  exhibit  him  in  their  word  we  will  believe  it,  but  not  sooner. 
They,  in  the  same  way,  insist  on  the  term  Church.  But  where,  we  ask,  is 
that  doctrine  which  Paul  declares  to  be  the  only  foundation  of  the  Church  ? 
Doubtless,  your  Imperial  Majesty  now  sees  that  there  is  a  vast  difference 
between  assailing  us  with  the  reality  and  assailing  us  only  with  the  name  of 
Church.  We  are  as  ready  to  confess  as  they  are  that  those  who  abandon 
the  Church,  the  common  mother  of  the  faithful,  the  '  pillar  and  ground  of 
the  truth,'  revolt  from  Christ  also;  but  we  mean  a  Church  which,  from 
incorruptible  seed,  begets  children  for  immortality,  and,  when  begotten,  nour- 
ishes them  with  spiritual  food  (that  seed  and  food  being  the  Word  of  God), 
and  which,  by  its  ministry,  preserves  entire  the  truth  which  God  deposited 
in  its  bosom.  This  mark  is  in  no  degree  doubtful,  in  no  degree  fallacious, 
and  it  is  the  mark  which  God  himself  impressed  upon  his  Church,  that  she 
might  be  discerned  thereby.  Do  we  seem  unjust  in  demanding  to  see  this 
mark?  Wherever  it  exists  not,  no  face  of  a  Church  is  seen.  If  the  name, 
merely,  is  put  forward,  we  have  only  to  quote  the  well-known  passage  of 
Jeremiah,  '  Trust  ye  not  in  lying  words,  saying,  the  temple  of  the  Lord,  the 


§  99.    CALVIN'S    IDEA   OF   THE   HOLY   CATHOLIC   CHURCH.    455 

temple  of  the  Lord,  the  temple  of  the  Lord,  are  these'  (Jer.  7:4).  'Is  this 
house,  which  is  called  by  my  name,  become  a  den  of  robbers  in  your  eyes  ? ' 
(Jer.  7:11). 

"In  like  manner,  the  unity  of  the  Church,  such  as  Paul  describes  it,  we 
protest  we  hold  sacred,  and  we  denounce  anathema  against  all  who  in  any 
way  violate  it.  The  principle  from  which  Paul  derives  unity  is,  that  there 
is  '  one  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism,  one  God  and  Father  of  all,'  who  hath 
called  us  into  one  hope  (Eph.  4:4-6).  Therefore,  we  are  one  body  and  one 
spirit,  as  is  here  enjoined,  if  we  adhere  to  God  only,  i.e.  be  bound  to  each 
other  by  the  tie  of  faith.  We  ought,  moreover,  to  remember  what  is  said  in 
another  passage,  'that  faith  cometh  by  the  word  of  God.'  Let  it,  therefore, 
be  a  fixed  point,  that  a  holy  unity  exists  amongst  us,  when,  consenting  in 
pure  doctrine,  we  are  united  in  Christ  alone.  And,  indeed,  if  concurrence 
in  any  kind  of  doctrine  were  sufficient,  in  what  possible  way  could  the  Church 
of  God  be  distinguished  from  the  impious  factions  of  the  wicked  ?  Where- 
fore, the  Apostle  shortly  after  adds,  that  the  ministry  was  instituted  'for  the 
edifying  of  the  body  of  Christ :  till  we  all  come  in  the  unity  of  the  faith,  and 
of  the  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God :  that  we  be  no  more  children,  tossed  to 
and  fro,  and  carried  about  with  every  wind  of  doctrine,  but  speaking  the 
truth  in  love,  may  grow  up  into  him  in  all  things,  who  is  the  Head,  even 
Christ'  (Eph.  4:12-15).  Could  he  more  plainly  comprise  the  whole  unity 
of  the  Church  in  a  holy  agreement  in  true  doctrine,  than  when  he  calls  us 
back  to  Christ  and  to  faith,  which  is  included  in  the  knowledge  of  him,  and 
to  obedience  to  the  truth  ?  Nor  is  any  lengthened  demonstration  of  this 
needed  by  those  who  believe  the  Church  to  be  that  sheepfold  of  which  Christ 
alone  is  the  Shepherd,  and  where  his  voice  only  is  heard,  and  distinguished 
from  the  voice  of  strangers.  And  this  is  confirmed  by  Paul,  when  he  prays 
for  the  Romans,  'The  God  of  patience  and  consolation  grant  you  to  be  of 
the  same  mind  one  with  another,  according  to  Christ  Jesus ;  that  ye  may 
with  one  accord  and  one  mouth  glorify  God,  even  the  Father  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ'  (Rom.  15:  5,  6). 

"Let  our  opponents,  then,  in  the  first  instance,  draw  near  to  Christ,  and 
then  let  them  convict  us  of  schism,  in  daring  to  dissent  from  them  in  doc- 
trine. But,  since  I  have  made  it  plain  that  Christ  is  banished  from  their 
society,  and  the  doctrine  of  his  gospel  exterminated,  their  charge  against  us 
simply  amounts  to  this,  that  we  adhere  to  Christ  in  preference  to  them.  For 
what  man,  pray,  will  believe  that  those  who  refuse  to  be  led  away  from  Christ 
and  his  truth,  in  order  to  deliver  themselves  into  the  power  of  men,  are 
thereby  schismatics,  and  deserters  from  the  communion  of  the  Church? 

"  I  certainly  admit  that  respect  is  to  be  shown  to  priests,  and  that  there 
is  great  danger  in  despising  ordinary  authority.  If,  then,  they  were  to  say, 
that  we  are  not  at  our  own  hand  to  resist  ordinary  authority,  we  should  have 
no  difiiculty  in  subscribing  to  the  sentiment.  For  we  are  not  so  rude  as  not 
to  see  what  confusion  must  arise  when  the  authority  of  rulers  is  not  respected. 
Let  pastors,  then,  have  their  due  honor  —  an  honor,  however,  not  derogatory 
in  any  degree  to  the  supreme  authority  of  Christ,  to  whom  it  behooves  them 
and  every  man  to  be  subject.     For  God  declares,  by  Malachi,  that  the  gov- 


456         THE   KEFOKMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

ernment  of  the  Israelitish  Church  was  committed  to  the  priests,  under  the 
condition  that  they  should  faithfully  fulfil  the  covenant  made  with  them, 
viz.  that  '  their  lips  should  keep  knowledge,'  and  expound  the  law  to  the 
people  (Mai.  2  :  7).  When  the  priests  altogether  failed  in  this  condition,  he 
declares,  that,  by  their  perfidy,  the  covenant  was  abrogated  and  made  null. 
Pastors  are  mistaken  if  they  imagine  that  they  are  invested  with  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Church  on  any  other  terms  than  that  of  being  ministers  and 
witnesses  of  the  truth  of  God.  As  long,  therefore,  as,  in  opposition  to  the 
law  and  to  the  nature  of  their  office,  they  eagerly  wage  war  with  the  truth 
of  God,  let  them  not  arrogate  to  themselves  a  power  which  God  never 
bestowed,  either  formerly  on  priests,  or  now  on  bishops,  on  any  other  terms 
than  those  which  have  been  mentioned." 

When  the  Romanists  demanded  miracles  from  the  Reform- 
ers as  a  test  of  their  innovations,  Calvin  replied  that  this 
was  "  unreasonable ;  for  we  forge  no  new  gospel,  but  retain 
the  very  same,  whose  truth  was  confirmed  by  all  the  miracles 
ever  wrought  by  Christ  and  the  Apostles.  The  opponents 
have  this  advantage  over  us,  that  they  confirm  their  faith  by 
continual  miracles  even  to  this  day.  But  they  allege  mira- 
cles which  are  calculated  to  unsettle  a  mind  otherwise  well 
established;  for  they  are  frivolous  and  ridiculous,  or  vain 
and  false.  Nor,  if  they  were  ever  so  preternatural,  ought 
they  to  have  any  weight  in  opposition  to  the  truth  of  God, 
since  the  name  of  God  ought  to  be  sanctified  in  all  places 
and  at  all  times,  whether  by  miraculous  events  or  by  the 
common  order  of  nature."  ^ 

Luther  had  the  same  Catholic  Church  feeling,  and  gave 
strong  expression  to  it  in  his  writings  against  the  radicals, 
and  in  a  letter  to  the  Margrave  of  Brandenburg  and  Duke 
of  Prussia  (1532),  in  which  he  says :  "  It  is  dangerous  and 
terrible  to  hear  or  believe  anything  against  the  unanimous 
testimony  of  the  entire  holy  Christian  Church  as  held  from 
the  beginning  for  now  over  fifteen  hundred  years  in  all  the 
world."  ^     And  yet  he  asserted  the  right  of  conscience  and 

1  Dedication  of  his  Institutes  to  Francis  I. 

2  Briefe,  De  Wett's  ed.  IV.  354.  Still  more  striking  is  Luther's  judgment 
on  the  Roman  Church  (in  his  book  against  the  Anabaptists)  :  "  Ich  sage,  dass 
unter  clem  Papst  die  ivahre   Christenheit  ist ;  ja  der  rechte  Ausbimd  der  Christen- 


§  100.    THE    VISIBLE    AND    INVISIBLE    CHURCH.  457 

private  judgment  at  Worms  against  popes  and  councils, 
because  he  deemed  it  "unsafe  and  dangerous  to  do  anything 
against  tlie  conscience  bound  in  tlie  Word  of  God." 

§  100.    The   Visible  and  Inviaihle  Church. 
Comp.  vol.  VI.  §  85,  and  the  literature  there  quoted. 

A  distinction  between  real  and  nominal  Christianity  is  as 
old  as  the  Church,  and  has  never  been  denied.  "  Many  are 
called,  but  few  are  chosen."  We  can  know  all  that  are  act- 
ually called,  but  God  only  knows  those  who  are  truly  chosen. 
The  kindred  parables  of  the  tares  and  of  the  net  illustrate 
the  fact  that  the  kingdom  of  heaven  in  this  world  includes 
good  and  bad  men,  and  that  a  final  separation  will  not  take 
place  before  the  judgment  day.^  Paul  distinguishes  between 
an  outward  circumcision  of  the  flesh  and  an  inward  circum- 
cision of  the  heart ;  between  a  carnal  Israel  and  a  spiritual 
Israel ;  and  he  speaks  of  Gentiles  who  are  ignorant  of  the 
written  law,  yet  "  do  by  nature  the  things  of  the  law,"  and 
will  judge  those  who,  "  with  the  letter  and  circumcision,  are 
transgressors  of  the  law."  He  thereby  intimates  that  God's 
mercy  is  not  bounded  by  the  limits  of  the  visible  Church.^ 

Augustin  makes  a  distinction  between  the  true  body  of 
Christ,  which  consists  of  the  elect  children  of  God  from  the 
beginning,  and  the  mixed  body  of  Christ,  which  comprehends 
all  the  baptized.^  In  the  Middle  Ages  the  Church  was  iden- 
tified with  the  dominion  of  the  papacy,  and  the   Cyprianic 

heit,  und  viel  fronvner  grosser  Heiligen."  Werke,  XXVI.  257,  Erlangen  ed. 
Mohler  (in  his  Symbolik,  pp.  421,  437)  sees  in  such  expressions  so  many  self- 
refutations  of  the  Reformers  in  separating  from  the  Catholic  Church,  and 
forgets  that  they  were  cast  out  with  curses  and  anathemas. 

1  Matt.  13:  24-30;  47-49. 

2  Rom.  2  :  14,  15,  28,  29 ;  Col.  2 :  11. 

3  Corpus  Ckristi  merutn,  and  corpus  Christi  mixtwn.  De  Doctr.  Christ.  III. 
32;  De  Baptismo  contra  Donatistas,  IV.  5.  The  Donatist  Tichonius  used 
the  less  suitable  designation  of  a  twofold  body  of  Christ  (corpus  Christi 
bipartitum  ) . 


458         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

maxim,  '•'•Extra  ecclesiam  nulla  salus,''  was  narrowed  into 
"  Extra  ecclesiam  Romanam  nulla  salus,''  to  the  exclusion  not 
only  of  heretical  sects,  but  also  of  the  Oriental  Church.  Wiclif 
and  Hus,  in  opposition  to  the  corruptions  of  the  papal  Church, 
renewed  the  distinction  of  Augustin,  under  a  different  and 
less  happy  designation  of  the  congregation  of  the  predesti- 
nated or  the  elect,  and  the  congregation  of  those  who  are 
only  foreknown.^ 

The  Reformers  introduced  the  terminology  "  visible  "  and 
"  invisible  "  Church.  By  this  they  did  not  mean  two  distinct 
and  separate  Churches,  but  rather  two  classes  of  Christians 
within  the  same  outward  communion.  The  invisible  Church 
is  in  the  visible  Church,  as  the  soul  is  in  the  body,  or  the 
kernel  in  the  shell,  but  God  only  knows  with  certainty  who 
belong  to  the  invisible  Church  and  will  ultimately  be  saved ; 
and  in  this  sense  his  true  children  are  invisible,  that  is,  not 
certainly  recognizable  and  known  to  men.  We  may  object 
to  the  terminology,  but  the  distinction  is  real  and  important. 

Luther,  who  openly  adopted  the  view  of  Hus  at  the  dis- 
putation of  Leipzig,  first  applied  the  term  "invisible"  to  the 
true  Church,  which  is  meant  in  the  Apostles'  Creed.^  The 
Augsburg  Confession  defines  the  Church  to  be  "  the  congre- 
gation of  saints  (or  believers),  in  which  the  Gospel  is  purely 
taught,  and  the  sacraments  are  rightly  administered."  This 
definition  is  too  narrow  for  the  invisible  Church,  and  would 
exclude  the  Baptists  and  Quakers.^ 

The  Reformed  system  of  doctrine  extends  the  domain  of 
the  invisible  or  true  Church  and  the  possibility  of  salvation 

1  See  Wiclif  s  tract  De  Ecclesia,  published  by  Loserth,  1886.  Hus,  in  his 
tract  on  the  same  subject,  literally  adopted  Wiclif  s  view. 

2  He  speaks  of  the  ecclesia  invisihilis  in  his  second  Commentary  on  the 
Galatians,  vol.  III.- 38.  Erlangen  ed.  The  Lutheran  symbolical  books  do 
not  use  the  term,  but  teach  the  thing. 

^  The  Ninth  Article  of  the  Augsburg  Confession  expressly  condemns  the 
Anabaptists  for  rejecting  infant  baptism  and  maintaining  the  salvation  of 
unbaptized  infants. 


§  100.    THE    VISIBLE   AND    INVISIBLE   CHURCH.  459 

beyond  the  boundaries  of  the  visible  Church,  and  holds  that 
the  Spirit  of  God  is  not  bound  to  the  ordinary  means  of 
grace,  but  may  work  and  save  '■'■  Avhen,  where,  and  how  he 
pleases."!  Zwingli  first  introduced  both  tern^.  He  meant 
by  the  "  visible  "  Church  the  community  of  all  who  bear  the 
Christian  name,  by  the  "invisible"  Church  the  totality  of 
true  believers  of  all  ages.^  And  he  included  in  the  invisible 
Church  all  the  pious  heathen,  and  all  infants  dying  in  in- 
fancy, whether  baptized  or  not.  In  this  liberal  view,  how- 
ever, he  stood  almost  alone  in  his  age  and  anticipated  modern 
opinions.^ 

Calvin  defines  the  distinction  more  clearly  and  fully  than 
any  of  the  Reformers,  and  his  view  passed  into  the  Second 
Helvetic,  the  Scotch,  the  Westminster,  and  other  Reformed 
Confessions. 

"  The  Church,"  he  says,*  "  is  used  in  the  sacred  Scriptures  in  two  senses. 
Sometimes  when  they  mention  '  the  Church '  they  intend  that  wliich  is  really 
such  in  the  sight  of  God  (qiue  revera  est  coram  Deo),  into  which  none  are  re- 
ceived but  those  who  by  adoption  and  grace  are  the  children  of  God,  and  by 
the  sanctification  of  the  Spirit  are  the  true  members  of  Christ.     And  then  it 

1  See  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith,  ch.  X.  3. 

-  Expos.  Christ.  Fidei  (written  in  1531,  and  published  by  BuUinger,  1536)  : 
"  Credimus  et  unam  sanctam  esse,  h.e.  universalein  ecclesiam.  Earn  autem  esse 
aut  visibilem  aut  invisihilem.  Invisibilis  est,juxta  Paidi  verbum,  quce  caelo  descen- 
dit,  hoc  est,  quae  Spiritu  Sancto  illustrante  Deum  cognoscit  et  amplectitur .  De  isla 
ecclesia  sunt  quotquot  per  universum  orbem  credunt.  Vacatur  autem  invisibilis  non 
quasi  qui  credunt  sint  invisibiles,  sed  quod  humanis  oculis  non  patet  quinam  ere d ant ; 
sunt  enim  Jideles  soli  Deo  et  sibi  perspecti.  Visibilis  autem  ecclesia  non  est  Ponti- 
fex  Romanus  cum  reliquis  cidarim  gestantibus,  sed  quotquot  per  universum  orbem 
Christonomendederunt."  Opera,  IV.  58.  Niemeyer,  Co//.  Co??/ess.,  p.  53.  Zwingli 
teaches  the  same  distinction,  but  without  the  terms,  in  his  earlier  Confession 
to  Charles  V.     See  Niemeyer,  p.  22. 

^  See  above,  pp.  95,  177,  211.  Bullinger  probably  agreed  with  the  liberal 
view  of  his  revered  teacher  and  friend,  as  we  may  infer  from  his  unqualified 
commendation  of  the  last  Confession  of  Zwingli,  in  which  he  most  emphat- 
ically teaches  the  salvation  of  the  pious  heathen.  Bullinger  published  it  five 
years  after  Zwingli's  death,  and  said  in  the  preface  that  in  this  book  Zwingli 
surpassed  himself  ("hoc  libello  sese  superans  de  vera  fide  nescio  quid  cygneum 
vicina  morte  cantavit  "). 

*  Inst.  bk.  IV.  ch.  I.  §  7. 


460         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

comprehends  not  only  the  saints  at  any  one  time  resident  on  earth,  but  all 
the  elect  who  have  lived  from  the  beginning  of  the  world. 

"But  the  word  'Church'  is  frequently  used  in  the  Scriptures  to  designate 
the  whole  multitude  dispersed  all  over  the  world,  who  profess  to  worship  one 
God  and  Jesus  Ciirist,  who  are  initiated  into  his  faith  by  baptism,  who  testify 
their  unity  in  true  doctrine  and  charity  by  a  participation  of  the  sacred  sup- 
per, who  consent  to  the  word  of  the  Lord,  and  preserve  the  ministry  which 
Christ  has  instituted  for  the  purpose  of  preaching  it.  In  this  Church  are 
included  many  hypocrites,  who  have  nothing  of  Christ  but  the  name  and 
appearance ;  many  persons,  ambitious,  avaricious,  envious,  slanderous,  and 
dissolute  in  their  lives,  who  are  tolerated  for  a  time,  either  because  they  can- 
not be  convicted  by  a  legitimate  process,  or  because  discipline  is  not  always 
maintained  with  sufficient  vigor. 

"  As  it  is  necessary  therefore  to  believe  that  Church  which  is  invisible  to 
us,  and  known  to  God  alone,  so  this  Church,  which  is  visible  to  men,  we  are 
commanded  to  honor,  and  to  maintain  communion  with  it." 

Calvin  does  not  go  as  far  as  Zwingli  in  extending  the 
number  of  the  elect,  but  there  is  nothing  in  his  principles  to 
forbid  such  extension.  He  makes  salvation  dependent  upon 
God's  sovereign  grace,  and  not  upon  the  visible  means  of 
grace.  He  expressly  includes  in  the  invisible  Church  "  all  the 
elect  who  have  lived  from  the  beginning  of  the  world,"  and 
even  those  who  had  no  historical  knowledge  of  Christ.  He 
says,  in  agreement  with  Augustin  :  "  According  to  the  secret 
predestination  of  God,  there  are  many  sheep  ivithout  the  pale  of 
the  Churchy  and  many  wolves  within  it.  For  God  knows  and 
seals  those  who  know  not  either  him  or  themselves.  Of 
those  who  externally  bear  his  seal,  his  eyes  alone  can  discern 
who  are  unfeignedly  holy,  and  will  persevere  to  the  end, 
which  is  the  completion  of  salvation.*'  But  in  the  judgment 
of  charity,  he  continues,  we  must  acknowledge  as  members 
of  the  Church  "  all  those  who,  by  a  confession  of  faith,  an 
exemplary  life,  and  a  participation  in  the  sacraments,  profess 
the  same  God  and  Christ  with  ourselves."  ^ 

1  Inst.  IV.  ch.  I.  §  10. 


§  101.    THE    CIVIL    GOVERNMENT.  -461 

§  101.    The  Civil  Government. 

On   civil  government  see  Institutes,  IV.  oh.  XX.,  De  politica  administratione 
(in  Tholuck's  ed.  II.  475-496). 

Calvin  discusses  the  nature  and  function  of  Civil  Gov- 
ernment at  length,  and  with  the  ability  and  wisdom  of  a 
statesman,  in  the  last  chapter  of  his  Institutes. 

He  holds  that  the  Church  is  consistent  with  all  forms  of 
government  and  social  conditions,  even  with  civil  servitude 
(1  Cor,  7  :  21).  But  some  kind  of  government  is  as  neces- 
sary to  mankind  in  this  world  as  bread  and  water,  light  and 
air;  and  it  is  far  more  excellent,  since  it  protects  life  and 
property,  maintains  law  and  order,  and  enables  men  to  live 
peaceably  together,  and  to  pursue  their  several  avocations. 

As  to  the  different  forms  of  government,  Calvin  discusses 
the  merits  of  monarchy,  aristocracy,  and  democracy.  All 
are  compatible  with  Christianity  and  command  our  obedience. 
All  have  their  advantages  and  dangers.  Monarchy  easily 
degenerates  into  despotism,  aristocracy  into  oligarchy  or  the 
faction  of  a  few,  democracy  into  mobocracy  and  sedition. 
He  gives  the  preference  to  a  mixture  of  aristocracy  and 
democracy.  He  infused  a  more  aristocratic  spirit  into  the 
democratic  Republic  of  Geneva,  and  saw  a  precedent  in 
the  government  of  Moses  with  seventy  elders  elected  from 
the  wisest  and  best  of  the  people.  It  is  safer,  he  thinks, 
for  the  government  to  be  in  the  hands  of  many  than  of  one, 
for  they  may  afford  each  other  assistance,  and  restrain  arro- 
gance and  ambition. 

Civil  government  is  of  divine  origin.  "  All  power  is 
ordained  of  God"  (Rom.  13  : 1).  "By  me  kings  reign,  and 
Ijrinces  decree  justice"  (Prov.  8:15).  The  magistrates  are 
called  "  gods  "  (Ps.  82  :  1,  6 ;  a  passage  indorsed  by  Christ, 
John  10 :  35),  because  they  are  invested  with  God's  authority 
and  act  as  his  vicegerents.  "Civil  magistracy  is  not  only 
holy  and  legitimate,  but  far  the  most  sacred  and  honorable 


462  THE    llEFOKMATION    IN    FEENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

ill  human  life."  Submission  to  lawful  government  is  the 
duty  of  every  citizen.  To  resist  it,  is  to  set  at  naught  the 
ordinance  of  God  (Rom.  13  :  3,  4 ;  comp.  Tit.  3  : 1 ;  1  Pet. 
2:13,  14).  Paul  admonishes  Timothy  that  in  the  public 
congregation  "  supplication,  prayers,  intercessions,  thanks- 
givings be  made  for  kings  and  for  all  that  are  in  high  places ; 
that  we  may  lead  a  tranquil  and  quiet  life  in  all  godliness 
and  gravity"  (1  Tim.  2:1,  2).  We  must  obey  and  pray 
even  for  bad  rulers,  and  endure  in  patience  and  humility  till 
God  exercises  his  judgment.  The  punishment  of  evildoers 
belongs  only  to  God  and  to  the  magistrates.  Sometimes  God 
punishes  the  people  by  wicked  rulers,  and  punishes  these  by 
other  bad  rulers.  We,  as  individuals,  must  suffer  rather 
than  rebel.  Only  in  one  case  are  we  required  to  disobey, 
—  when  the  civil  ruler  commands  us  to  do  anything  against 
the  will  of  God  and  against  our  conscience.  Then  "  we 
must  obey  God  rather  than  men  "  (Acts  5  :  29)  .^ 

Calvin  was  thus  a  strong  upholder  of  authority  in  the 
State.  He  did  not  advise  or  encourage  the  active  resistance 
of  the  Huguenots  at  the  beginning  of  the  civil  wars  in 
France,  although  he  gave  a  tacit  consent. 

Calvin  extended  the  authority  and  duty  of  civil  govern- 
ment to  both  Tables  of  the  Law.  He  assigns  to  it,  in  Chris- 
tian society,  the  office,  —  "to  cherish  and  support  the  external 
worship  of  God,  to  preserve  the  true  doctrine  of  religion,  to 
defend  the  constitution  of  the  Church,  and  to  regulate  our 
lives  in  a  manner  requisite  for  the  social  welfare."  He 
proves  this  view  from  the  Old  Testament,  and  quotes  the 
passage  in  Isaiah  49  :  23,  that  "  kings  shall  be  nursing-fathers 

1  He  concludes  his  Institutes  with  this  sentence :  "  Since  this  edict  has  been 
proclaimed  by  that  celestial  herald,  Peter,  '  we  must  obey  God  rather  than 
men,'  let  us  console  ourselves  with  this  thought,  that  we  truly  perform  the 
obedience  which  God  requires  of  us,  when  we  suffer  anything  rather  than  devi- 
ate from  piety.  And  that  our  hearts  may  not  fail  us,  Paul  stimulates  us  with 
another  consideration :  that  Christ  has  redeemed  us  at  the  immense  price 
which  our  redemptioti  cost  him,  that  we  may  not  be  submissive  to  the  corrupt 
desires  of  men,  much  less  be  slaves  to  their  impiety  "  (1  Cor.  7  :  23). 


§  101.   THE   CIVIL   GOVERNjNIENT.  463 

and  queens  nursing-mothers "  to  the  Church.  He  refers  to 
the  examples  of  Moses,  Joshua  and  the  Judges,  David, 
Josiah,  and  Hezekiah. 

Here  is  the  critical  point  where  religious  persecution  by 
the  State  comes  in  as  an  inevitable  consequence.  Offences 
against  the  Church  are  offences  against  the  State,  and  vice 
versa,  and  deserve  punishment  by  fines,  imprisonment, 
exile,  and,  if  necessary,  by  death.  On  this  ground  the  exe- 
cution of  Servetus  and  other  heretics  was  justified  by  all  who 
held  the  same  theory;  fortunately,  it  has  no  support  what- 
ever in  the  New  Testament,  but  is  directly  contrary  to  the 
spirit  of  the  gospel. . 

Geneva,  after  the  emancipation  from  the  power  of  the 
bishop  and  the  duke  of  Savo}-,  was  a  self-governing  Republic 
under  the  protection  of  Bern  and  the  Swiss  Confederacy. 
The  civil  government  assumed  the  episcopal  power,  and 
exercised  it  fii'st  in  favor,  then  against,  and  at  last  perma- 
nently for  the  Reformation. 

The  Republic  was  composed  of  all  citizens  of  age,  who 
met  annually  in  general  assembly  {cojiseil  general),  usually 
in  St.  Peter's,  under  the  sounding  of  bells  and  trumpets,  for 
the  ratification  of  laws  and  the  election  of  officers.  The 
administrative  power  was  lodged  in  four  Syndics ;  the  legis- 
lative power  in  two  councils,  the  Council  of  Sixty,  and  the 
Council  of  Two  Hundred.  The  former  existed  since  1457 ; 
the  latter  was  instituted  in  1526,  after  the  alliance  with 
Freiburg  and  Bern,  in  imitation  of  the  Constitution  of  these 
and  other  Swiss  cities.  The  Sixty  were  by  right  members 
of  the  Council  of  Two  Hundred.  In  1530  the  Two  Hun- 
dred assumed  the  right  to  elect  the  ordinary  or  little  Coun- 
cil of  Twenty-Five,  who  were  a  part  of  the  two  other  councils 
and  had  previously  been  elected  by  the  Syndics.  The  real 
power  lay  in  the  hands  of  the  Syndics  and  the  little  Council 
of  Twenty-five,  which  formed  an  oligarchy  with  legislative, 
executive,  and  judicial  functions. 


464         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Calvin  did  not  change  these  fundamental  institutions  of 
the  Republic,  but  he  infused  into  them  a  Christian  and 
disciplinary  spirit,  and  improved  the  legislation.  He  was 
appointed,  together  with  the  Syndics  Roset,  Porral,  and 
Balard,  to  draw  up  a  new  code  of  laws,  as  early  as  Nov.  1, 
1541.1  He  devoted  much  time  to  this  work,  and  paid  atten- 
tion even  to  the  minutest  details  concerning  the  administra- 
tion of  justice,  the  city  police,  the  military,  the  firemen,  the 
watchmen  on  the  towers,  and  the  like.^ 

The  city  showed  her  gratitude  by  presenting  him  with  "a 
cask  of  old  wine  "  for  these  extra  services.'^ 

Many  of  his  regulations  continued  in>  legal  force  down  to 
the  eighteenth  century. 

Calvin  was  consulted  in  all  important  affairs  of  the  State, 
and  his  advice  was  usually  followed ;  but  he  never  occupied 
a  political  or  civil  office.  He  was  not  even  a  citizen  of  Geneva 
till  1559  (eighteen  years  after  his  second  arrival),  and  never 
appeared  before  the  councils  except  when  some  ecclesiastical 
question  was  debated,  or  when  his  advice  was  asked.  It  is 
a  mistake,  therefore,  to  call  him  the  head  of  the  Republic, 
except  in  a  purely  intellectual  and  moral  sense. 

The  code  of  laws  was  revised  with  the  aid  of  Calvin  by 
his  friend,  Germain  Colladon  (1510-1594),  an  eminent  juris- 
consult and  member  of  a  distinguished   family  of   French 

1  Reg.  du  Conseil,  in  Annal.  vol.  XXI.  287.     Comp.  vol.  X.  Pars  I.  125. 

2  In  the  Grand  Ducal  Library  of  Gotha  are  preserved  several  drafts  of 
Calvin,  in  his  own  handwriting,  on  the  various  departments  of  civil  govern- 
ment, especially  the  reform  of  judicial  proceedings.  They  are  published  in 
Opera,  X.  Pars  I.  125-146.  "  Nicht  ohne  Bewunderung,"  says  Kampschulte 
(I.  416),  "sehen  wir  in  ihnen  den  gelehrten  Verfasser  der  Institution  selbst  den 
untergeordneten  Fragen  der  stadtischen  Verwaltunq  und  Polizei  seine  Aufmerk- 
samkeit  zuwenden.  Da  Jinden  wir  ausfuhrliche  Instructioven  Jilr  den  Bauau/seker, 
Anordnungen  fur  den  Fall  einer  Feuersbrunst,  Anweisungen  fur  den  Aufseher  des 
stadtischen  Geschiitzwesens,  Verhaltungsregeln  sogar  fur  den  Nachtivdchter,  fur 
die  Ketten-,  Thor-,  und  Thiirmhiiter." 

3  "  Besoluz  quil  lug  soyt  donne  ung  bossot  de  vin  vieulx  de  celluy  de  I'hospital." 
Registre  du  Conseil,  Nov.  17,  1542,  quoted  in  Annal.  vol.  XXI.  305,  and  in 
Opera,  X.  P.  I.  125. 


§  101.    THE   CIVIL   GOVERNMENT.  465 

refugees  who  settled  at  Geneva.  The  revised  code  was  begun 
in  1560,  and  published  in  1568.^ 

Among  the  laws  of  Geneva  we  mention  a  press  law,  the 
oldest  in  Switzerland,  dated  Feb.  15,  1560.  Laws  against 
the  freedom  of  the  press  existed  before,  especially  in  Spain. 
Alexander  VI.,  a  Spaniard,  issued  a  bull  in  1501,  instructing 
the  German  prelates  to  exercise  a  close  supervision  over 
printers.  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  the  Catholic  established 
a  censorship  which  prohibited,  under  severe  penalties,  the 
printing,  importation,  and  sale  of  any  book  that  had  not 
previously  passed  an  examination  and  obtained  a  license. 
Rome  adopted  the  same  policy.  Other  countries,  Protestant 
as  well  as  Roman  Catholic,  followed  the  example.  In  Russia, 
the  severest  restrictions  of  the  press  are  still  in  force. 

The  press  law  of  Geneva  was  comparatively  moderate. 
It  put  the  press  under  the  supervision  of  three  prudent  and 
experienced  men,  to  be  appointed  by  the  government.  These 
men  have  authority  to  appoint  able  and  trustworthy  printers, 
to  examine  every  book  before  it  is  printed,  to  prevent  popish, 
heretical,  and  infidel  publications,  to  protect  the  publisher 
against  piracy ;  but  Bibles,  catechisms,  prayers,  and  psalms 
may  be  printed  by  all  publishers ;  new  translations  of  the 
Scriptures  are   privileged  in  the  first  edition.^ 

The  censorship  of  the  press  continued  in  Geneva  till 
the  eighteenth  century.  In  1600  the  Council  forbade  the 
printing  of  the  essays  of  Montaigne ;  in  1763  Rousseau's 
Emile  was  condemned  to  be  burned. 

1  On  the  Colladon  family  see  La  France  Protestante,  IV.  510  sqq.  (second 
ed.  by  Bordier).  Another  distinguished  member  was  Nicolas  Colladon,  who 
published  a  Life  of  Calvin  in  1565,  and  succeeded  him  in  the  chair  of  theology 
in  1566. 

-  The  Spanish  censorship  was  applied  to  the  vernacular  versions  of  the 
Bible,  the  works  of  Erasmus,  all  Protestant  books,  the  Mystics  and  Illurai- 
nati,  the  Molinists  and  Quietists.  The  natural  consequence  of  this  tyraimy 
was  the  decadence  of  intellectual  and  literary  activity.  See  H.  C.  Lea,  Chap- 
ters from  ike  Religious  History  of  Spain  connected  with  the  Inquisition,  Philadel- 
phia, 1890. 


466         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

It  should  be  noted,  however,  that  under  the  influence  of 
Calvin  Geneva  became  one  of  the  most  imjjortant  places 
of  publication.  The  famous  Robert  Stephen  (Etienne,  1503- 
1559),  being  censured  by  the  Sorbonne  of  Paris,  settled  in 
Geneva  after  the  death  of  his  father,  Henri,  as  a  professed 
Protestant,  and  printed  there  two  editions  of  the  Hebi'ew 
Bible,  and  an  edition  of  the  Greek  Testament,  with  the  Vul- 
gate and  Erasmian  versions,  in  1551,  which  for  the  first  time 
contains  the  versicular  division  of  the  text  according  to  our 
present  usage.  To  him  we  owe  the  Thesaurus  Linguce 
Latinoe  (third  ed.  1543,  in  4  vols.),  and  to  his  son,  Henri,  the 
Thesaurus  Linguce  Grcecce  (1572,  4  vols.).  Beza  published 
several  editions  of  his  Greek  Testament  in  Geneva  (1565- 
1598),  which  were  chiefly  used  by  King  James'  translators. 
In  the  same  city  appeared  the  English  version  of  the  New 
Testament  by  Whittingham,  1557 ;  then  of  the  whole  Bible, 
1560.  This  is  the  so-called  "  Geneva  Bible,"  or  "  Breeches 
Bible  "  (from  the  rendering  of  Gen.  3  :  7),  which  was  for 
a  long  time  the  most  popular  English  version,  and  passed 
through  about  two  hundred  editions  from  1560  to  1630.^ 
Geneva  has  well  maintained  its  literary  reputation  to  this  day. 

§  102.    Distinctive  Principles  of  Calvin'' s  Church  Polity. 

Calvin  was  a  legislator  and  the  founder  of  a  new  system 
of  church  polity  and  discipline.  He  had  a  legal  training, 
which  was  of  much  use  to  him  in  organizing  the  Reformed 
Church  at  Geneva.  If  he  had  lived  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
he  might  have  been  a  Hilde brand  or  an  Innocent  III.  But 
the  spirit  of  the  Reformation  required  a  reconstruction  of 
church  government  on  an  evangelical  and  popular  basis. 

Calvin  laid  great  stress  on  the  outward  organization  and 
order  of  the  Church,  but  in  subordination  to  sound  doctrine 
and  the  inner  spiritual  life.     He  compares  the  former  to  the 

^   The  Bibles  in  the  Carton  Exhibition,  London,  1878,  p.  95. 


§  102.    CALVIN'S   CHURCH   POLITY.  467 

body,  while  the  doctrine  which  regulates  the  worship  of  God, 
and  points  out  the  way  of  salvation,  is  the  soul  which  ani- 
mates the  body  and  renders  it  lively  and  active.^ 

The  Calvinistic  system  of  church  polity  is  based  upon  the 
following  principles,  which  have  exerted  great  influence  in 
the  development  of  Protestantism :  — 

1:  The  autonomy  of  the  Church,  or  its  right  of  self- 
government  under  the  sole  headship  of  Christ. 

The  Roman  Catholic  Church  likewise  claims  autonomy, 
but  in  a  hierarchical  sense,  and  under  the  supreme  control  of 
the  pope,  who,  as  the  visible  vicar  of  Christ,  demands  passive 
obedience  from  priests  and  people.  Calvin  vests  the  self-gov- 
ernment in  the  Christian  congregation,  and  regards  all  tlie 
ministers  of  the  gospel,  in  their  official  character,  as  ambassa- 
dors and  representatives  of  Christ.  "  Christ  alone,"  he  says, 
"■  ought  to  rule  and  reign  in  the  Church,  and  to  have  all  pre- 
eminence in  it,  and  this  government  ought  to  be  exercised 
and  administered  solely  by  his  word ;  yet  as  he  dwells  not 
among  us  by  a  visible  presence,  so  as  to  make  an  audible 
declaration  of  his  will  to  us,  he  uses  for  this  purpose  the  min- 
istry of  men  whom  he  employs  as  his  delegates,  not  to 
transfer  his  right  and  honor  to  them,  but  only  that  he  may 
himself  do  his  work  by  their  lips ;  just  as  an  artificer  makes 
use  of  an  instrument  in  the  performance  of  his  work."  ^ 

In  practice,  however,  the  autonomy  both  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  hierarchy  and  of  the  Protestant  Churches  is  more  or 
less  curtailed  and  checked  by  the  civil  government  wherever 
Church  and  State  are  united,  and  where  the  State  supports 
the  Church.  For  self-government  requires  self-support.  Cal- 
vin intended  to  institute  synods,  and   to   make   the   clergy 

1  "  De  necessitate  reformanche  Ecdesia  "  (^Opera,  VI.  459  sq.)  :  "Regimen  in 
ecclesia,  inunus  pastorale,  et  reliquus  ordo,  una  cum  sacrainentis,  instar  corporis  sunt  ; 
doctrina  autem  ilia,  quae  rite  colendi  Dei  regulani  prcescribit,  et  ubi  salutis  Jiduciam 
debeant  hominum  conscientice  ostendit,  anima  est,  quoe  corpus  ipsum  inspirat,  vividum 
et  actuosum  reddit ;  facit  denique,  ne  sit  mortuum  et  inutile  cadaver." 

2  Inst.  IV.  ch.  III.  §  1. 


468         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

independent   of    State   patronage,   but   in    this    he    did   not 
succeed. 

The  Lutheran  Reformers  subjected  the  Church  to  the  secu- 
lar rulers,  and  made  her  an  obedient  handmaid  of  the  State ; 
but  they  complained  bitterly  of  the  selfish  and  arbitrary 
misgovernment  of  the  princes.  The  congregations  in  most 
Lutheran  countries  of  Europe  have  no  voice  in  the  election 
of  their  own  pastors.  The  Reformers  of  German  Switzerland 
conceded  more  power  to  the  people  in  a  democratic  republic, 
and  introduced  synods,  but  they  likewise  put  the  supreme 
power  into  the  hands  of  the  civil  government  of  the  several 
cantons.  In  monarchical  England  the  governorship  of  the 
Church  was  usurped  and  exercised  by  Henry  VIII.  and,  in 
a  milder  form,  by  Queen  Elizabeth  and  her  successors,  and 
acquiesced  in  by  the  bishops.  The  churches  under  Calvin's 
influence  always  maintained,  at  least  in  theory,  the  independ- 
ence of  the  Church  in  all  spiritual  affairs,  and  the  right  of 
individual  congregations  in  the  election  of  their  own  pastors. 
Calvin  derives  this  right  from  the  Greek  verb  used  in  the 
passage  which  says  that  Paul  and  Barnabas  ordained  presby- 
ters by  the  suffrages  or  votes  of  the  people.^  "  Those  two 
apostles,"  he  says,  "  ordained  the  presbyters ;  but  the  whole 
multitude,  according  to  the  custom  observed  among  the 
Greeks,  declared  by  the  elevation  of  their  hands  who  was  the 
object  of  their  choice.  ...  It  is  not  credible  that  Paul 
granted  to  Timothy  and  Titus  more  power  (1  Tim.  5:22; 
Tit.  1 :  5)  than  he  assumed  to  himself."  After  quoting  with 
approval  two  passages  from  Cyprian,  he  concludes  that  the 
apostolic  and  best  mode  of  electing  pastors  is  by  the  consent 
of  the  whole  people ;  yet  other  pastors  ought  to  preside  over 
the  election,  "  to  guard  the  multitude  from  falling  into  im- 
proprieties through  inconstancy,  intrigue,  and  confusion."  ^ 

^  Acts  14:23,  x^'poTov^trai'Tes,  voting  by  uplifting  the  liand. 
2  Inst.  IV.  ch.  III.  §  15;  comp.  ch.  IV.  §  11  sqq.,  where  he  quotes  the  old 
rule:  "Let  liim  who  is  to  preside  over  all,  be  chosen  by  all." 


§  102.  Calvin's  church  polity.  469 

The  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland  has  labored  and 
suffered  more  than  any  Protestant  Church  for  the  principle  of 
the  sole  headship  of  Christ;  first  against  popery,  then  against 
prelacy,  and  last  against  patronage.  In  North  America  this 
principle  is  almost  universally  acknowledged. 

2.  The  parity  of  the  clergy  as  distinct  from  a  jure  divino 
hierarchy  whether  papal  or  prelatical. 

Calvin  maintained,  with  Jerome,  the  original  identity  of 
bishops  (overseers)  and  presbyters  (elders) ;  and  in  this  he 
has  the  support  of  the  best  modern  exegetes  and  historians.^ 

But  he  did  not  on  this  account  reject  all  distinctions 
among  ministers,  which  rest  on  human  right  and  historical 
development,  nor  deny  the  right  of  adapting  the  Church 
order  to  varying  conditions  and  circumstances.  He  was  not 
an  exclusive  or  bigoted  Presbyterian.  He  had  no  objection 
to  episcopacy  in  large  countries,  like  Poland  and  England, 
provided   the    evangelical    doctrines  be   preached.^      In   his 

1  In  his  Commentary  on  Phil.  1 :  1,  he  correctly  infers  from  the  plural 
iiriaKoiroi,  that  "  nomen  episcopi  omnibus  Verbi  ministris  esse  commune,  quum  plures 
uni  ecclesioe  Episcopos  attribuat.  Sunt  igitur  synontjma  Episcopus  et  Pastor, 
Atque  hie  locus  ex  iis  units  est,  quos  Hieroni/mus  ad  illud  probandiim  citat,  in 
Epistola  ad  Evagrium,  et  in  expositione  Epistolce  ad  Titum."  In  his  Commen- 
tary on  Acts  20:28  (comp.  with  verse  17),  he  says:  "  Oinnes  Ephesinos  Prex- 
bi/teros  indifferentur  a  Paulo  sic  l_episcopi'\  vocantur,  unde  colligimus  secundum 
Scripturce  usum  nihil  a  Presbyteris  differre  Episcopos,  sed  vitio  et  cor ruptela  factum, 
esse,  ut  qui  primas  tenebant  in  singulis  civitatibus  Episcopi  vocari  coeperint" 
Comp.  also  his  commentaries  on  the  relevant  passages  in  the  Pastoral  Epis- 
tles, and  his  Inst.  IV.  ch.  III.  §  8,  and  ch.  IV.  §  2  (where  he  quotes  Jerome  in 
full).  The  Lutheran  symbols  likewise  teach  the  identity  of  the  episcopate 
and  presbyterate  (see  the  second  Appendix  to  the  Smalcaldian  Articles, 
p.  341,  ed.  J.  T.  Miiller)  ;  but  the  Lutheran  Churches  in  Germany  have  Super- 
intendents and  General  Superintendents  (called  "  Bishops  "  in  Prussia,  "  Prel- 
ates "  in  Wiirttemberg).  Sweden,  Norway,  and  Denmark  retained  or  rein- 
troduced episcopacy  {jure  humano,  not  jure  divino).  The  church  government 
of  the  Lutheran  Churches  in  America  is  a  compromise  between  the  Presby- 
terian and  synodical  system  and  congregational  independency. 

2  Melanchthon  in  this  respect  went  much  further  and  was  willing  to  submit 
to  a  papacy,  provided  the  pope  would  tolerate  the  free  preaching  of  the 
gospel.  He  subscribed  the  Smalcaldian  Articles  with  the  restriction  :  "  Be 
pontifice  statuo,  si  evangelium  admitteret,  posse  ei  propter  pacem  et  communem 
tranquillitatem  Christianorum  .  .  ,  superioritatem  in  episcopos  .  .  .  jui-e  humano 
etiam  a  tiobis  permitfi." 


470         THE    REFORMATION    IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

correspondence  with  Archbishop  Cranmer  and  Protector 
Somerset,  he  suggests  various  improvements,  but  does  not 
oppose  episcopacy.  In  a  long  letter  to  King  Sigismund 
Augustus  of  Poland,  he  even  approves  of  it  in  that  kingdom.^ 

But  Presbyterianism  and  Congregationalism  are  more  con- 
genial to  the  spirit  of  Calvinism  than  prelacy.  In  the  conflict 
with  Anglican  prelacy  during  the  seventeenth  century,  the 
Calvinistic  Churches  became  exclusively  Presbyterian  in 
Scotland,  or  Independent  in  England  and  New  England. 
During  the  same  period,  in  opposition  to  the  enforced  intro- 
duction of  the  Anglican  liturgy,  the  Presbyterians  and  Con- 
gregationalists  abandoned  liturgical  worship ;  while  Calvin 
and  the  Reformed  Churches  on  the  Continent  approved  of 
forms  of  devotion  in  connection  with  free  prayer  in  public 
worship. 

3,  The  participation  of  the  Christian  laity  in  Church  gov- 
ernment and  discipline.     This  is  a  very  important  feature. 

In  the  Roman  Church  the  laity  are  passive,  and  have  no 
share  whatever  in  legislation.  Theirs  is  simply  to  obey 
the  priesthood.     Luther  first  effectively  proclaimed  the  doc- 

1  He  says  in  this  letter,  dated  Geneva,  5th  Dec.,  1554:  "The  ancient 
Church  indeed  instituted  patriarcliates,  and  to  different  provinces  assigned 
certain  primacies,  that  by  this  bond  of  concord  the  bishops  might  remain 
more  closely  united  among  themselves.  Exactly  as  if,  at  the  present  day, 
one  archbishop  should  have  a  certain  pre-eminence  in  the  illustrious  kingdom 
of  Poland,  not  to  lord  it  over  the  others,  nor  arrogate  to  himself  a  right  of 
which  they  were  forcibly  deprived ;  but  for  the  sake  of  order  to  occupy  the 
first  place  in  synods,  and  cherish  a  holy  unity  between  his  colleagues  and 
brethren.  Then  there  might  be  either  provincial  or  urban  bishops,  whose 
functions  should  be  particularly  directed  to  the  preservation  of  order.  As 
nature  dictates,  one  of  these  should  be  chosen  from  each  college,  to  whom 
this  care  should  be  specially  confided.  But  it  is  one  thing  to  hold  a  moderate 
dignity  such  as  is  not  imcompatible  with  the  abilities  of  a  man,  and  another 
to  comprise  the  whole  world  under  one  overgrown  government.  What  the 
Romanists  keep  .prating  about  one  single  head  is  then  altogether  nugatory, 
because  neither  the  sacred  commandment  of  God,  nor  the  established  usage 
of  the  Cliurch  sanctions  a  second  head  to  be  joined  with  Christ,  whom  alone 
the  Heavenly  Father  has  set  over  all."  Bonnet-Constable,  III.  104.  Comp. 
Inst.  IV.  ch.  IV.  §§  1-4;  Henry  II.  68,  375;  III.  427  sqq. ;  Dyer,  283  sqq.; 
456  sq. 


§  103.    CHURCH   AND   STATE.  471 

trine  of  the  general  priesthood  of  the  hiity,  but  Calvin  put  it 
into  an  organized  form,  and  made  the  laity  a  regular  agency 
in  the  local  congregation,  and  in  the  synods  and  councils  of 
the  Church,  His  vieAvs  are  gaining  ground  in  other  denomi- 
nations, and  are  almost  generally  adopted  in  the.  United 
States.  Even  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  gives,  in  the 
lower  house  of  her  diocesan  and  general  conventions,  to  the 
laity  an  equal  representation  with  the  clergy. 

4.  Strict  discipline  to  be  exercised  jointly  by  ministers 
and  lay-elders,  with  the  consent  of  the  whole  congregation. 

In  this  point  Calvin  went  far  beyond  the  older  Reformers, 
and  achieved  greater  success,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter. 

5.  Union  of  Church  and  State  on  a  theocratic  basis,  if 
possible,  or  separation,  if  necessary  to  secure  the  purity  and 
self-government  of  the  Church.  This  requires  fuller  exposi- 
tion. 

§  103.    Church  and  State. 

Calvin's  Church  polity  is  usually  styled  a  theocracy,  by 
friends  in  praise,  by  foes  in  censure.^  This  is  true,  but  in  a 
qualified  sense.  He  aimed  at  the  sole  rule  of  Christ  and  his 
Word  both  in  Church  and  State,  but  without  mixture  and 
interference.  The  two  powers  were  almost  equally  balanced 
in  Geneva.  The  early  Puritan  colonies  in  New  England 
were  an  imitation  of  the  Geneva  model. 

In  theory,  Calvin  made  a  clearer  distinction  between  the 
spiritual  and  secular  powers  than  was  usual  in  his  age,  when 
both  were  inextricably  interwoven  and  confused.  He  com- 
pares tlie  Church  to  the  soul,  the  State  to  the  body.     The 

1  By  Weber,  Henry,  and  Stahelin,  and  many  others;  also  by  Kampschulte, 
who  remarks  (I.  471):  "  Der  Grundgedanke,  von  dem  der  Gesetzgeher  Genfs 
ausgeht,  ist  die  Theoknttie.  Er  will  in  Genf  den  Gottesstaat  herstellen."  But 
Ame'de'e  Roget  (L'eglise  et  I'e'tat  a  Geneve  du  vivant  de  Calvin)  and  Merle 
d'Aubigne'  (vol.  VII.  120)  dissent  from  this  view  and  point  to  the  limitations 
of  the  ecclesiastical  power  in  Geneva.  Merle  d'Aubigne  says:  "Calvin  was 
not  a  theocrat,  unless  the  term  be  taken  in  the  most  spiritual  sense." 


472         THE    KEFOfiMATION    IN    FilENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

one  has  to  do  with  the  spiritual  and  eternal  welfare  of  man, 
the  other  with  the  affairs  of  this  present,  transitory  life.^ 
Each  is  independent  and  sovereign  in  its  own  sphere.  He 
was  opposed  to  any  interference  of  the  civil  government  with 
the  internal  affairs  and  discipline  of  the  Church.  He  was 
displeased  with  the  servile  condition  of  the  clergy  in  Ger- 
many and  in  Bern,  and  often  complained  (even  on  his  death- 
bed) of  the  interference  of  Bern  with  the  Church  in  Geneva. 
But  he  was  equally  opposed  to  a  clerical  control  of  civil  and 
political  affairs,  and  confined  the  Church  to  the  spiritual 
sword.  He  never  held  a  civil  office.  The  ministers  were  not 
eligible  to  the  magistracy  and  the  councils. 

Yet  he  did  not  go  so  far  as  to  separate  the  two  powers ; 
on  the  contrary,  he  united  them  as  closely  as  their  different 
functions  would  admit.  His  fundamental  idea  was,  that  God 
alone  is  Lord  on  earth  as  well  as  in  heaven,  and  should  rule 
supreme  in  Church  and  State.  In  this  sense  he  was  theo- 
cratic or  christocratic.  God  uses  Church  and  State  as  two 
distinct  but  co-operative  arms  for  the  upbuilding  of  Christ's 
kingdom.  The  law  for  both  is  the  revealed  will  of  God  in 
the  Holy  Scriptures.  The  Church  gives  moral  support  to 
the  State,  while  the  State  gives  temporal  support  to  the 
Church. 

Calvin's  ideal  of  Christian  society  resembles  that  of  Hilde- 
brand,  but  differs  from  it  on  the  following  important  points :  — 

1.  Calvin's  theory  professed  to  be  based  upon  the  Scrip- 
tures, as  the  only  rule  of  faith  and  practice ;  the  papal 
theocracy  drew  its  support  chiefly  from  tradition  and  the 
canon  law. 

Calvin's  arguments,  however,  are  exclusively  taken  from 
the  Old  Testament.  The  Calvinistic  as  well  as  the  papal 
theocracy  is  Mosaic  and  legalistic  rather  than  Christian  and 
evangelical.     The  Apostolic  Church  had  no  connection  what- 

^  Inst.  IV.  ch.  XX.  §  1.  "  Volui,"  he  wrote  to  a  friend,  "  sicnt  (vquiim  est, 
spiritualem  potestatem  a  civili  judicio  distingui,"     Epp.  et  Hesp.  263. 


§  103.    CHURCH    AND   STATE.  473 

ever  with  the  State  except  to  obey  its  legitimate  demands. 
Christ's  rule  is  expressed  in  that  wisest  word  ever  uttered  on 
this  subject :  "  Render  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's ; 
and  unto  God  the  things  that  are  God's  "  (Matt.  22:  21). 

2.  Calvin  recognized  only  the  invisible  headship  of  Christ, 
and  rejected  the  papal  claim  to  world-dominion  as  an  anti- 
christian  usurpation. 

3.  He  had  a  much  higher  view  of  the  State  than  the  popes. 
He  considered  it  equally  divine  in  origin  and  authority  as 
the  Church,  and  fully  independent  in  all  temporal  matters ; 
Avhile  the  papal  hierarchy  in  the  INIiddle  Ages  often  overruled 
the  State  by  ecclesiastical  authority.  Hildebrand  compared 
the  Church  to  the  sun,  the  State  to  the  moon  which  borrows 
her  light  from  the  sun,  and  claimed  and  exercised  the  right 
of  deposing  kings  and  absolving  subjects  from  their  oaths  of 
allegiance.  Boniface  VIH.  formulated  this  claim  in  the 
well-known  theory  of  the  two  swords. 

4.  Calvin's  theocracy  was  based  upon  the  sovereignty  of 
the  Christian  people  and  the  general  priesthood  of  believers ; 
the  papal  theocracy  was  an  exclusive  rule  of  the  priesthood. 

In  practice,  the  two  powers  were  not  as  clearly  distinct 
at  Geneva  as  in  theory.  They  often  intermeddled  with  each 
other.  The  ministers  criticised  the  acts  of  the  magistrates 
from  the  pulpit ;  and  the  magistrates  called  the  ministers  to 
account  for  their  sermons.  Discipline  was  a  common  terri- 
tory for  both,  and  the  Consistory  was  a  mixed  body  of  clergy- 
men and  laymen.  The  government  fixed  and  paid  the 
salaries  of  the  pastors,  and  approved  their  nomination  and 
transfer  from  one  parish  to  another.  None  could  even  absent 
himself  for  a  length  of  time  without  leave  by  the  Council. 
The  Large  Council  voted  on  the  Confession  of  Faith  and 
Discipline,  and  gave  them  the  power  of  law. 

The  Reformed  Church  of  Geneva,  in  one  word,  was  an 
established  Church  or  State  Church,  and  continues  so  to 
this  day,  though  no  more  in  an  exclusive  sense,  but  with 


474         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

liberty  to  Dissenters,  whether  Catholic  or  Protestant,  who 
have  of  late  been  increasing  by  immigration. 

The  union  of  Church  and  State  is  tacitly  assumed  or 
directly  asserted  in  nearly  all  the  Protestant  Confessions 
of  Faith,  which  make  it  the  duty  of  the  civil  government  to 
support  religion,  to  protect  orthodoxy,  and  to  punish  heresy .^ 

In  modern  times  the  character  of  the  State  and  its  attitude 
towards  the  Church  has  undergone  a  material  change  in 
Switzerland  as  well  as  in  other  countries.  The  State  is  no 
longer  identified  with  a  particular  Church,  and  has  become 
either  indifferent,  or  hostile,  or  tolerant.  It  is  composed  of 
members  of  all  creeds,  and  should,  in  the  name  of  justice, 
support  all,  or  none  ;  in  either  case  allowing  to  all  full  liberty 
as  far  as  is  consistent  with  the  public  peace. 

Under  these  circumstances  the  Church  has  to  choose 
between  liberty  with  self-support,  and  dependence  with  gov- 
ernment support.  If  Calvin  lived  at  this  day,  he  would 
undoubtedly  prefer  the  former.  Calvinists  and  Presbyterians 
have  taken  the  lead  in  the  struggle  for  Church  independence 
against  the  Erastian  and  rationalistic  encroachments  of  the 
civil  power.  Free  Churches  have  been  organized  in  French 
Switzerland  (Geneva,  Vaud,  Neuchatel),  in  France,  Holland, 
and  especially  in  Presbyterian  Scotland.  The  heroic  sacri- 
fices of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  in  seceding  from  the 
Established  Church,  and  making  full  provision  for  all  her 
wants  by  voluntary  contributions,  form  one  of  the  brightest 
chapters  in  the  history  of  Protestantism.  The  Dissenters  in 
England  have  always  maintained  and  exercised  the  voluntary 
principle  since  their  legal  recognition  by  the  Toleration  Act 
of  1689.     In  the  British  Provinces  and  in  North  America, 

1  Conf.  Helvetica  II.  ch.  XXX.;  Conf.  Gallicann,  cli.  XXXIX.  ("God  has 
put  the  sword  into  the  liands  of  magistrates  to  suppress  crimes  ag.iinst  the 
first  as  well  os  the  second  table  of  his  Coniraandments  ")  ;  Conf.  Belglca, 
ch.  XXXVI.;  Conf.  Scotica,  Art.  XXIV.;  Thirty-nine  Articles,  Art.  XXXVII. 
(changed  in  tlie  American  recension) ;  Westminster  Conf.  ch.  XXIII. 
(changed  in  tlie  American  recension). 


§   104.    ECCLESIASTICAL    ORDINANCES.  475 

all  denominations  are  on  a  basis  of  equality  before  the  law, 
and  enjoy,  under  the  protection  of  the  government,  full 
liberty  of  self-government  with  the  corresponding  duty  of 
self-support.  The  condition  of  modern  society  demands  a 
peaceful  separation  of  Church  and  State,  or  a  Free  Church 
in  a  Free  State. 

§  104.    The  Ecclesiastical  Ordinances. 

Conip.  §  83  (:352  sqq.)  and  §  80  (o07  sqq.).     Calvin  discusses  the  ministerial 
office  in  the  third  chapter  of  the  fourth  book  of  his  Institutes. 

Having  considered  Calvin's  general  principles  on  Church 
government,  we  proceed  to  their  introduction  and  application 
in  the  little  Kepublic  of  Geneva. 

We  have  seen  that  in  his  first  interview  with  the  Syndics 
and  Council  after  his  return,  Sept.  13,  1541,  he  insisted  on 
the  introduction  of  an  ecclesiastical  constitution  and  disci- 
pline in  accordance  with  the  Word  of  God  and  the  primitive 
Church.^  The  Council  complied  with  his  wishes,  and  in- 
trusted the  work  to  the  five  pastors  (Calvin,  Viret,  Jacques 
Bernard,  Henry  de  la  Mare,  and  Ayme  Champereau) .  and 
six  councillors  (decided  Guillermins),  to  Avhom  was  added 
Jean  Balard  as  advisory  member.  The  document  was  pre- 
pared under  his  directing  influence,  submitted  to  the  coun- 
cils, slightly  altered,  and  solemnly  ratified  by  a  general 
assembly  of  citizens  (the  Conseil  r/enSral),  Jan.  2,  1542, 
as  the  fundamental  church  law  of  the  Republic  of  Ge- 
neva.2  Its  essential  features  have  passed  into  the  constitution 
and  discipline  of  most  of  the  Reformed  and  Presbyterian 
Churches  of  Europe  and  America. 

The  official  text  of  the  "  Ordinances  "  is  preserved  in  the 

1  He  wrote  to  Farel,  Sept.  16,  1541  (in  Opera,  XI.  281 ;  Herminjard,  VII. 
249)  :  "  Exposui  {Senatui),  non  posse  consistere  ecclesiam,  nisi  certum  rerjimen  cori- 
sfitueretur,  quale  ex  Verho  Dei  nobis  pncscriptum  est,  et  in  veteri  Ecclesia  fuit 
observatum ." 

-  See  above,  p.  440. 


476         THE    EEFOEMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Registers  of  tlie  Venerable  Company,  and  opens  with  the 
follo^Wng  introduction :  — 

"  In  the  name  of  God  Almighty,  we,  the  Syndics,  Small  and  Great  Councils 
with  our  people  assembled  at  the  sound  of  the  trumpet  and  the  great  clock, 
according  to  our  ancient  customs,  have  considered  that  the  matter  above  all 
others  worthy  of  recommendation  is  to  preserve  the  doctrine  of  the  holy 
gospel  of  our  Lord  in  its  purity,  to  protect  the  Christian  Church,  to  instruct 
faithfully  the  youth,  and  to  provide  a  hospital  for  the  proper  support  of  the 
poor,  —  all  of  which  cannot  be  done  without  a  definite  order  and  rule  of  life, 
from  which  every  estate  may  learn  the  duty  of  its  office.  For  this  reason  we 
have  deemed  it  wise  to  reduce  the  spiritual  government,  such  as  our  Lord  has 
shown  us  and  instituted  by  his  Word,  to  a  good  form  to  be  introduced  and 
observed  among  us.  Therefore  we  have  ordered  and  established  to  follow 
and  to  guard  in  our  city  and  territory  the  following  ecclesiastical  polity,  taken 
from  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ."  ^ 

The  document  is  inspired  by  a  high  view  of  the  dignity 
and  responsibility  of  the  ministry  of  the  gospel,  such  as  we 
find  in  the  Epistles  of  Paul  to  the  Corinthians  and  Ephesians. 
"It  may  be  confidently  asserted,"  says  a  Catholic  historian,- 
"  that  in  no  religious  society  of  Christian  Europe  the  clergy 
was  assigned  a  position  so  dignitied,  prominent,  and  influen- 
tial as  in  the  Church  which  Calvin  built  up  in  Geneva." 

In  liis  Institutes  Calvin  distinguishes  three  extraordinary 
officers  of  the  Church,  —  Apostles,  Prophets,  and  Evangelists, 
—  and  four  ordinary  officers  —  Pastors  (Bishops),  Teachei-s, 
Ancients  (Lay-elders),  and  Deacons.^ 

Extraordinary  officers  were  raised  up  by  the  Lord  at  the 
beginning  of  his  kingdom,  and  are  raised  up  on  special  occa- 
sions when  required  "  by  the  necessity  of  the  times."  The 
Reformers  must  be  regarded  as  a  secondar}-  class  of  Apostles, 
Prophets,  and  Evangelists.  Calvin  liimself  intimates  the 
parallel  when  he  says :  *  "  I  do  not  deny  that  ever  since  that 
period  [of  the  Apostles]  God  has  sometimes  raised  up  Apos- 
tles or  Evangelists  in  their  stead,  as  lie  has  done  in  our  own 

^  The  French  text  in  Opera,  X.  16.  note  a. 

2  Kampschulte  I.  396. 

^  In  the  "  Ordinances  "  they  are  called  Pasteurs,  Dorteitrs,  Anciens,  Diacres. 

*  Inst.  IV.  cli.  III.  §  4. 


§  104.    ECCLESIASTICAL   OEDINAXCES.  477 

time.  For  there  was  a  necessity  for  such  pereons  to  recover 
the  Church  from  the  defection  of  Antichrist.  Nevertheless, 
I  call  this  an  extraordinar}-  office,  because  it  has  no  place  in 
well-constituted  Churches."  ^ 

The  extraordinary  offices  cannot  be  regulated  by  law. 
The  Ordinances,  therefore,  give  directions  only  for  the  ordi- 
nar}'  offices  of  the  Church. 

1.  The  Pastors,^  or  ministers  of  the  gospel,  as  Calvin 
likes  to  call  them,  have  "to  preach  the  Word  of  God,  to 
instruct,  to  admonish,  to  exhort  and  reprove  in  public  and 
private,  to  administer  the  sacraments,  and,  jointly  with  the 
elders,  to  exercise  discipline."  ^ 

No  one  can  be  a  pastor  who  is  not  called,  examined,  or- 
dained, or  installed.  In  the  examination,  the  candidate  must 
give  satisfactory  evidence  of  his  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures, 
his  soundness  in  doctrine,  purity  of  motives,  and  integrity  of 
character.  If  he  proves  worthy  of  the  office,  he  receives 
a  testimony  to  that  effect  from  the  Council  to  be  presented 
to  the  congregation.  If  he  fails  in  the  examination,  he  must 
wait  for  another  call  and  submit  to  another  examination. 
The  best  mode  of  installation  is  by  prayer  and  laying  on 
of  hands,  according  to  the  practice  of  the  Apostles  and  the 
early  Church ;  bat  it  should  be  done  without  superstition. 

All  the  ministers  are  to  hold  weekly  conferences  for 
mutual   instruction,    edification,   correction,    and   encourage- 


1  This  confirms  the  view  I  have  taken  of  Calvin's  extraordinary  calling 
(§  73,  pp.  313  sqq.).  In  his  letter  to  Sadolet  he  expresses  his  firm  conviction 
that  his  ministry  was  from  God.  (See  §  91,  pp.  398  sqq.)  Luther  had  the 
same  conviction  concerning  his  own  mission.  On  his  return  from  the  Wart- 
burg  to  Wittenberg,  he  wrote  to  the  Elector  Frederick  of  Saxony  that  he  had 
his  gospel  not  from  men,  but  from  heaven,  and  that  he  was  Christ's  evangelist. 

2  TToijueVej,  pastores,  Eph.  4:1L  They  are  the  same  with  Bishops  and 
Presbyters.  "  In  calling  those  who  preside  over  Churches  by  the  appellations 
of  '  Bishops,'  '  Presbyters,'  and  '  Pastors,'  without  any  distinction,  I  have  fol- 
lowed the  usage  of  the  Scripture."  Inst.  IV.  ch.  III.  §  8.  Then  he  quotes 
Phil.  1:1;  Tit.  1 :  5,  7 ;  Acts  20 :  17,  28.     See  above,  p.  469. 

"'  "  Faire  les  corrections  fraternelles." 


478         THE    KEFOKMATIOjST   in    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

ment  in  their  official  duties.  No  one  sliould  absent  himself 
without  a  good  excuse.  This  duty  devolves  also  on  the 
pastors  of  the  country  districts.  If  doctrinal  controversies 
arise,  the  ministers  settle  them  by  discussion  ;  and  if  they 
cannot  agree,  the  matter  is  referred  to  the  magistracy. 

Discipline  is  to  be  strictly  exercised  over  the  ministers, 
and  a  number  of  sins  and  vices  are  specified  which  cannot 
be  tolerated  among  them,  such  as  heresy,  schism,  rebellion 
against  ecclesiastical  order,  blasphemy,  impurity,  falsehood, 
perjury,  usury,  avarice,  dancing,  negligence  in  the  study  of 
the  Scriptures. 

The  Ordinances  prescribe  for  Sunday  a  service  in  the 
morning,  catechism  —  that  is,  instruction  of  little  children  — 
at  noon,  a  second  sermon  in  the  afternoon  at  three  o'clock. 
Three  sermons  are  to  be  preached  during  the  week  —  Mon- 
day, Tuesday,  and  Friday.  For  these  services  are  required,  in 
the  city,  five  regular  ministers  and  three  assistant  ministers. 

In  the  Institutes,  Calvin  describes  the  office  of  Pastors  to 
be  the  same  as  that  of  the  Apostles,  except  in  the  extent  of 
their  field  and  authority.  They  are  all  ambassadors  of  Christ 
and  stewards  of  the  mysteries  of  God  (1  Cor.  4:1).  What 
Paul  says  of  himself  applies  to  them  all :  "  Woe  is  to  me,  if 
I  preach  not  the  gospel "  (1  Cor.  9  :  16). 

2.  The  office  of  the  Teachers  ^  is  to  instruct  the  believers 
in  sound  doctrine,  in  order  that  the  purity  of  the  gospel  be 
not  corrupted  by  ignorance  or  false  opinions. 

Calvin  derived  the  distinction  between  Teachers  and  Pas- 
tors from  Eph.  4 :  11,  and  states  the  difference  to  consist  in 
this,  "  that  Teachers  have  no  official  concern  with  discipline, 
nor  the  administration  of  the  sacraments,  nor  admonitions 
and  exhortations,  but  only  with  tlie  interpretation  of  the 
Scripture;  whereas  the  pastoral  office  includes  all  these 
duties."^     He  also  says  that  the  Teachers  sustain  the  same 

1  5t5a(j-Ko\oi,  dortores,  Eph.  4:  11. 

2  Inst.  IV.  ch.  111.  §  4. 


§  104.  ecclesiAkStical  ordinances.  479 

resemblance  to  the  ancient  Prophets  as  the  Pastors  to  the 
Apostles.  He  himself  had  the  prophetic  gift  of  luminous 
and  convincing  teaching  in  a  rare  degree.  .  Theological  Pro- 
fessors occupy  the  highest  rank  among  Teachers. 

3.  The  Ancients  or  Lay-Elders  watch  over  the  good  con- 
duct of  the  people.  They  must  be  God-fearing  and  wise 
men,  without  and  above  suspicion.  Twelve  were  to  be 
selected  —  two  from  the  Little  Council,  four  from  the  Coun- 
cil of  the  Sixty,  and  six  from  the  Council  of  the  Two  Hun- 
dred.    Each  was  to  be  assigned  a  special  district  of  the  city. 

This  is  a  very  important  office  in  the  Presbyterian  Churches. 
In  the  Institutes^  Calvin  quotes  in  support  of  it  the  gifts 
of  government.^  "  From  the  beginning,"  he  says,^  "•  every 
Church  has  had  its  senate  or  council,  composed  of  pious, 
grave,  and  holy  men,  who  were  invested  with  that  jurisdic- 
tion in  the  correction  of  vices.  .  .  .  This  office  of  govern- 
ment is  necessary  in  every  age."  He  makes  a  distinction 
between  two  classes  of  Elders,  —  Ruling  Elders  and  Teach- 
ing Elders, — on  the  basis  of  1  Tim.  5:17:  "Let  the  elders 
that  rule  well  be  counted  worthy  of.  double  honor,  especially 
those  who  labor  in  the  word  and  in  teaching."  ^  The  ex- 
egetical  foundation  for  such  a  distinction  is  weak,  but  the 
ruling  Lay-Eldership  has  proved  a  very  useful  institution 
and  great  help  to  the  teaching  ministry. 

4.  The  Deacons  have  the  care  of  the  poor  and  the  sick, 
and  of  the  hospitals.  They  must  prevent  mendicancy  which 
is  contrary  to  good  order.^     Two  classes  of  Deacons  are  dis- 

^  Kv&epvflceLs,  1  Cor.  12:28;  comp.  Rom.  12:  8. 

2  Inst.  IV.  ch.  III.  §  8. 

^  In  his  Commentary  on  the  passage.  Comp.  Inst.  IV.  ch.  III.  §  8  :  "  Guherna- 
tores  fuisse  existimo  seniores  ex  plebe  delectos  qui  censurce  morum  et  exercendcc  dis- 
ciplince  una  cum  episcopis  prceessent."  The  distinction  was  first  made  by  Calvin 
and  followed  by  many  Presbyterian  and  some  Lutheran  divines,  but  it  is  denied 
by  some  of  the  best  modern  exegetes.  Paul  requires  all  presbyters  to  be 
apt  to  teach,  1  Tim.  3:2;  2  Tim.  2 :  2 ;  2  :  24.  See  Schaff's  History  of  the  Apos- 
tolic Church,  p.  529  sq. 

*  Acts  0:1-3;  Phil.  1 :  1 ;    1  Tim.  3 :  8  sqq.  ;  5 :  9,  10. 


480         THE   REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

tinguished,  those  who  administer  alms,  and  those  who  devote 
themselves  to  the  poor  and  sick.^ 

5.  Baptism  is"  to  be  performed  in  the  Church,  and  only  by 
ministers  and  their  assistants.  The  names  of  the  children 
and  their  parents  must  be  entered  in  the  Church  registers. 

6.  The  Lord's  Supper  is  to  be  administered  every  month 
in  one  of  the  Churches,  and  at  Easter,  Pentecost,  and 
Christmas.  The  elements  must  be  distributed  reverently  by 
the  ministers  and  deacons.  None  is  to  be  admitted  before 
having  been  instructed  in  the  catechism  and  made  a  pro- 
fession of  his  faith. 

The  remainder  of  the  Ordinances  contains  regulations 
about  marriage,  burial,  the  visitation  of  the  sick,  and  prisons. 

The  Ministers  and  Ancients  are  to  meet  once  a  week  on 
Thursday,  to  discuss  together  the  state  of  the  Church  and  to 
exercise  discipline.  The  object  of  discipline  is  to  bring  the 
sinner  back  to  the  Lord.^ 

The  Ecclesiastical  Ordinances  of  1541  were  revised  and  en- 
larged by  Calvin,  and  adopted  by  the  Little  and  Large  Coun- 
cils, Nov.  13,  1561.  This  edition  contains  also  the  oaths  of 
allegiance  of  the  Ministers,  Pastors,  Doctors,  Elders,  Dea- 
cons, and  the  members  of  the  Consistory,  and  fuller  directions 
concerning  the  administration  of  the  sacraments,  marriage, 
the  visitation  of  the  sick  and  prisoners,  the  election  of  mem- 
bers of  the  Consistory,  and  excommunication.^ 

A  new  revision  of  the  Ordinances  was  made  and  adopted 
by  the  General  Council,  June  3,  1576. 

§  105.    The  Venerable  Company  and  the  Consistory. 

The  Church  of  Geneva  consisted  of  all  baptized  and 
professing  Christians  subject  to  discipline.  It  had,  at  the 
time  of  Calvin,  a  uniform  creed;    Romanists  and  sectarians 

1  Comp.  the  Inst.  IV.  ch.  III.  9. 

2  "  Les  corrections  ne  soient  sinon  medicines  pour  reduyre  les  pecheurs  a  nostre 
Seigneur."  ^  Opera,  X.  Pars  I.  01-124. 


§  105.   THE    VENERABLE   COMPANY    AND   CONSISTORY.      481 

being  excluded.     It  was   represented  and  governed  by   the 
Venerable  Company  and  the  Consistory. 

1.  The  Venerable  Company  was  a  purely  clerical  body, 
consisting  of  all  the  pastors  of  the  city  and  district  of  Geneva. 
It  had  no  political  power.  It  was  intrusted  with  the  general 
supervision  of  all  strict!}"  ecclesiastical  affairs,  especially  the 
education,  qualification,  ordination,  and  installation  of  the 
ministers  of  the  gospel.  But  the  consent  of  the  civil  govern- 
ment and  the  congregation  was  necessary  for  the  final  induc- 
tion to  the  ministry.  Thus  the  pastors  and  the  people  were 
to  co-operate. 

2.  The  CoNSLSTORY  or  Presbytery  was  a  mixed  body 
of  clergymen  and  laymen,  and  larger  and  more  influential 
than  the  Venerable  Company.  It  represented  the  union 
of  Church  and  State.  It  embraced,  at  the  time  of  Calvin, 
five  city  Pastors  and  twelve  Seniors  or  Lay-Elders,  two 
of  whom  were  selected  from  the  Council  of  Sixty  and  ten 
from  the  Council  of  Two  Hundred.  The  laymen,  there- 
fore, had  the  majority ;  but  the  clerical  element  was  com- 
paratively fixed,  while  the  Elders  were  elected  annually 
under  the  influence  of  the  clergy.  A  Syndic  was  the 
constitutional  head.^  Calvin  never  presided  in  form,  but 
ruled  the  proceedings  in  fact  by  his  superior  intelligence 
and.  weighty  judgment.^ 

The  Consistory  went  into  operation  immediately  after  the 
adoption  of  the    Ordinances,  and  met  every  Thursday.     The 

1  The  revised  Ecrles.  Ordinances  of  1561  provide  {Opera,  X.  P.  I.  121)  that 
"  one  of  the  four  Syndics  preside  over  the  Consistory  with  the  marshal's  staff 
{avec  son  baton)  which  signifies  civil  jurisdiction  rather  than  spiritual  regime,. 
ajiii  dc  viieax  garder  la  distinction  qui  nous  est  monstre'e  en  V Escriture  saincte  entre 
Ic  i]laive  et  authorite'  du  Magistrat,  et  la  superintendence  qui  doit  estre  en  Eglise." 
This  regulation  of  Calvin  refutes  the  assertion  of  Dyer  (p.  142),  that 
"Calvin  usurped  the  perpetual  presidency  of  the  Consistory,"  and  that  "  he 
wished  Beza  to  succeed  him  in  this  presidenc}'." 

2  "  While  he  was  not  president  of  this  body,  it  may  be  trul}'  said  that  he 
was  its  soul."  Merle  d'Aubigne'  (VII.  120).  So  also  Cramer,  Roget,  andi 
others. 


482         THE    REFOEMATION    IN    EilENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

reports  begin  from  the  tenth  meeting,  which  was  hekl  on 
Thursday,  Feb.  16,  1542.1 

The  duty  of  the  Consistory  was  the  maintenance  and  exer- 
cise of  discipline.  Every  house  was  to  be  visited  annually 
by  a  Minister  and  Elder.  To  facilitate  the  working  of  this 
system  the  city  was  divided  into  three  parishes  —  St.  Peter's, 
the  Magdalen,  and  St.  Gervais.  Calvin  officiated  in  St. 
Peter's. 

The  Consistorial  Court  was  the  controlling  power  in  the 
Church  of  Geneva.  It  has  often  been  misrepresented  as  a 
sort  of  tribunal  of  Inquisition  or  Star  Chamber.  But  it 
could  onl}-  use  the  spiritual  sword,  and  had  nothing  to  do 
with  civil  and  temporal  punishments,  which  belonged  exclu- 
sively to  the  Council.  The  names  of  Gruet,  Bolsec,  and 
Servetus  do  not  even  appear  in  its  records.^  Calvin  wrote 
to  the  ministers  of  Ziirich,  Nov.  26,  1553 :  "'  The  Consistory 
has  no  civil  jurisdiction,  but  only  the  right  to  reprove  accord- 
ing to  the  Word  of  God,  and  its  severest  punishment  is 
excommunication."  ^  He  wisely  provided  for  the  preponder- 
ance of  the  lay-element. 

At  first  the  Council,  following  the  example  of  Basel  and 
Bern,  denied  to  the  Consistory  the  right  of  excommunica- 
tion.*    The  persons  excluded  from  the  Lord's  Table  usually 

1  AnnaL,  XXI.  291,  sub  Fevrier  16,  1542  :  "  Di.rieme  seance  dit  Consistoire, 
premiere  dont  il  existe  un  proces  verbal,  lequel  mentionne  entre  autres  la  pre'sence  de 

Calvin  et  de  Viret.  Les  autres  ministres  membres  du  C,  sont  Bernard,  Henri,  et 
Champeraux.  Viret  est  mentionne  pour  la  derniere  fois  le  18  juillet.  Calvin 
assiste  re'yulierement  aux  se'ances  pendant  tout  I'exercice  1542-43,  excepte'  cinq 
fois." 

2  A.  Roget,  I.e.,  p.  31:  "  Le  Consistoire  ne  pouvait  injliger  aucune  peine,  et, 
chose  remarquable,  il  n'avait  aucune  attribution  doctrinale.  L'ancien  syndic  Cramer, 
dans  Vexcelleute  preface  qu'il  a  place'e  en  tete  des  extraits  des  Registres  du  Con- 
sistoire, a  fait  observer  que  Gruet,  Bolsec  et  Servet  ne  sont  pas  meme  nomm€s  dans 
les  documents  qu'il  a  analyses ;  toutes  les  fois  qu'un  proces  de  doctrine  est  instruit, 
c'est  le  Conseil  qui  prononce,  sur  le  pre'avis  des  pasteurs." 

3  Opera,  XIV.  (575:  "  jVuIln  in  Consistorio  civitis  jurisdictio,  sed  tantum  repre- 
hensiones  ex  Verba  Domini:   ultima  vera  poena,  excommunicatio." 

*  On  March  19,  1543,  the  Council  of  the  Sixty  resolved  "que  le  Consistoire 
n'ait  ni  jurisdiction  ni  puissance  de  defendre  la  cine,  sinon  seulement  d'admonester 


§  105.    THE    VENERABLE    COMPANY    AND    CONSISTUKV.       483 

appealed  to  the  Council,  which  often  interceded  in  their 
behalf  or  directed  them  to  make  an  ajjology  to  the  Consistory. 
There  was  also  a  difference  of  opinion  as  regards  the  con- 
sequences of  excommunication.  The  Consistory  demanded 
that  persons  cut  off  from  the  Church  for  grievous  offenses 
and  scandalous  lives  should  be  banished  from  the  State  for 
a  year,  or  until  they  repent ;  but  the  Council  did  not  agree. 
Calvin  could  not  always  carry  out  his  views,  and  acted  on 
the  principle  to  tolerate  what  he  could  not  abolish.^  It  was 
only  after  his  final  victory  over  the  Libertines  in  1555  that 
the  Council  conceded  to  the  Consistory  the  undisputed  power 
of  excommunication.^ 

From  these  facts  we  may  judge  with  what  right  Calvin 
has  so  often  been  called  "the  Pope  of  Geneva,"  mostly  by 
way  of  reproach.^  As  far  as  the  designation  is  true,  it  is  an 
involuntary  tribute  to  his  genius  and  character.  For  he  had 
no  material  support,  and   he  never  used  his  influence    for 

et  puis  fair e  relation  en  Conseil,  ajin  que  la  Sei(/neurie  arise  de  juger  sur  les  delin- 
qitants  suivant  leiir  de'me'rites."  Reg.,  quoted  by  Roget,  p.  37.  A  month  before, 
the  government  of  Bern  had  categorically  refused  the  right  of  excommunica- 
tion to  the  ministers  of  Lausanne.     Ruchat,  V.  211. 

1  "  Tolero  quod  tollere  nan  licet,"  as  he  says  in  one  of  his  letters. 

2  Roget  (p.  67)  :  "  Le  point  de  vtie  soutenu  par  Calvin  dans  la  question  de  la 
cene  avait  enfin  triomphe'  irrevocablement  et,  des  1555,  nous  trouvons  le  Consistoire 
en  possession,  d'une  maniere  incontest^e,  du  droit  d'accorder  ou  de  refuser  la  partici- 
pation aux  sacrements.  Toute/ois,  le  Conseil  et  les  ministres  ne  sont  pas  compl^te- 
ment  d'accord  sur  les  consequences  que  doit  entrainer  V excommunication." 

3  Roget  (p.  83  sq.)  has  collected  such  exaggerated  judgments  from  several 
French  writers  and  contradicts  them.  Florimond  de  Rsemond  says :  "  Calvin 
se  rendit  le  maistre,  Vevesque,  le  seigneur,  disposant  de  la  religion,  de  I'estat,  de  la 
ville,  du  gouvernement,  de  la  police,  comme  bon  luy  semhloit."  Duruy :  "  Calvin 
eut  des  1541  et  exer^a  jusqu'a  sa  mort  un  pouvoir  absolu.  II  organisa  le  gou- 
vernement de  Geneve  au  profit  presque  e.rclusif  des  ministres  du  culte  reforme" 
Capefigue :  "  Calvin  r€unissait  tous  les  Jils  du  pouvoir  supreme  en  sa  personne." 
Paul  Janet :  "  Calvin  a  e'te  le  magistrat  supreme  d'une  de'mocratie."  Rosseuw  St. 
Hilaire :  "  Tout  exces  appelle  une  reaction  en  sens  contraire,  Calvin  subordonne 
I'Etat  a  I'Eglise."  Saisset :  "  L'Etat  devenait  une  the'ocratie  et  les  citoyens  de 
Geneve  n'e'taient  plus  que  les  sujets  d'un  petit  nombre  de  ministres,  sujets  eux-memes 
de  Calvin,  lequel  dominait  les  trois  Conseils  du  sein  du  Consistoire  et  paraissait 
a  la /bis  le  ROi  et  le  pontife  souveraln  de  la  cite'." 


484    THE  REFORMATION  IN  FRENCH  SWITZERLAND. 

gain   or  personal  ends.     The   Genevese  knew  him  well  and 
obeyed  him  freely. 

§  106.    Calvin  s  Theory  of  Discipline. 

Discipline  is  so  important  an  element  in  Calvin's  Church 
polity,  that  it  must  be  more  fully  considered.  Discipline 
was  the  cause  of  his  expulsion  from  Geneva,  the  basis  of  his 
flourishing  French  congregation  at  Strassburg,  the  chief 
reason  for  his  recall,  the  condition  of  his  acceptance,  the 
struggle  and  triumph  of  his  life,  and  the  secret  of  his  moral 
influence  to  this  day.  His  rigorous  discipline,  based  on  his 
rigorous  creed,  educated  the  heroic  French,  Dutch,  English, 
Scotch,  and  American  Puritans  (using  this  word  in  a  wider 
sense  for  strict  Calvinists).  It  fortified  them  for  their  trials 
and  persecutions,  and  made  them  promoters  of  civil  and 
religious  liberty. 

The  severity  of  the  system  has  passed  away,  even  in  Ge- 
neva, Scotland,  and  New  England,  but  the  result  remains  in 
the  power  of  self-government,  the  capacity  for  organization, 
the  order  and  practical  efficiency  which  characterizes  the 
Reformed  Churches  in  Europe  and  America. 

Calvin's  great  aim  was  to  realize  the  purity  and  holiness 
of  the  Church  as  far  as  human  weakness  will  permit.  He 
kept  constantly  in  view  the  ideal  of  "  a  Church  without  spot 
or  wrinkle  or  blemish,"  which  Paul  describes  in  the  Epistle 
to  the  Ephesians  (5  :  27).  He  wanted  every  Christian  to  be 
consistent  with  his  profession,  to  show  his  faith  by  good 
works,  and  to  strive  to  be  perfect  as  our  Father  in  heaven  is 
perfect.  He  was  the  only  one  among  the  Reformers  who 
attempted  and  who  measurably  carried  out  this  sublime  idea 
in  a  whole  community. 

Luther  thought  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  would  bring 
about  all  the  necessary  changes,  but  he  had  to  complain  bit- 
terlv,  at  the  end  of  his  life,  of  the  dissolute  manners  of  the 


§  106.  Calvin's  theory  of  discipline.  485 

students  and  citizens  at  Wittenberg,  and  seriously  thought 
of  leaving  the  city  in  disgust. ^ 

Calvin  knew  well  enough  that  the  ideal  could  only  be 
imperfectly  realized  in  this  world,  but  that  it  was  none  the 
less  our  duty  to  strive  after  perfection.  He  often  quotes 
Augustin  against  the  Donatists  who  dreamed  of  an  imaginary 
purity  of  the  Church,  like  the  Anabaptists  who,  he  observes, 
"  acknowledge  no  congregation  to  belong  to  Christ,  unless  it 
be  in  all  respects  conspicuous  for  angelic  perfection,  and 
who,  under  pretext  of  zeal,  destroy  all  edification."  He  con- 
sents to  Augustin's  remark  that  "schemes  of  separation  are 
pernicious  and  sacrilegious,  because  they  proceed  from  pride 
and  impiety,  and  disturb  the  good  who  are  weak,  more  than 
they  correct  the  wicked  who  are  bold."  In  commenting  on 
the  parable  of  the  net  which  gathered  of  every  kind  (Matt. 
13  :  47),  he  says :  "  The  Church  while  on  earth  is  mixed 
with  good  and  bad  and  will  never  be  free  of  all  impurity.  .  .  . 
Although  God,  who  is  a  God  of  order,  commands  us  to  exer- 
cise discipline,  he  allows  for  a  time  to  hypocrites  a  place 
among  believers  until  he  shall  set  up  his  kingdom  in  its  per- 
fection on  the  last  day.  As  far  as  we  are  concerned,  we  must 
strive  to  correct  vices  and  to  purge  the  Church  of  impurity, 
although  she  will  not  be  free  from  all  stain  and  blemish  till 
Christ  shall  separate  the  goats  from  the  sheep."  ^ 

Calvin  discusses  the  subject  of  discipline  in  the  twelfth 
chapter  of  the  fourth  book  of  his  Institutes.  His  \dews  are 
sound  and  scriptural.     "  No  society,"  he  says  at  the  outset, 

1  Friederich  Julius  Stahl,  a  convert  from  Judaism,  a  A'ery  able  lawyer  and 
statesman,  and  one  of  the  chief  champions  of  modern  high-church  Lutheran- 
ism,  whose  motto  was,  "  Authority,  not  Majority"  (although  his  wife  was 
Reformed  and  he  himself  attributed  his  conversion  to  the  Reformed  Professor 
Krafft  in  Erlangen),  says  in  his  book.  Die  Lutherisrhe  Kirche  nnd  die  Union 

(1860),  that  Calvin  introduced  a  new  principle  into  Protestantism;  namely, 
the  glorification  of  God  by  the  full  dominion  of  his  "Word  in  the  life  of  Chris- 
tendom {"die    Verherrlichung   Gottes  durch  die  wirliiclie  voile  Herrschaft  seines 

Wortjs  im  Leben  der  Cfirisfenheit"'). 

2  In  Tholuck's  ed.  of  Calvin's  Harmony  of  the  Gospels,  I.  P.  II.  21. 


486    THE  REFORMATION  IN  FRENCH  SWITZERLAND. 

"  no  house  can  be  preserved  in  proper  condition  without  dis- 
cipline. The  Church  ought  to  be  the  most  orderly  society 
of  all.  As  the  saving  doctrine  of  Christ  is  the  soul  of  the 
Church,  so  discipline  forms  the  nerves  and  ligaments  which 
connect  the  members  and  keep  each  in  its  proper  place.  It 
serves  as  a  bridle  to  curb  and  restrain  the  refractory  who 
resist  the  doctrine  of  Christ;  or  as  a  spur  to  stimulate  the 
inactive  ;  and  sometimes  as  a  father's  rod  to  chastise,  in  mercy 
and  with  the  gentleness  of  the  spirit  of  Christ,  those  who 
have  grievously  fallen  away.  It  is  the  only  remedy  against 
a  dreadful  desolation  in  the  Church." 

One  of  the  greatest  objections  which  he  had  against  the 
Roman  Church  of  his  day  was  the  utter  want  of  discipline 
in  constant  violation  of  the  canons.  He  asserts,  without  fear 
of  contradiction,  that  "  there  was  scarcely  one  of  the  (Roman) 
bishops,  and  not  one  in  a  hundred  of  the  parochial  clergy, 
who,  if  sentence  were  to  be  passed  upon  his  conduct  accord- 
ing to  the  ancient  canons,  would  not  be  excommunicated,  or, 
to  say  the  very  least,  deposed  from  his  office."  ^ 

He  distinguished  between  the  discipline  of  the  people  and 
the  discipline  of  the  clergy .^ 

1.  The  discipline  of  members  has  three  degrees :  private 
admonition ;  a  second  admonition  in  the  presence  of  wit- 
nesses or  before ,  the  Church ;  and,  in  case  of  persistent 
disobedience,  exclusion  from  the  Lord's  Table.  This  is 
in    accordance  with  the  rule   of   Christ  (Matt.  18  :  15-17). 

1  Inst.  IV.  cli.  V.  §  14.  In  the  same  chapter  (§  1)  he  says  of  the  bishops 
of  his  day  that  most  of  them  were  ignorant  of  the  Scriptures,  and  either 
drunkards  or  fornicators  or  gamblers  or  hunters.  "The  greatest  absurdity 
is  that  even  boys,  scarcely  ten  years  of  age,  have,  by  the  permission  of  the 
pope,  been  made  bishops."  Pope  Leo  X.  himself  was  made  archbishop  in  his 
eighth  and  cardinal-deacon  in  his  thirteenth  year.  The  Roman  Church  at 
that  time  tolerated  almost  anything  but  heresy  and  disobedience  to  the  pope, 
which  in  her  eyes  is  worse  than  the  greatest  moral  crime. 

2  He  objects  to  the  word  clergy  as  originating  in  a  mistake,  since  Peter 
(1  Pet.  5  :3)  calls  the  whole  Church  God's  KXripot  or  possessions;  but  he  uses 
it  for  the  sake  of  convenience. 


§  106.    CALVIN'S   THEORY    OF   DISCIPLINE.  487 

The  object  of  discipline  is  threefold:  to  protect  the  body 
of  the  Church  against  contamination  and  profanation;  to 
guard  the  individual  members  against  the  corrupting  influence 
of  constant  association  with  the  wicked;  and  to  bring  the 
offender  to  repentance  that  he  may  be  saved  and  restored  to 
the  fellowship  of  the  faithful.  Excommunication  and  subse- 
quent restoration  were  exercised  by  Paul  in  the  case  of  the 
Corinthian  offender,  and  by  the  Church  in  her  purer  days. 
Even  the  Emperor  Theodosius  was  excluded  from  communion 
by  Bishop  Ambrose  of  Milan  on  account  of  the  massacre  per- 
petrated in  Thessalonica  at  his  order.^ 

Excommunication  should  be  exercised  only  against  flagi- 
tious crimes  which  disgrace  the  Christian  profession ;  such  as 
adultery,  fornication,  theft,  robbery,  sedition,  perjury,  con- 
tempt of  God  and  his  authority.  Nor  should  it  be  exercised 
by  the  bishop  or  pastor  alone,  but  by  the  body  of  elders,  and, 
as  is  pointed  out  by  Paul,  "  with  the  knowledge  and  appro- 
bation of  the  congregation  ;  in  such  a  manner,  however,  that 
the  multitude  of  the  people  may  not  direct  the  proceeding, 
but  may  watch  over  it  as  witnesses  and  guardians,  that  noth- 
ing be  done  by  a  few  persons  from  any  improper  motive." 
Moreover,  "the  severity  of  the  Church  must  be  tempered 
by  a  spirit  of  gentleness.  For  there  is  constant  need  of 
the  greatest  caution,  according  to  the  injunction  of  Paul  con- 
cerning a  person  who  may  have  been  censured,  '  lest  by  any 
means  such  a  one  should  be  swallowed  up  with  his  overmuch 
sorrow '  (2  Cor.  2:7);  for  thus  a  remedy  would  become  a 
poison." 

When  the  sinner  gives  reasonable  evidence  of  repentance 

1  Calvin  quotes  also  Chrysostom's  famous  warning  against  the  profana- 
tion of  the  sacrament  by  the  connivance  of  unfaithful  priests :  "  Blood  shall 
be  required  at  your  hands.  Let  us  not  be  afraid  of  sceptres  or  diadems  or 
imperial  robes ;  we  have  here  a  greater  power.  As  for  myself,  I  will  rather 
give  up  my  body  to  death  and  suffer  my  blood  to  be  shed,  than  I  will  be  a 
partaker  of  this  pollution."  There  is  a  strong  resemblance  between  Calvin 
and'Chrysostom,  both  as  commentators  and  as  fearless  disciplinarians. 


488         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    S\YITZERLAND. 

he  is  to  be  restored.  Calvin  objects  to  "  the  excessive  au- 
sterity of  the  ancients,"  who  refused  to  readmit  the  lapsed. 
He  approves  of  the  course  of  Cyprian,  who  says :  "  Our 
patience  and  kindness  and  tenderness  is  ready  for  all  who 
come ;  I  wish  all  to  return  into  the  Church ;  I  wish  all  our 
fellow-soldiers  to  be  assembled  in  the  camp  of  Christ,  and  all 
our  brethren  to  be  received  into  the  house  of  God  our  Father. 
I  forgive  everything ;  I  conceal  much.  With  ready  and  sin- 
cere affection  I  embrace  those  who  return  with  penitence." 
Calvin  adds :  "  Such  as  are  expelled  from  the  Church,  it  is 
not  for  us  to  expunge  from  the  number  of  the  elect,  or  to 
despair  of  them  as  already  lost.  It  is  proper  to  consider 
them  as  strangers  to  the  Church,  and  consequently  to  Christ, 
but  this  only  as  long  as  they  remain  in  a  state  of  exclusion. 
And  even  then  let  us  hope  better  things  of  them  for  the 
future,  and  not  cease  to  pray  to  God  on  their  behalf.  Let 
us  not  condemn  to  eternal  death  the  offender,  nor  prescribe 
laws  to  the  mercy  of  God  who  can  change  the  worst  of  men 
into  the  best."  He  makes  a  distinction  between  excommu- 
nication and  anathema ;  the  former  censures  and  punishes 
with  a  view  to  reformation  and  restoration ;  the  latter  pre- 
cludes all  pardon,  and  devotes  a  person  to  eternal  perdition. 
Anathema  ought  never  to  be  resorted  to,  or  at  least  very 
rarely.  Church  members  ought  to  exert  all  means  in  their 
power  to  promote  the  reformation  of  an  excommunicated  per- 
son, and  admonish  him  not  as  an  enemy,  but  as  a  brother 
(2  Cor.  2:8).  "Unless  this  tenderness  be  observed  by  the 
individual  members  as  well  as  by  the  Church  collectively, 
our  discipline  will  be  in  danger  of  speedily  degenerating  into 
cruelty." 

2.  As  regards  the  discipline  of  the  clerg3%  Calvin  objects 
to  the  exemption  of  ministers  from  civil  jurisdiction,  and 
wants  them  to  be  subject  to  the  same  punishments  as  laymen. 
They  are  more  guilty,  as  they  ought  to  set  a  good  example. 
He  quotes  with  approval  the  ancient  canons,  so  shamefully 


§  107.    THE   EXERCISE   OF    DISCIPLINE  IN   GENEVA.        489 

neglected  in  the  Roman  Church  of  his  day,  against  hunting, 
gambling,  feasting,  usury,  commerce,  and  secular  amuse- 
ments. He  recommends  annual  visitations  and  synods  for 
the  correction  and  examination  of  delinquent  clergymen. 

But  he  rejects  the  prohibition  of  clerical  marriage  as  an 
"act  of  impious  tyranny  contrary  to  the  Word  of  God  and 
to  every  principle  of  justice.  With  what  impunity  fornica- 
tion rages  among  them  [the  papal  clergy]  it  is  unnecessary 
to  remark ;  emboldened  by  their  polluted  celibacy,  they  have 
become  hardened  to  every  crime.  .  .  .  Paul  places  marriage 
among  the  virtues  of  a  bishop :  these  men  teach  that  it  is 
a  vice  not  to  be  tolerated  in  the  clergy.  .  .  .  Christ  has 
been  pleased  to  put  such  honor  upon  marriage  as  to  make  it 
an  image  of  his  sacred  union  ^ath  the  Church.  What  could 
be  said  more  in  commendation  of  the  dignity  of  marriage? 
With  what  face  can  that  be  called  impure  and  polluted, 
which  exhibits  a  similitude  of  the  spiritual  grace  of  Christ? 
.  .  .  Marriage  is  honorable  in  all ;  but  whoremongers  and 
adulterers  God  will  judge  (Heb.  13:4).  The  Apostles  them- 
selves have  proved  by  their  own  example  that  marriage  is 
not  unbecoming  the  sanctity  of  anj^  office,  however  excellent : 
for  Paul  testifies  that  they  not  only  retained  their  wives,  but 
took  them  about  with  them  (1  Cor.  9:  5).'" 

§  107.    Tlie  Exercise  of  Discipline  in  Geneva. 

Calvin  succeeded  after  a  fierce  struggle  in  infusing  the 
Church  of  Geneva  with  his  views  on  discipline.  The  Con- 
sistory and  the  Council  rivalled  with  each  other,  under  his 
inspiration,  in  puritanic  zeal  for  the  correction  of  immorality ; 
but  their  zeal  sometimes  transgressed  the  dictates  of  wisdom 
and  moderation.  The  union  of  Church  and  State  rests  on 
the  false  assumption  that  all  citizens  are  members  of  the 
Church  and  subject  to  discipline. 

Dancing,  gambling,  drunkenness,  the  frequentation  of  tav- 


490         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

erns,  profanity,  luxury,  excesses  at  public  entertainments, 
extravagance  and  immodesty  in  dress,  licentious  or  irreligious 
songs  were  forbidden,  and  punished  by  censure  or  fine  or  im- 
prisonment. Even  the  number  of  dishes  at  meals  was  regu- 
lated. Drunkards  were  lined  three  sols  for  eacli  offence. 
Habitual  gamblers  were  exposed  in  the  pillory  with  cords 
around  their  neck.  Reading  of  bad  books  and  immoral 
novels  was  also  prohibited,  and  the  popular  "  Amadis  de 
Gaul"  was  ordered  to  be  destroyed  (1559).  A  morality  play 
on  "the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,"  after  it  had  been  performed 
several  times,  and  been  attended  even  by  the  Council,  was 
forbidden.  Parents  were  warned  against  naming  their 
children  after  Roman  Catholic  saints  who  nourished  certain 
superstitions ;  instead  of  them  the  names  of  Abraham,  Moses, 
David,  Daniel,  Zechariah,  Jeremiah,  Nehemiah  became  com- 
mon. (This  preference  for  Old  Testament  names  was  carried 
even  further  by  the  Puritans  of  England  and  New  England.) 
The  death  penalty  against  heresy,  idolatry,  and  blasphemy, 
and  the  barbarous  custom  of  the  torture  were  retained. 
Adultery,  after  a  second  offence,  was  likewise  punished  by 
death. 

These  were  prohibitive  and  protective  laws  intended  to 
prevent  and  punish  irreli^ion  and  immorality. 

But  the  Council  introduced  also  coercive  laws,  which  are 
contrary  to  the  nature  of  religion,  and  apt  to  breed  hypocrisy 
or  infidelity.  Attendance  on  public  worship  was  commanded 
on  penalty  of  three  sols.^  When  a  refugee  from  Lyons  once 
gratefully  exclaimed,  "  How  glorious  is  the  liberty  we  enjoy 
here,"  a  woman  bitterly  replied:  "  Free  indeed  we  formerly 
were  to  attend  mass,  but  now  we.  are  compelled  to  hear  a 
sermon."     Watchmen  were  appointed  to  see  that  people  went. 

^  "  Les  ministres  out  pri€  que  Ion  advise  de  fere  venyr  les  gens  ant  sermon  et  spe- 
cialement  les  dimanches  et  le  iour  des  prieres  affin  de  prier  D'leu  qui  nous  assiste, 
voyeant  le  trouble  quest  en  leglise  de  Dieu  et  la  machination  dresse  contre  les  fidelles. 

ARRfiTE    QUI    IMPOSE    UNE    AMENDE    DE    3    SOLZ    A    CEUX    QUI    NE    VIENDRAIENT 

PAS."     {Beg.  du  Conseit.)     In  AnnaL,  394  sub  Jan.  17,  1547. 


§   107.    THE    EXERCISE    OE    DISCIPLINE    IN    GENEVA.        491 

to  church.  The  members  of  the  Consistory  visited  every 
house  once  a  year  to  examine  into  the  faith  and  morals  of  the 
family.  Every  unseemly  word  and  act  on  the  street  was 
reported,  and  the  offenders  were  cited  before  the  Consistory 
to  be  either  censured  and  warned,  or  to  be  handed  over  to 
the  Council  for  severer  punishment.  No  respect  was  paid  to 
person,  rank,  or  sex.  The  strictest  impartiality  was  main- 
tained, and  members  of  the  oldest  and  most  distinguished 
families,  ladies  as  well  as  gentlemen,  were  treated  with  the 
same  severity  as  poor  and  obscure  people. 

Let  us  give  a  summary  of  the  most  striking  cases  of  disci- 
pline. Several  women,  among  them  the  wife  of  Ami  Perrin, 
the  captain-general,  were  imprisoned  for  dancing  (which  was 
usually  connected  with  excesses).  Bonivard,  the  hero  of 
political  liberty,  and  a  friend  of  Calvin,  was  cited  before  the 
Consistory  because  he  had  played  at  dice  with  Clement 
Marot,  the  poet,  for  a  quart  of  wine.^  A  man  was  banished 
from  the  city  for  three  months  because,  on  hearing  an  ass 
bray,  he  said  jestingly:  "He  prays  a  beautiful  psalm." ^  A 
young  man  was  punished  because  he  gave  his  bride  a  book 
on  housekeeping  with  the  remark:  "This  is  the  best  Psalter." 
A  lady  of  Ferrara  was  expelled  from  the  city  for  expressing 
sympathy  with  the  Libertines,  and  abusing  Calvin  and  the 
Consistory.  Three  men  Avho  had  laughed  during  the  sermon 
were  impiisoned  for  three  days.  Another  had  to  do  public 
penance  for  neglecting  to  commune  on  Whitsunday.  Three 
children  were  punished  because  they  remained  outside  of  the 
church  during  the  sermon  to  eat  cakes.  A  man  who  swore 
by  the  "  body  and  blood  of  Christ "  was  fined  and  condemned 
to  stand  for  an  hour  in  the  pillory  on  the  public  square. 
A  child  was  whipped  for  calling  his  mother  a  thief  and  a 
she-devil  (diabless).  A  girl  was  beheaded  for  striking  her 
parents,  to  vindicate  the  dignity  of  the  fifth  commandment. 

1  Roget,  Peuple  de  Geneve,  II.  29,  quoted  by  Merle  d'Aubigne,  VII.  124. 

2  "  //  chante  un  beau  psaume." 


492        THE   REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZEIILAND. 

A  banker  was  executed  for  repeated  adultery,  but  he  died 
penitent  and  praised  God  for  the  triumph  of  justice.  A  person 
named  Chapuis  was  imprisoned  for  four  days  because  he  per- 
sisted in  calling  his  child  Claude  (a  Roman  Catholic  saint) 
instead  of  Abraham,  as  the  minister  wished,  and  saying  tliut 
he  would  sooner  keep  his  son  unbaptized  for  fifteen  years. ^ 
Bolsec,  Gentilis,  and  Castellio  were  expelled  from  the  Repub- 
lic for  heretical  opinions.  Men  and  women  were  burnt  for 
witchcraft.  Gruet  was  beheaded  for  sedition  and  atheism. 
Servetus  was  burnt  for  heresy  and  blasphemy.  The  last  is 
the  most  flagrant  case  which,  more  than  all  others  combined, 
has  exposed  the  name  of  Calvin  to  abuse  and  execration ;  but 
it  should  be  remembered  that  lie  wished  to  substitute  the 
milder  punishment  of  the  SAvord  for  the  stake,  and  in  this 
point  at  least  he  was  in  advance  of  the  public  opinion  and 
usual  practice  of  his  age.^ 

The  official  acts  of  the  Council  from  1541  to  1559  exhibit 
a  dark  chapter  of  censures,  fines,  imprisonments,  and  execu- 
tions. During  the  ravages  of  the  pestilence  in  1545  more 
than  twenty  men  and  women  were  burnt  alive  for  witchcraft, 
and  a  wicked  conspiracy  to  spread  the  horrible  disease.^ 
From  1542  to  1546  fifty-eight  judgments  of  death  and 
seventy-six  decrees  of  banishments  were  passed.^  During 
the  years  1558  and  1559  the  cases  of  various  punishments  for 

1  Registers  for  April  27,  1546.     Henry  II.  429. 

^  For  a  fuller  statement  see  chap.  XVI. 

^  Calvin  himself  states  this  fact  in  a  letter  to  Myconius  of  Basel,  March 
27, 1545  (Opera,  XII.  55  ;  Bonnet,  I.  428),  where  he  says  :  "  A  conspiracy  of  men 
and  women  has  lately  been  discovered,  who,  for  the  space  of  three  years,  had 
spread  the  plague  through  the  city  bj'  what  mischievous  device  I  know  not. 
After  fifteen  women  have  been  burnt,  some  men  have  even  been  punished 
more  severely,  some  have  committed  suicide  in  prison,  and  while  twenty- 
five  are  still  kept  prisoners,  —  the  conspirators  do  not  cease,  notwithstanding, 
to  smear  the  door-locks  of. the  dwelling-houses  with  their  poisonous  ointment. 
You  see  in  the  midst  of  what  perils  we  are  tossed  about.  The  Lord  hath 
hitherto  preserved  our  dwelling,  though  it  has  more  than  once  been  attempted. 
It  is  well  that  we  know  ourselves  to  be  under  His  en  re." 

*  According  to  Galiffe,  as  quoted  by  Kampschultc,  I.  425. 


§   107.    THE    EXEKCISE    OF    DISCIPLINE    IN    GENKVA.  493 

all  sorts  of  offences  amounted  to  four  hundred  and  fourteen 
—  a  very  large  proportion  for  a  population  of  20,000. 

The  enemies  of  Calvin — liolsec,  Audin,  Galiffe  (father 
and  son)  —  make  the  most  of  these  facts,  and,  ignoring  all 
the  good  he  has  done,  condemn  the  great  Reformer  as  a 
heartless  and  cruel  tyrant.^ 

It  is  impossible  to  deny  that  this  kind  of  legislation  savors 
more  of  the  austerity  of  old  heathen  Rome  and  the  Levitical 
code  than  of  the  gospel  of  Christ,  and  that  the  actual  exer- 
cise of  discipline  was  often  petty,  pedantic,  and  unnecessarily 
severe.  Calvin  was,  as  he  himself  confessed,  not  free  from 
impatience,  passion,  and  anger,  which  were  increased  by  his 
physical  infirmities  ;  but  he  was  influenced  b}-  an  honest  zeal 
for  the  purit}'  of  the  Church,  and  not  by  personal  malice. 
When  he  was  threatened  by  Perrin  and  the  Favre  family 
with  a  second  expulsion,  he  wrote  to  Perrin :  "  Such  threats 
make  no  impression  upon,  me.  I  did  not  return  to  Geneva  to 
obtain  leisure  and  profit,  nor  will  it  be  to  my  sorrow  if  I  should 
have  to  leave  it  again.  It  was  the  welfare  and  safety  of 
the  Church  and  State  that  induced  me  to  return." ^  He  must 
be  judged  by  the  standard  of  his  own,  and  not  of  our,  age. 
The  most  cruel  of  those  laws  —  against  witchcraft,  heresy, 
and  blasphemy  —  were  inherited  from  the  Catholic  Middle 
Ages,  and   continued  in  force  in  all  countries  of  Europe, 

1  Take  the  following  rhetorical  caricature  of  Calvin's  and  Colladon's 
politico-religious  code  of  laws  from  Audin  {Life  of  Calvin,  ch.  XXXVI.  .354, 
Am.  ed.)  :  "There  is  but  one  word  heard  or  read:  Dcatli.  Death  to  every- 
one guilty  of  high  treason  against  God ;  death  to  every  one  guilty  of  high 
treason  against  the  State ;  death  to  the  son  that  strikes  or  curses  his  father ; 
death  to  the  adulterer ;  death  to  heretics.  .  .  .  During  the  space  of  twenty- 
years,  commencing  from  the  date  of  Calvin's  recall,  the  history  of  Geneva  is 
a  bloody  drama,  in  which  pit}-,  dread,  terror,  indignation,  and  tears,  by  turns, 
appear  to  seize  upon  the  soul.  At  each  step  we  encounter  chains,  thongs, 
a  stake,  pincers,  melted  pitch,  fire,  and  sulphur.  And  throughout  the  whole 
there  is  blood.  One  imagines  himself  in  Dante's  Hell,  where  sighs,  groans, 
and  lamentations  continually  resound." 

-  This  letter  to  Perrin  is  undated,  but  is  probably  from  April,  1546.  See 
Opera,  XII.  338  sq.  and  Bonnet,  II.  42  sq. 


494        THE   EEFOKMATION    IN    FEENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Protestant  as  well  as  Roman  Catholic,  down  to  the  end  of 
the  seventeenth  century.  Tolerance  is  a  modern  virtue.  We 
shall  return  to  this  subject  again  in  the  chapter  on  Servetus. 

§  108.    Calvin  s  Struggle  with  the  Patriots  and  Libertines. 

Contre  la  secte  phantastique  et  furieuse  des  Libertins  qui  se  tiomnient  Spirituelz. 
Geneva,  1545 ;  2d  ed.  1547.  Reprinted  in  Opera,  vol.  VII.  145-252.  Latin 
version  by  Nic.  des  Gallars,  1546.  Farel  also  wrote  a  French  book 
against  the  Libertines,  Geneva,  1550. 

The  works  of  J.  A.  Galiffe  and  J.  B.  G.  Galiffe  on  the  Genevese  families 
and  the  criminal  processes  of  Perrin,  Ameaux,  Berthelier,  etc.,  quoted 
above,  p.  224.  Hostile  to  Calvin.  —  Audin,  chs.  XXXV.,  XXXVI.,  and 
XLIII.     Likewise  hostile. 

F.  Trechsel  :  Libertiner,  in  the  first  ed.  of  Herzog's  Encykl.,  VIII.  375-380 
(omitted  in  the  second  ed.),  and  his  Antitrinitarier ,  I.  177  sqq.  —  Henry 
II.  402  sqq.  —  Hundeshagen  in  the  "  Studien  und  Kritikeu,"  1845,  pp. 
866  sqq.  — Dyer,  177, 198,368,390  sqq.  — Stahelin,  I.  382  sqq.;  457  sqq. 
On  the  side  of  Calvin. 

Charles  Schmidt:  Les  Libertins  spirituels,  Bale,  1876  (pp.  xiv.  and  251). 
From  a  manuscript  autograph  of  one  J.  F.,  an  adept  of  the  sect,  written 
between  1547  and  1550.     An  extract  in  La  France  Protest.  III.  590  sq. 

It  required  a  ten  years'  conflict  till  Calvin  succeeded  in 
carrying  out  his  system  of  discipline.  The  opposition  began 
to  manifest  itself  in  1545,  during  the  raging  of  the  pestilence ; 
it  culminated  at  the  trial  of  Servetus  in  1553,  and  it  finally 
broke  down  in  1555. 

Calvin  compares  himself  in  this  controversy  with  David 
fighting  against  the  Philistines.  "  If  I  should  describe,"  he 
says  in  the  Preface  to  his  Commentary  on  the  Psalms  (1557),^ 
"the  course  of  my  struggles  by  which  the  Lord  has  exercised 
me  from  this  period,  it  would  make  a  long  story,  but  a 
brief  reference  may  suffice.  It  affords  me  no  slight  consola- 
tion that  David  preceded  me  in  these  conflicts.  For  as  the 
Philistines  and  other  foreign  foes  vexed  this  holy  king  by 
continual  wars,  and  as  the  wickedness  and  treachery  of  the 
faithless  of  his  own  house  grieved  him  still  more,  so  was  I  on 
all  sides  assailed,  and  had  scarcely  a  moment's  rest  from  out- 

1  Opera,  vol.  XXXI.  27. 


§  108.  Calvin's  struggle.  495 

ward  or  inward  struggles.  But  when  Satan  had  made  so 
many  efforts  to  destroy  our  Church,  it  came  at  length  to  this, 
that  I,  unwarlike  and  timid  as  I  am,i  found  myself  compelled 
to  oppose  my  own  body  to  the  murderous  assault,  and  so  to 
ward  it  off".  Five  years  long  had  we  to  struggle  without 
ceasing  for  the  upholding  of  discipline ;  for  these  evil-doers 
were  endowed  with  too  great  a  degree  of  poAver  to  be  easily 
overcome ;  and  a  portion  of  the  people,  perverted  by  their 
means,  wished  only  for  an  unbridled  freedom.  To  such 
worthless  men,  despisers  of  the  holy  law,  the  ruin  of  the 
Church  was  a  matter  of  utter  indifference,  could  they  but 
obtain  the  liberty  to  do  whatever  they  desired.  Many  were 
induced  by  necessity  and  hunger,  some  by  ambition  or  b}^  a 
shameful  desire  of  gain,  to  attempt  a  general  overthrow,  and 
to  risk  their  own  ruin  as  well  as  ours,  rather  than  be  subject 
to  the  laws.  Scarcely  a  single  thing,  I  believe,  was  left  un- 
attempted  by  them  during  this  long  period  which  we  might 
not  suppose  to  have  been  prepared  in  the  workshop  of  Satan. 
Their  wretched  designs  could  only  be  attended  Avith  a  shame- 
ful disappointment.  A  melancholy  drama  was  thus  pre- 
sented to  me ;  for  much  as  they  deserved  all  possible  punish- 
ment, I  should  have  been  rejoiced  to  see  them  passing  their 
lives  in  peace  and  respectability  :  which  might  have  been  the 
case,  had  they  not  wholly  rejected  every  kind  of  prudent 
admonition." 

At  one  time  he  almost  despaired  of  success.  He  wrote  to 
Farel,  Dec.  14,  1547 :  "  Affairs  are  in  such  a  state  of  confu- 
sion that  I  despair  of  being  able  longer  to  retain  the  Church, 
at  least  by  my  own  endeavors.  May  the  Lord  hear  your 
incessant  prayers  in  our  behalf."  And  to  Viret  he  wrote,  on 
Dec.  17,  1547 :  "  Wickedness  has  now  reached  such  a  pitch 
here  that  I  hardly  hope  that  the  Church  can  be  upheld  much 

1  "  Qui  imbellis  sum  et  meticidosus" ;  in  the  French  ed.,  "  tout  foible  et  crain- 
tif  que  je  suis."  He  more  than  once  refers  to  his  natural  timidity ;  but  he 
risked  his  life  on  several  occasions. 


496        THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

longer,  at  Idast  by  means  of  my  ministry.  Believe  me,  my 
power  is  broken,  unless  God  stretch  forth  his  hand."  ^ 

The  adversaries  of  Calvin  were,  with  a  few  exceptions, 
the  same  who  had  driven  him  away  in  1538.  They  never 
cordially  consented  to  his  recall.  They  yielded  for  a  time  to 
the  pressure  of  public  opinion  and  political  necessity;  but 
Avhen  he  carried  out  the  scheme  of  discipline  much  more 
rigorously  than  they  had  expected,  they  showed  their  old 
hostility,  and  took  advantage  of  every  censurable  act  of  the 
Consistory  or  Council.  They  hated  him  worse  than  the 
pope.2  They  abhorred  the  very  word  "discipline."  They 
resorted  to  personal  indignities  and  every  device  of  intimida- 
tion ;  they  nicknamed  him  "  Cain,"  and  gave  his  name  to  the 
dogs  of  the  street ;  they  insulted  him  on  his  way  to  the 
lecture-room ;  they  fired  one  night  fifty  shots  before  his  bed- 
chamber ;  they  threatened  him  in  the  pulpit ;  they  approached 
the  communion  table  to  wrest  the  sacred  elements  from  his 
hands,  but  he  refused  to  profane  the  sacrament  and  over- 
awed them.  On  another  occasion  he  walked  into  the  midst 
of  an  excited  crowd  and  offered  his  breast  to  their  daggers. 
As  late  as  October  15, 1554,  he  wrote  to  an  old  friend  :  "  Dogs 
bark  at  me  on  all  sides.  Everywhere  I  am  saluted  with  the 
name  of  'heretic,'  and  all  the  calumnies  that  can  possibly 
be  invented  are  heaped  upon  me ;  in  a  word,  the  enemies 
among  my  own  flock  attack  me  with  greater  bitterness  than 
my  declared  enemies  among  the  papists."  ^ 

And  yet  in  the  midst  of  these  troubles  he  continued  to 
discharge  all  his  duties,  and  found  time  to  write  some  of  his 
most  important  works. 

1  Bonnet,  II.  133  sq.  and  135 ;  Opera,  XII.  632  sqq.  The  date  of  the  letter 
to  Viret  is  Dec.  17,  not  14,  as  given  by  Bonnet. 

2  To  them  must  be  traced  the  saying:  "They  would  rather  be  with  Beza 
in  hell  than  with  Calvin  in  heaven."  But  Beza  was  in  full  accord  with  Calvin 
in  discipline  as  well  as  doctrine.  The  saying  is  reported  by  Papyrius  Masso : 
"  Genevenses  inter  jocos  dicebant,  malle  se  apud  inferos  cum  Beza  quam  aptid 
superos  esse  cum  Calvino."     Audin,  p.  487.  3  Opera,  XV.  271. 


§  108.  Calvin's  struggle.  497 

It  seems  incredible  that  a  man  of  feeble  constitution  and 
physical  timidity  should  have  been  able  to  triumph  over  such 
determined  and  ferocious  opposition.  The  explanation  is  in 
the  justice  of  his  cause,  and  the  moral  purity  and  "  majesty  " 
of  his  character,  which  so  strongly  impressed  the  Genevese. 

We  must  distinguish  two  parties  among  Calvin's  enemies 
—  the  Patriots,  who  opposed  him  on  political  grounds,  and 
the  Libertines,  who  hated  his  religion.  It  would  be  unjust 
to  charge  all  the  Patriots  with  the  irreligious  sentiments  of 
the  Libertines.  But  they  made  common  cause  for  the  over- 
throw of  Calvin  and  his  detested  system  of  discipline.  They 
had  many  follower  among  the  discontented  and  dissolute 
rabble  which  abounds  in  every  large  city,  and  is  always 
ready  for  a  revolution,  having  nothing  to  lose  and  everything 
to  gain. 

1.  The  Px\TKroTS  or  Childeen  of  Geneva  {Unfants  de 
Geneve),  as  they  called  themselves,  belonged  to  some  of  the 
oldest  and  most  influential  families  of  Geneva,  —  Favre  (or 
Fabri),  Perrin,  Vandel,  Berthelier,  Ameaux.^  They  or  their 
fathers  had  taken  an  active  part  in  the  achievement  of  politi- 
cal independence,  and  even  in  the  introduction  of  the  Refor- 
mation, as  a  means  of  protecting  that  independence.  But 
they  did  not  care  for  the  positive  doctrines  of  the  Reforma- 
tion. They  wanted  liberty  without  law.  They  resisted  every 
encroachment  on  their  personal  freedom  and  love  of  amuse- 
ments. They  hated  the  evangelical  discipline  more  than  the 
yoke  of  Savoy. 

They  also  disliked  Calvin  as  a  foreigner,  who  was  not  even 
naturalized  before  1559.  In  the  pride  and  prejudice  of  nativ- 
ism,  they  denounced  the  refugees,  who  had  sacrificed  home 
and  fortune  to  religion,  as  a  set  of  adventurers,  soldiers  of 
fortune,    bankrupts,    and   spies   of    the    Reformer.      "  These 

1  The  Galiffes  fairly  represent  the  animosity  of  these  old  families  to  Cal- 
vin, but  far  surpass  their  ancestors  in  literary  and  moral  culture  and  respec- 
tability, which  they  owe  to  the  effects  of  his  reformation. 


498         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

dogs  of  Frenchmen,"  they  said,  "  are  the  cause  that  we  are 
slaves,  and  must  bow  before    Calvin  and  confess   our  sins. 

Let  the   preachers  and  their  gang  go  to  the  ."     They 

deprived  the  refugees  of  the  right  to  carry  arms,  and  opposed 
their  admission  to  the  rights  of  citizenship,  as  there  was 
danger  that  they  might  outnumber  and  outvote  the  native 
citizens.  Calvin  secured,  in  1559,  through  a  majority  of  the 
Council,  at  one  time,  the  admission  of  three  hundred  of  these 
refugees,  mostly  Frenchmen. 

The  Patriots  disliked  also  the  protectorate  of  Bern, 
although  Bern  never  favored  the  strict  theology  and  disci- 
pline of  Calvin. 

2.  The  Libertines  1  or  Spirituels,  as  they  called  them- 
selves, were  far  worse  than  the  Patriots.  They  formed  the 
opposite  extreme  to  the  severe  discipline  of  Calvin.  He 
declares  that  they  were  the  most  pernicious  of  all  the  sects  that 
appeared  since  the  time  of  the  ancient  Gnostics  and  Manichge- 
ans,  and  that  they  answer  the  prophetic  description  in  the 
Second  Epistle  of  Peter  and  the  Epistle  of  Jude.  He  traces 
their  immediate  origin  to  Coppin  of  Yssel  and  Quintin  of  Hen- 
negau,  in  the  Netherlands,  and  to  an  ex-priest,  Pecquet  or 
Pocques,  who  spent  some  time  in  Geneva,  and  wanted  to  get 
a  certificate  from  Calvin ;  but  Calvin  saw  through  the  man 
and  refused  it.  They  revived  the  antinomian  doctrines  of  the 
mediaeval  sect  of  the  "  Brethren  and  Sisters  of  the  Free 
Spirit,"  a  branch  of  the  Beghards,  who  had  their  head- 
quarters at  Cologne  and  the  Lower  Rhine,  and  emancipated 
themselves  not  only  from  the  Church,  but  also  from  the  laws 
of  morality.^ 

The  Libertines  described  by  Calvin  were  antinomian  pan- 
theists.    They  confounded  the  boundaries  of  truth  and  error, 

1  Tlie  synagogue  of  the  Libertines  in  .Jerusalem  opposed  Stephen,  the 
forerunner  of  Paul,  Acts  6 :  9. 

2  Gieseler  connects  both  sects,  vol.  III.  Part  I.  385  ;  comp.  II.  Part  III.  266. 
Strype  notices  the  existence  of  a  similar  sect  in  England  at  a  later  period, 
Annals,  vol.  II.  Part  II.  287  sqq.  (quoted  by  Dyer,  p.  177). 


§  108.  calvin's  struggle.  499 

of  right  and  wrong.  Under  the  i)retext  of  the  freedom  of  the 
spirit,  they  advocated  the  unbridled  license  of  the  flesh. 
Their  spiritualism  ended  in  carnal  materialism.  They  taught 
that  there  is  but  one  spirit,  the  Spirit  of  God,  who  lives  in 
all  creatures,  which  are  nothing  without  him.  "  What  I  or 
you  do,"  said  Quintin,  "  is  done  by  God,  and  what  God  does, 
we  do ;  for  he  is  in  us."  Sin  is  a  mere  negation  or  privation, 
yea,  an  idle  illusion  which  disappears  as  soon  as  it  is  known 
and  disregarded.  Salvation  consists  in  the  deliverance  from 
the  phantom  of  sin.  There  is  no  Satan,  and  no  angels,  good 
or  bad.  They  denied  the  truth  of  the  gospel  history.  The 
crucifixion  and  resurrection  of  Christ  have  only  a  symbolical 
meaning  to  show  us  that  sin  does  not  exist  for  us. 

The  Libertines  taught  the  community  of  goods  and  of 
women,  and  elevated  spiritual  marriage  above  legal  marriage, 
which  is  merely  carnal  and  not  binding.  The  wife  of  Ameaux 
justified  her  wild  licentiousness  by  the  doctrine  of  the  com- 
munion of  saints,  and  by  the  first  commandment  of  God  given 
to  man:  "Be  fruitful  and  multiply  and  replenish  the  earth" 
(Gen.  1 :  28). 

The  Libertines  rejected  the  Scriptures  as  a  dead  letter,  or 
they  resorted  to  wild  allegorical  interpretations  to  suit  their 
fancies.  They  gave  to  each  of  the  Apostles  a  ridiculous  nick- 
name.^ Some  carried  their  system  to  downright  atheism 
and  blasphemous  anti-Christianity. 

They  used  a  peculiar  jargon,  like  the  Gypsies,  and  distorted 
common  words  into  a  mysterious  meaning.  They  were 
experts  in  the  art  of  simulation  and  justified  pious  fraud  by 
the  parables  of  Christ.  They  accommodated  themselves  to 
Catholics  or  Protestants  according  to  circumstances,  and 
concealed  their  real  opinions  from  the  uninitiated. 

The  sect  made  progress  among  the  higher  classes  of  France, 

1  They  called  St.  Matthew,  the  publican,  iisurier  (a  usurer)  ;  St.  Paul,  pot- 
casse(a.  broken  vessel)  ;  St.  Peter,  on  account  of  his  denial  of  Christ,  renonceur 
deDieu;  St.  3o\\n,  jouvenreau  et  foUet  (a  childisli  youth),  etc. 


500         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

where  they  converted  about  four  thousand  persons.  Quintin 
and  Pecquet  insinuated  themselves  into  the  favor  of  Queen 
Marguerite  of  Navarre,  who  protected  and  supported  them  at 
her  little  court  at  Nerac,  yet  without  adopting  their  opinions 
and  practices.^  She  took  offence  at  Calvin's  severe  attack 
upon  them.  He  justified  his  course  in  a  reply  of  April  28, 
1545,  which  is  a  fine  specimen  of  courtesy,  frankness,  and 
manly  dignity.  Calvin  assured  the  queen,  whose  protection 
he  had  himself  enjoyed  while  a  fugitive  from  persecution, 
that  he  intended  no  reflection  on  her  honor,  or  disrespect  to 
her  royal  majesty,  and  that  he  wrote  simply  in  obedience 
to  his  duty  as  a  minister.  "  Even  a  dog  barks  if  he  sees  any 
one  assault  his  master.  How  could  I  be  silent  if  God's  truth 
is  assailed? 2  ...  As  for  j^our  saying  that  you  would  not  like 
to  have  such  a  servant  as  myself,  I  confess  that  I  am  not 
qualified  to  render  you  any  great  service,  nor  have  you  need 
of  it.  .  .  .  Nevertheless,  the  disposition  is  not  wanting,  and 
your  disdain  shall  not  prevent  my  being  at  heart  your  hum- 
ble servant.  For  the  rest,  those  who  know  me  are  well 
aware  that  I  have  never  studied  to  enter  into  the  courts  of 
princes,  for  I  was  never  tempted  to  court  worldly  honors.^ 
For  I  have  good  reason  to  be  contented  with  the  service  of 
that  good  Master,  who  has  accepted  me  and  retained  me  in 
the  honorable  office  which  I  hold,  however  contemptible 
in  the  eyes  of  the  world.     I  should,  indeed,  be  ungrateful 


1  Bonnet,  in  a  note  on  Calvin's  letter  to  the  queen  (1.429),  says  of  her: 
"  In  the  later  years  of  her  life  [she  died  in  1549]  her  piety  gradually  degen- 
erated into  a  kind  of  contemplative  mysticism,  whose  chief  characteristic  was 
indifference  towards  outward  forms,  uniting  the  external  ordinances  of  the 
Roman  Church  with  the  inward  cherishing  of  a  purer  faith."  See  above, 
p.  32.3. 

*  "  Un  chien  abaye,  sil  voyt  quon  assaille  son  maistre;  ie  serois  lien  lasc.he,  si  en 
voyant  la  verite  de  dieu  ainsi  assail  ye,  iefaisois  du  muet  sans  sonner  mot." 

*  "  Au  rests,  ceulx  qui  me  coqnoissent,  savent  bien  que  nay  iamais  aspire  davoir 
entree  aux  courtz  des  princes,  dautant  que  ie  nestois  pas  tente'  de  parvenir  aux 
estatz"  (honorum  studio  titillatus). 


§   109.    THE    LEADERS    OF    THE   LIBEKTINES.  501 

beyond  measure  if  I  did  not  prefer  this  condition  to  all 
the  riches  and  honors  of  the  world."  ^ 

Beza  says :  "  It  was  owing  to  Calvin  that  this  horrid  sect, 
in  which  all  the  most  monstrous  heresies  of  ancient  times 
were  renewed,  was  kept  within  the  confines  of  Holland  and 
the  adjacent  provinces." 

During  the  trial  of  Servetus  the  political  and  religious 
Libertines  combined  in  an  organized  effort  for  the  over- 
throw of  Calvin  at  Geneva,  but  were  finally  defeated  by  a 
failure  of  an  attempted  rebellion  in  May,  1555. 

§  109.    The  Leaders  of  the  Libertines  and  their  punishment : 
—  G-ruet,  Perrin,  Ameaiix,  Varidel,  Berthelier. 

We  shall  now  give  sketches  of  the  chief  Patriots  and 
Libertines,  and  their  quarrels  with  Calvin  and  his  system 
of  discipline.  The  heretical  opponents  —  Bolsec,  Castellio, 
Servetus  —  will  be  considered  in  a  separate  chapter  on  the 
Doctrinal  Controversies. 

1.  Jacques  Geuet  was  the  first  victim  of  Calvin's  disci- 
pline who  suffered  death  for  sedition  and  blasphemy.  His 
case  is  the  most  famous  next  to  that  of  Servetus.  Gruet^ 
was  a  Libertine  of  the  worst  tyj^e,  both  politically  and  relig- 
iously, and  would  have  been  condemned  to  death  in  any  other 
country  at  that  time.  He  was  a  Patriot  descended  from  an 
old  and  respectable  family,  and  formerly  a  canon.  He  lay 
under  suspicion  of  having  attempted  to  poison  Viret  in  1535. 
He  wrote  verses  against  Calvin  and  the  refugees  which  (as 
Audin  says)  were  "more  malignant  than  poetic."  He  was 
a  regular  frequenter  of  taverns,  and  opposed  to  any  rules 

1  The  French  original  in  Henry,  II.  Beilage,  14,  p.  112  sqq. ;  also  in  Bonnet 
and  in  Opera,  XII.  64-68.  The  Latin  editions  date  the  letter  April  20  instead 
of  28. 

2  A  son  of  Humbert  Gruet,  notary  public  of  Geneva ;  not  to  be  confounded 
with  Canon  Claude  Gruet.  See  Opera,  XII.  546,  note  9 ;  Bonnet,  Letters  fr. 
I.  212,  and  Henry,  II.  440. 


502         THE    EEFORISIATION    IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

in  Church  and  State  which  interfered  Avith  personal  liberty. 
When  in  church,  he  looked  boldly  and  defiantly  into  the 
face  of  the  preacher.  He  first  adopted  the  Bernese  fashion 
of  Avearing  breeclies  with  plaits  at  the  knees,  and  openly 
defied  the  discipline  of  the  Consistory  Avhich  forbade  it. 
Calvin  called  him  a  scurvy  fellow,  and  gives  an  unfavorable 
account  of  his  moral  and  religious  character,  which  the  facts 
fully  justified. 

On  the  27th  of  June,  1547,  a  iew  days  after  the  wife  of 
Perrin  had  defied  the  Consistory,^  the  following  libel,  written 
in  the  Savoyard  patois,  was  attached  to  Calvin's  pulpit  in 
St.  Peter's  Church :  — 

"Gross  hypocrite  (Gj-os  panfar'),  thou  and  thy  companions  will  gain  little 
by  your  pains.  If  you  do  not  save  yourselves  by  flight,  nobody  shall  prevent 
your  overthrow,  and  you  will  curse  the  hour  when  you  left  your  monkery. 
Warning  has  been  already  given  that  the  devil  and  his  renegade  priests  were 
come  hither  to  ruin  every  thing.  But  after  people  have  suffered  long  they 
avenge  themselves.  Take  care  that  you  are  not  served  like  Mons.  Verle  of 
Fribourg.2     We  will  not  have  so  many  masters.     Mark  well  what  I  say."^ 

The  Council  arrested  Jacques  Gruet,  avIio  had  been  heard 
uttering  threats  against  Calvin  a  few  days  previously,  and 
had  Avritten  obscene  and  impious  A'erses  and  letters.  In  his 
house  were  found  a  copy  of  Calvin's  work  against  the  Liber- 
tines with  a  marginal  note,  Toutes  foUes,  and  several  papers 
and  letters  filled  with  abuse  of  Calvin  as  a  haughty,  ambi- 
tious, and  obstinate  hypocrite  who  wished  to  be  adored,  and 
to  rob  the  pope  of  his  honor.  There  were  also  found  two 
Latin  pages  in  Gruet's  handwriting,  in  Avhich  the  Scriptures 

1  On  the  date  see  Opera,  XII.  546,  note  7,  and  Annal.  XXI.  407,  sub  Lundi 
Juin  27:  "Un  e'crit  violent  contre  Calvin  et  ses  collegues  est  trouve'  dans  la  chaire 
d'un  des  temples."  Calvin's  letter  to  Viret,  July  2,  1547:  "Postridie  reperitur 
charta  in  suggestu  qua  mortem  nobis  minantur," 

2  Peter  Wernly,  a  canon  of  St.  Peter's,  was  killed  in  a  fight  with  the  Prot- 
estants, while  endeavoring  to  save  himself  by  flight.  May  4,  1533. 

3  "  Nota  bin  mon  dire."  See  the  original  of  the  placard  in  Opera,  XII.  546, 
note  8.  Gaberel  and  Ruchat  give  it  in  modern  French.  The  editors  of  the 
Opera  refer  panfar  to  Abel  Poupin  ("Panfar  ventrosum  dicit  Poupinum"). 


§  109.    THE   LEADERS    OF   THE   LIBERTINES.  503 

were  ridiculed,  Christ  Ijlaspliemed,  and  the  immortality  of 
the  soul  called  a  dream  and  a  fable. 

Gruet  was  tortured  every  day  for  a  month,  after  the  in- 
human fashion  of  that  age.^  He  confessed  that  he  liad  aflixed 
the  libel,  and  that  the  papers  found  in  his  house  belonged  to 
him ;  but  he  refused  to  name  any  accomplices.  He  was  con- 
demned for  religious,  moral,  and  political  offences ;  being 
found  guilty  of  expressing  contempt  for  religion ;  of  declar- 
ing that  laws,  both  human  and  divine,  were  but  the  work  of 
man's  caprice  ;  and  that  fornication  was  not  criminal  when 
both  parties  were  consenting  ;  and  of  threatening  the  clergy 
and  the  Council  itself.^ 

He  was  beheaded  on  the  26th  of  July,  1547.  The  execu- 
tion instead  of  terrifying  the  Libertines  made  them  more 
furious  than  ever.  Three  days  afterwards  the  Council  was 
informed  that  more  than  twenty  young  men  had  entered  into 
a  conspiracy '  to  throw  Calvin  and  his  colleagues  into  the 
Rhone.  He  could  not  walk  the  streets  without  being  insulted 
and  threatened. 

Two  or  three  years  after  the  death  of  Gruet,  a  treatise  of 
his  was  discovered  full  of  horrible  blasphemies  against  CInist, 
the  Virgin  ]Mary,  the  Prophets  and  Apostles,  against  the 
Scriptures,  and  all  religion.  He  aimed  to  show  that  the 
founders  of  Judaism  and  Christianity  were  criminals,  and 
that  Christ  Avas  justly  crucilied.  Some  have  confounded 
this  treatise  with  the  book  " Be  trihus  Inipostoribus"  which 
dates   from   the    age    of   Emperor    Frederick   II.,  and   puts 

1  In  the  case  of  Gcntilis  and  Scrvet,  however,  no  mention  is  made  of  tlie 
torture. 

2  The  sentence  of  condemnation  (Opera,  XII.  567)  reads:  "  Par  jceste 
nostre  diffinitive  sentence,  laquelle  donnons  icy  par  escript,  toy  Jaque  Gruet  con- 
dampnons  a  debvoyr  estre  mene  au  lieu  de  Champel  et  illect  debcoyer  aooyer  tranche 
la  teste  de  dessus  les  espaules,  et  ton  corps  attache  aut  gibet  et  la  teste  cloye  en  jcelluy 
et  ainsy  ^finii-as  tes  jours  pour  donner  exeniple  aux  aultres  qui  tel  cas  vouldroyent 
commestre."  The  charge's  assigned  are  blasphemy  against  God,  offence  against 
the  civil  magistracy,  tlireats  to  the  ministers  of  God,  and  "  crime  de  leze  majeste 
meritant  pwjnition  corporclle." 


504         THE    llEFOEMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Moses,  Christ,  and  Mohammed  on  a  level  as  religious  im- 
postors. 

Gruet's  book  was,  at  Calvin's  advice,  publicly  burnt  by  the 
hangman  before  Gruet's  house.  May  22,  1550.^ 

2.  Ami  Pekrin  (Amy  Pierre),  the  military  chief  (captain- 
general)  of  the  Republic,  was  the  most  popular  and  influen- 
tial leader  of  the  Patriotic  party.  He  had  been  one  of  the 
earliest  promoters  of  the  Reformation,  though  from  political 
rather  than  religious  motives ;  lie  had  protected  Farel 
against  the  violence  of  the  priests,  and  had  been  appointed 
deputy  to  Strassburg  to  bring  Calvin  back  to  Geneva.^  He 
was  one  of  the  six  lay-members  who,  with  the  ministers, 
drew  up  the  Ecclesiastical  Ordinances  of  1542,  and  for  some 
time  he  supported  Calvin  in  his  reforms.  He  could  wield 
the  sword,  but  not  the  pen.  He  was  vain,  ambitious,  pre- 
tentious, and  theatrical.  Calvin  called  him,  in  derision,  the 
stage-emperor,  who  played  now  the  "  Ccesar  comicus,^'  and 
now  the  "  Ccesar  tragicusy  ^ 

1  The  sources  for  tlie  case  of  Gruet  are  the  acts  of  the  criminal  process 
and  sentence,  printed  in  Opera,  XII.  563-568  (in  French)  ;  letters  of  Calvin  to 
Viret,  July  2,  24,  1547  (in  Opera,  XII.  545,  550,  in  Bonnet  II.  108  and  114); 
Calvin's  report  on  the  blasphemous  book  of  Gruet,  in  Opera,  XIII.  568-572  (in 
French,  also  printed  in  Henry,  II.  120,  and  in  Letters  by  Jules  Bonnet,  French 
ed.,  I.  311 ;  English  cd.,  II.  254)  ;  Reg.  du  Consell,  July  25,  1547,  and  May  22, 
1550,  noticed  in  Annal.  409,  465.  —  Of  modern  writers,  see  Henry  (II.  410,4.30, 
441  sqq. ;  abridged  in  Stebbing's  transhition,  11.64  sqq.,  witliout  tlie  Beilage)  ; 
Audin,  ch.  XXXVI.  (pp.  396  sqq.  of  the  English  translation)  ;  Dyer,  213  sqq. ; 
and  Stiilielin,  I.  399  sqq. 

2  Oct.  21,  1540.  A  day  afterwards,  Dufour  was  appointed  by  the  Council, 
and  went  in  his  place.     Annal.  267.     See  above,  p.  430. 

^  Beza  calls  him  "  vanissimns,  sed  audax  et  ambitiosus"  (XXI.  138).  Audin, 
the  patron  of  all  the  enemies  of  Calvin,  describes  Perrin  as  "a  man  of  noble 
nature,  who  wore  the  sword  with  great  grace,  dressed  in  good  taste,  and  con- 
versed witli  much  facility ;  but  a  boaster  at  table  and  at  the  Council,  where 
he  deafened  every  one  with  his  boastful  loquacity,  his  fits  of  self-love,  and 
his  theatrical  airs.  .  .  .  As  to  the  rest,  like  all  men  of  this  stamp,  he  had  ain 
excellent  heart,  was  devoted  as  a  friend,  with  cool  blood,  and  patriotic  even 
to  extremes.  At  table  it  was  his  delight  to  imitate  the  Reformer,  elongating 
his  visage,  winking  his  eyes,  and  assuming  the  air  of  an  anchorite  of  the 
Thebaid"  (p.  390).     Perrin's  chief  defender  is  the  younger  Galiffe. 


§  109.    THE    LEADERS    OF    THE    LIBERTINES.  505 

Perrin's  wife,  Francesca,  was  a  daughter  of  Francois  Favre, 
who  had  taken  a  prominent  part  in  the  political  struggle 
against  Savoy,  but  mistook  freedom  for  license,  and  hated 
Calvin  as  a  tyrant  and  a  hypocrite.  His  whole  family 
shared  in  this  hatred.  Francesca  had  an  excessive  fondness 
for  dancing  and  revelry,  a  violent  temper,  and  an  abusive 
tongue.  Calvin  called  her  "  Penthesilea  "  (the  queen  of  the 
Amazons  who  fought  a  battle  against  the  Greeks,  and  was 
slain  by  Achilles),  and  "•  a  prodigious  fury."  ^ 

He  found  out  too  late  that  it  is  foolish  and  dangerous  to 
quarrel  with  a  woman.  He  forgot  Christ's  conduct  towards 
the  adulteress,  and  JNIary  Magdalene. 

A  disgraceful  scene  which  took  place  at  a  wedding  in  the 
liouse  of  the  widow  Balthazar  at  Belle  Rive,  brought  upon 
the  family  of  Favre,  who  were  present,  the  censure  of  the 
Consistory  and  the  punishment  of  the  Council.  Perrin,  his 
wife  and  her  father  were  imprisoned  for  a  few  weeks  in 
April,  1546.  Favre  refused  to  make  any  confession,  and  went 
to  prison,  shouting :  "  Liberty !  Liberty !  I  would  give  a 
thousand  crowns  to  have  a  general  council."  ^  Perrin  made 
an  humble  apology  to  the  Consistory.  Calvin  plainly  told 
the  Favre  family  that  as  long  as  they  lived  in  Geneva  they 

1  "  Prodigiosa  furia."  Letter  to  Farel,  Sept.  1,  1546  (in  Opera,  XII.  377  sq., 
and  Bonnet,  II.  56).  In  the  same  letter  he  says:  "She  shamelessly  under- 
takes the  defence  of  all  crimes."  She  did  not  spare  Calvin's  wife,  and  calum- 
niously  asserted  among  her  own  friends  that  Idelette  must  have  been  a  harlot 
because  Calvin  confessed,  at  the  baptism  of  his  infant,  that  she  and  her  former 
husband  had  been  Anabaptists.  So  Calvin  reports  to  Farel,  Aug.  21,  1547  (iu 
Opera,  XII.  580  sq.;  Bonnet,  II.  124).  Audin  apologizes  for  Francesca,  as 
"one  of  those  women  whom  our  old  Corneille  would  have  taken  for  heroiner; 
excitable,  choleric,  fond  of  pleasure,  enamoured  of  dancing,  and  hating  Calvin 
as  Luther  hated  a  monk"  (p.  390). 

2  Calvin  reminded  Francesca  on  that  occasion  that  "  her  father  had  been 
already  convicted  of  one  adultery  [in  1531],  that  the  proof  of  another  was 
at  hand,  and  that  there  was  a  strong  rumor  of  a  third.  I  stated  that  her 
brother  had  openly  contemned  and  derided  both  the  Council  and  the  minis- 
ters." Letter  to  Farel,  April,  1546.  She  told  him  in  reply :  "  Mechant  homme, 
vous  votilez  Loire  le  sang  de  notre  famille,  mats  vous  sortii-ez  de  Geneve  arant 
nous."     See  the  notes  in  Opera,  XII.  334. 


506  THE   REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

must  obey  the  laws  of  Geneva,  though  every  one  of  them 
wore  a  diadem.^ 

From  this  time  on  Perrin  stood  at  the  head  of  the  opposi- 
tion to  Calvin.  He  loudly  denounced  the  Consistory  as  a 
popish  tribunal.  He  secured  so  much  influence  over  the 
Council  that  a  majority  voted,  in  March,  1547,  to  take  the 
control  of  Church  discipline  into  their  own  hands.  But 
Calvin  made  such  a  vigorous  resistance  that  it  was  deter- 
mined eventually  to  abide  by  the  established  Ordinances.^ 

Perrin  Avas  sent  as  ambassador  to  Paris  (April  26,  1547), 
and  was  received  there  with  much  distinction.  The  Cardinal 
du  Bellay  sounded  him  as  to  whether  some  French  troops 
under  his  command  could  be  stationed  at  Geneva  to  frustrate 
the  hostile  designs  of  the  German  emperor  against  Switzer- 
land. He  gave  a  conditional  consent.  This  created  a  suspi- 
cion against  his  loyalty. 

During  his  absence,  Madame  Perrin  and  her  father  were 
again  summoned  before  the  Consistory  for  bacchanalian  con- 
duct (June  23,  1547).  Favre  refused  to  appear.  Francesca 
denied  the  right  of  the  court  to  take  cognizance  of  her 
private  life.  When  remonstrated  with,  she  flew  into  a  pas- 
sion, and  abused  the  preacher,  Abel  Poupin,  as  "  a  reviler,  a 
slanderer  of  her  father,  a  coarse  swine-herd,  and  a  malicious 
liar."  She  was  again  imprisoned,  but  escaped  with  one  of 
her  sons.  Meeting  Abel  Poupin  at  the  gate  of  the  cit}-  she 
insulted  him  afresh  and  "  even  more  shamefully  than  before."  ^ 

1  See  Calvin's  letters  to  Farel,  April,  1546,  and  Sept.  1,  1546  (in  Opera, 
XII.  334  sqq.,  377  sq.,  and  Bonnet  II.  38,  56),  and  extracts  from  the  Registers 
of  the  Consistory  and  the  Council  in  Annal.  377  sqq.  Comp.  Dyer,  208  sq. ; 
Audin,  391  sq.  Audin  gives  a  lively  description  of  the  wedding  and  dancing 
at  Belle  Rive,  and  the  examination  before  the  Consistory. 

2  See  the  extracts  from  the  Reg.  du  Conseil  March  and  April,  1547,  in 
Annal.  399-406. 

3  Calvin  to  Viret,  July  2,  1547  (Opera,  XII.  545,  Bonnet,  II.  108).  Comp. 
Annal.  407  sq. ;  Gaberel,  I.  387 ;  Roget,  II.  284.  Bonivard  and  after  him 
Gaberel  report  that  Francesca  rushed  with  her  horse  against  Abel,  who  barely 
escaped  serious  injury.     See  note  0  in  Opera,  XII.  546. 


§  109.    THE    LEADERS    OF    THE    LIBERTINES.  507 

On  the  27th  of  June,  1547,  Gruet's  threatening-  libel  was 
published.^  Calvin  was  reported  to  have  been  killed.  lie 
received  letters  from  Burgogne  and  Lyons  that  the  Children 
of  Geneva  had  offered  five  hundred  crowns  for  his  head.^ 

On  his  return  from  Paris,  Perrin  Avas  capitally  indicted  on 
a  charge  of  treason,  and  of  intending  to  quarter  two  hundred 
French  cavalry,  under  his  own  command,  at  Geneva.  Mis 
excuse  was  that  he  had  accepted  tlie  command  of  these  troops 
with  the  reservation  of  the  approval  of  the  government  of 
Geneva.  Bonivard,  the  old  soldier  of  liberty  and  prisoner 
of  Chillon,  took  pai't  against  Perrin.  The  ambassadors  of 
Bern  endeavored  to  divert  the  storm  from  the  head  of  Perrin 
to  the  French  ambassador  INIaigret  the  Magnifique.  Perrin 
was  expelled  from  the  Council,  and  the  office  of  captain- 
general  was  suppressed,  but  he  was  released  from  prison, 
together  with  his  wife  and  father-in-law,  Nov.  29,  1547.^ 

The  Libertines  summoned  all  their  forces  for  a  reaction. 
They  called  a  meeting  of  the  Council  of  Two  Hundred,  where 
they  expected  most  support.  A  violent  scene  took  place  on 
Dec.  16,  1547,  in  the  Senate  house,  when  Calvin,  unarmed 
and  at  the  risk  of  his  life,  appeared  in  the  midst  of  the  armed 
crowd  and  called  upon  them,  if  they  designed  to  shed  blood, 
to  begin  with  him.  He  succeeded,  by  his  courage  and  elo- 
quence, in  calming  the  wild  storm  and  preventing  a  disgrace- 
ful carnage.  It  Avas  a  sublime  victory  of  reason  over  passion, 
of  moral  over  physical  force.^ 

^  See  above,  p.  502. 

2  Calvin  to  Farel,  Aug.  21,  1547  {Opera,  XII.  580;  Bonnet,  II .  123  and 
note);  Reg.  of  the  Consistory,  Sept.  1,  1547. 

^  Reg.  du  Conseil  :  "  Perrin  est  reldche'  vu  sa  long  detention  et  crie  viercl." 
Annul.  417.  Francois  Favre  had  been  previously  deprived  of  the  rights  of 
citizenship  (Oct.  5)  on  the  charge  of  exciting  an  emeute  against  the  French 
refugees,  and  calling  Calvin  "  le  grand  dlable."     Ibid.  413  sq. 

■*  Dec.  16  (not  Sept.  16)  is  the  date  given  in  the  Reg.  of  the  Venerable 
Company,  quoted  in  Annul.  418.  Beza  briefly  alludes  to  the  scene;  Calvin 
gives  an  account  of  it  in  a  letter  to  Viret,  dated  Dec.  17,  1547,  a  day  after 
the  occurrence  (in  Opera,  XII.  632  sq.).  This  letter  is  misdated,  Dec.  14, 
by   Bonnet    (II.   134,   apparently  a  typographical  error),   and   Sept.    17  by 


508         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

The  ablest  of  the  detractors  of  Calvin  cannot  help  paying 
here  an  involuntary  tribute  to  him  and  to  the  truth  of  history. 
This  is  his  dramatic  account. 

"  The  Council  of  the  Two  Hundred  was  assembled.  Never 
had  any  session  been  more  tumultuous ;  the  parties,  weary  of 
speaking,  began  to  appeal  to  arms.  The  people  heard  the 
appeal.  Calvin  appears,  unattended;  he  is  received  at  the 
lower  part  of  the  hall  with  cries  of  death.  He  folds  his  arms, 
and  looks  the  agitators  fixedly  in  the  face.  Not  one  of  them 
dares  strike  him.  Then,  advancing  through  the  midst  of  the 
groups,  with  his  breast  uncovered :  '  If  you  want  blood,'  says 
he,  '  there  are  still  a  few  drops  here  ;  strike,  then  ! '  Not  an 
arm  is  raised.  Calvin  then  slowly  ascends  the  stairway  to 
the  Council  of  the  Two  Hundred.  The  hall  was  on  the 
point  of  being  drenched  with  blood ;  swords  were  flashing. 
On  beholding  the  Reformer,  the  weapons  were  lowered,  and 
a  few  words  sufficed  to  calm  the  agitation.  Calvin,  taking 
the  arm  of  one  of  the  councillors,  again  descends  the  stairs, 
and  cries  out  to  the  people  that  he  wishes  to  address  them. 
He  does  speak,  and  with  such  energy  and  feeling,  that  tears 
flow  from  their  eyes.  They  embrace  each  other,  and  the 
crowd  retires  in  silence.  The  patriots  had  lost  the  day. 
From  that  moment,  it  was  easy  to  foretell  that  victory  would 
remain  with  the  Eeformer.  The  Libertines,  who  had  shown 
themselves  so  bold  when  it  was  a  question  of  destroying 
some  front  of  a  Catholic  edifice,  overturning  some  saint's 
niche,  or  throwing  down  an  old  wooden  cross  weakened  by 
age,  trembled  like  women  before  this  man,  who,  in  fact,  on 
this  occasion,  exhibited  something  of  the  Homeric  heroism."  ^ 

Notwithstanding  this  triumph,  Calvin  did  not  trust  his 
enemies,  and  expressed  in  letters  to  Farel  and  Viret  even  the 

Henry  (II.  434)  and  Dyer  (p.  219).     The  last  error  crept  into  the  Latin  edi- 
tions, against  the  manuscripts,  wliich  give  Dec.   17.     The  letter  is  defective 
at  the  beginning  and  was  first  published   by  Beza.     Galiffe  overlooked  it. 
See  the  notes  of  the  Strassburg  editors,  XII.  633. 
1  Audin,  Life  of  Calvin,  p.  394. 


§  109.    THE   LEADERS    OF   THE   LIBERTINES.  509 

fear  that  he  coukl  no  longer  maintain  his  position  unless 
God  stretch  forth  his  hand  for  his  protection. ^ 

A  sort  of  truce  was  patched  up  between  the  contending 
parties.  "Our  9i-devant  Ca3sar  (Jiesternus  noster  Ccemr)'' 
Calvin  wrote  to  Farel,  Dec.  28,  1547,  "  denied  that  he  had 
any  grudge  against  me,  and  I  immediately  met  him  half-way 
and  pressed  out  the  matter  from  the  sore.  In  a  grave  and 
moderate  speech,  I  used,  indeed,  some  sharp  reproofs  {punc- 
tiones  acutas),  but  not  of  a  nature  to  wound;  yet  though  lie 
grasped  my  hand  whilst  promising  to  reform,  I  still  fear  that 
I  have  spoken  to  deaf  ears."  ^ 

In  the  next  year,  Calvin  was  censured  by  the  Council  for 
saying,  in  a  private  letter  to  Viret  which  had  been  inter- 
cepted, that  the  Genevese  "  under  pretence  of  Christ  wanted 
to  rule  without  Christ,"  and  that  he  had  to  combat  their 
"  hypocrisy."  He  called  to  his  aid  Viret  and  Farel  to  make 
a  sort  of  apology.^ 

Perrin  behaved  quietly,  and  gained  an  advantage  from 
this  incident.  He  was  restored  to  his  councillorship  and  the 
office  of  captain-general  (which  had  been  abolished).  He 
was  even  elected  First  Syndic,  in  February,  1549.  He  held 
that  position  also  during  the  trial  of  Servetus,  and  opposed 
the  sentence  of  death  in  the  Council  (1553). 

Shortly  after  the  execution  of  Servetus,  the  Libertines 
raised  a  demonstration  against  Farel,  who  had  come  to 
Geneva  and  preached  a  very  severe  sermon  against  them 
(Nov.  1,  1553).^     Philibert  Berthelier  and  his  brother  Fran- 

i  See  the  extracts  quoted  on  p.  495. 

2  Opera,  XII.  642  sq. :  '■'■  Tametsi  resipiscentiam  manu  in  manum  impUcita 
promisit,  vereor,  we  frustra  surdo  cecinerim  Jhbulam."  Uyer  (p.  221)  misdates 
til  is  letter  Dec.  2  (probably  a  typographical  error). 

3  Registers  of  Council  for  October,  1548,  in  Annal.  4;]6-438.  About  the 
same  time  the  wife  of  Calvin's  brother,  Antoine,  was  imprisoned  on  the 
charge  of  adultery.     Ibid.  441. 

*  He  was  charged  with  saying  that  "  la  JenneKse  de  cette  cit<^  sont  pitm  que.  Ics 
brigands,  meurtriers,  larrons,  luxurieux,  atheists."  Reg.  of  Nov.  3,  I55o,  in 
Annal.  55U. 


510         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

9ois  Daniel,  who  had  charge  of  the  mint,  stirred  up  the 
Laborers  to  throw  Farel  into  the  Rhone.  But  his  friends 
formed  a  guard  around  him,  and  his  defence  before  the 
Council  convinced  the  audience  of  his  innocence.  It  was 
resolved  that  all  enmity  should  be  forgotten  and  buried  at 
a  banquet.  Perrin,  the  chief  Syndic,  in  a  sense  of  weakness, 
or  under  the  impulse  of  his  better  feelings,  begged  Farel's 
pardon,  and  declared  that  he  would  ever  regard  him  as  his 
spiritual  father  and  pastor.^ 

After  this  time  Calvin's  friends  gained  the  ascendency  in 
the  Council.  A  large  number  of  religious  refugees  were 
admitted  to  the  rights  of  citizenship. 

Perrin,  then  a  member  of  the  Little  Council,  and  his 
friends,  Peter  Vandel  and  Philibert  Berthelier,  determined 
on  rule  or  ruin,  now  concocted  a  desperate  and  execrable 
conspiracy,  which  proved  their  overthrow.  They  proposed 
to  kill  all  foreigners  who  had  fled  to  Geneva  for  the  sake  of 
religion,  together  with  their  Genevese  sympathizers,  on  a  Sun- 
da}'  while  people  were  at  church.  But,  fortunately,  the  plot 
was  discovered  before  it  was  ripe  for  execution.  When 
the  rioters  were  to  be  tried  before  the  Council  of  the  Two 
Hundred,  Perrin  and  several  other  ringleaders  had  the 
audacity  to  take  their  places  as  judges ;  but  when  he  saw 
that  matters  were  taking  a  serious  turn  in  favor  of  law  and 
order,  he  fled  from  Geneva,  together  with  Vandel  and 
Berthelier.  They  Avere  summoned  by  the  public  herald,  but 
refused  to  appear.  On  the  day  appointed  for  the  trial  five  of 
the  fugitives  Avere  condemned  to  death ;  Perrin,  moreover, 
to  have  his  right  hand  cut  off,  with  which  he  had  seized  the 
baton  of  the  Syndic  at  the  riot.  The  sentence  was  executed 
in  effigy  in  June,  1555.^ 

1  Comp.  the  action  of  the  Council,  Nov.  13,  in  Annal.  561  and  562. 

2  Reg.  du  Conseil,  June  3,  1555,  in  Annal.  608:  "Perrin  est  condumnc  par 
contumace  quil  ayt  le  poing  du  bras  droit  duquel  il  a  attente'  aux  bastons  sindicalz 
cope':  et  tons  tans  ledit  Perrin  que  Belthesard,  Chabod,  Verna,  et  Michalet  la 
teste  cope':  les  testes  et  ledit  poing  cloue's  an  gibet  et  les  corps  mis  en  quartier  iouxte 
la  coustume  et  condamnez  a  tous  despens  damps  et  interestz." 


§  109.   THE   LEADERS   OF   THE   LIBERTINES.  511 

Their  estates  were  confiscated,  and  their  wives  banished 
from  Geneva.  The  office  of  captain-general  was  again  abol- 
ished to  avoid  the  danger  of  a  military  dictatorship. 

But  the  government  of  Bern  protected  the  fugitives, 
and  allowed  them  to  commit  outrages  on  Genevese  citizens 
within  their  reach,  and  to  attack  Calvin  and  Geneva  with 
all  sorts  of  reproaches  and  calumnies. 

Thus  the  "comic  Csesar"  ended  as  the  "tragic  Csesar." 
An  impartial  biographer  of  Calvin  calls  the  last  chapter  in 
Perrin's  career  "a  caricature  of  the  Catilinarian  conspiracy."^ 

3.  The  case  of  Pierre  Ameaux  shows  a  close  connection 
between  the  political  and  religious  Libertines.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  Council  of  Two  Hundred.  He  sought  and 
obtained  a  divorce  from  his  wife,  who  was  condemned  to 
perpetual  imprisonment  for  the  theory  and  practice  of  free- 
lovism  of  the  worst  kind.  But  he  hated  Calvin's  theology 
and  discipline.  At  a  supper  party  in  his  own  house  he 
freely  indulged  in  drink,  and  roundly  abused  Calvin  as  a 
teacher  of  false  doctrine,  as  a  very  bad  man,  and  nothing  but 
a  Picard.^ 

For  this  offence  he  was  imprisoned  by  the  Council  for  two 
months  and  condemned  to  a  fine  of  sixty  dollars.  He  made 
an  apology  and  retracted  his  words.  But  Calvin  was  not  sat- 
isfied, and  demanded  a  second  trial.  The  Council  condemned 
him  to  a  degrading  punishment  called  the  amende  honorable, 
namely,  to  parade  through  the  streets  in  his  shirt,  with  bare 
head,  and  a  lighted  torch  in  his  hand,  and  to  ask  on  bended 
knees  the  pardon  of  God,  of  the  Council,  and  of  Calvin.  This 
harsh  judgment  provoked  a  popular  outbreak  in  the  quarter 
of  St.  Gervais,  but  the  Council  proceeded  in  a  body  to  the 

1  Dyer,  p.  397. 

2  He  said,  according  to  the  Registers  of  the  Council,  Jan.  27,  1546,  "que 
M.  Calvin  estoyt  mesckant  homme  et  nestoyt  que  un  picard  et  preschoijt  faulce 
doctrine,"  etc.  Comp.  on  his  case  Annal.  368,  370,  37L  Audin  calls  Anieaux 
"  a  man  of  the  bar-room  with  a  wicked  tongue  and  a  soul  destitute  of  energy  " 
(p.  386).     He  gives  quite  an  amusing  account  of  the  drinking  party. 


512         THE   KBFORMATION    IN    FEENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

spot  and  ordered  the  wine-shops  to  be  closed  and  a  gibbet  to 
be  erected  to  frighten  the  mob.  The  sentence  on  Araeaux 
•was  executed  April  5,  1546.  Two  preachers,  Henri  de  la 
Mare  and  Aime  Maigret,  who  had  taken  part  in  the  drinking 
scene,  were  de^josed.  The  former  had  said  before  the  Coun- 
cil that  Calvin  was  "  a  good  and  virtuous  man,  and  of  great 
intellect,  but  sometimes  governed  by  his  passions,  impatient, 
full  of  hatred,  and  vindictive."  The  latter  had  committed 
more  serious  offences.^ 

4.  Pierre  Vandel  was  a  handsome,  brilliant,  and  frivo- 
lous cavalier,  and  loved  to  exhibit  himself  with  a  retinue  of 
valets  and  courtesans,  with  rings  on  his  fingers  and  golden 
chains  on  his  breast.  He  had  been  active  in  the  expulsion 
of  Calvin,  and  opposed  him  after  his  recall.  He  was  impris- 
oned for  his  debaucheries  and  insolent  conduct  before  the  Con- 
sistory. He  was  Syndic  in  1548.  He  took  a  leading  part  in  the 
conspiracy  of  Perrin  and  shared  his  condemnation  and  exile.^ 

5.  Philibert  Berthelier  (or  Bertelier,  Bertellier),  an 
unworthy  son  of  the  distinguished  patriot  who,  in  1519,  had 
been  beheaded  for  his  part  in  the  war  of  independence, 
belonged  to  the  most  malignant  enemies  of  Calvin.  He  had 
gone  to  Noyon,  if  we  are  to  believe  the  assertion  of  Bolsec,  to 
bring  back  scandalous  reports  concerning  the  early  life  of  the 
Reformer,  Avhich  the  same  Bolsec  published  thirteen  years 
after  Calvin's  death,  but  without  any  evidence.^  If  the 
Libertines  had  been  in  jDOSsession  of  such  information,  they 
would  have  made  use  of  it.  Berthelier  is  characterized  by 
Beza  as  "  a  man  of  the  most  consummate  impudence  "  and 
"guilty  of  many  iniquities."     He  was  excommunicated  by 

1  Annal.  378  and  .380.  The  ministers  interceded  in  behalf  of  De  la  Mare, 
and  the  Council  gave  him  six  dollars  (ecus).  Maigret  was  found  guilty  of 
neglecting  his  duties  and  visiting  houses  of  ill  fame. 

2  Annal.  411,  611  sq.  ;  Opera,  XII.  547,  note  14,  with  references  to  Galiffe, 
Bonivard,  and  Roget. 

^  See  above,  p.  302  sq.  That  abominable  slander  about  sodomy,  which 
even  Galiffe  rejects.  Audin  and  Spalding  are  not  ashamed  to  repeat. 


§  109.    THE    LEADERS    OF    THE    LIBERTINES.  513 

the  Consistory  in  1551  for  abusing  Calvin,  for  not  going  to 
church,  and  other  offences,  and  for  refusing  to  make  any 
apology.  Calvin  was  absent  during  these  sessions,  owing 
to  sickness.  Berthelier  appealed  to  the  Council,  of  which 
he  was  the  secretary.  The  Council  at  first  confirmed  the 
decision  of  the  Consistory,  but  afterwards  released  him, 
during  the  syndicate  of  Perrin  and  the  trial  of  Servetus, 
and  gave  him  letters  of  absolution  signed  with  the  seal  of 
the  Republic  (1553). i 

Calvin  was  thus  brought  into  direct  conflict  with  the 
Council,  and  forced  to  the  alternative  of  submission  or  dis- 
obedience ;  in  the  latter  case  he  ran  the  risk  of  a  second  and 
final  expulsion.  But  he  was  not  the  man  to  yield  in  such 
a  crisis.  He  resolved  to  oppose  to  the  Council  his  inflexible 
non  possumus. 

On  the  Sunday  which  followed  the  absolution  of  Berthelier, 
the  September  communion  was  to  be  celebrated.  Calvin 
preached  as  usual  in  St.  Peter's,  and  declared  at  the  close  of 
the  sermon  that  he  would  never  profane  the  sacrament  by 
administering  it  to  an  excommunicated  person.  Then  raising 
his  voice  and  lifting  up  his  hands,  he  exclaimed  in  the  words 
of  St.  Chrysostom :  "  I  will  lay  down  my  life  ere  these  hands 
shall  reach  forth  the  sacred  things  of  God  to  those  who  have 
been  branded  as  his  despisers." 

This  was  another  moment  of  sublime  Christian  heroism. 

Perrin,  who  had  some  decent  feeling  of  respect  for  religion 
and  for  Calvin's  character,  was  so  much  impressed  by  tliis 
solemn  warning  that  he  secretly  gave  orders  to  Berthelier 
not  to  approach  the  communion  table.  The  communion  was 
celebrated,  as  Beza  reports,  "  in  profound  silence,  and  under 
a  solemn  awe,  as  if  the  Deity  himself  had  been  visibly  present 
among  them."  ^ 

1  See  extracts  from  the  Registers,  March  and  April,  1551,  and  in  Septem- 
ber, 1553,  Anna!.  XXI.  475-479,  551  sq. 

2_  Comp.  the  Reg.  of  the  Council,  and  of  the  Venerable  Company,  Sept.  2, 
1553,  in  Annal.  551. 


514         THE    REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

In  the  afternoon,  Calvin,  as  for  the  last  time,  preached  on 
Paul's  farewell  address  to  the  Ephesian  Elders  (Acts  20  :  31) ; 
he  exhorted  the  congregation  to  abide  in  the  doctrine  of 
Christ,  and  declared  his  willingness  to  serve  the  Church  and 
each  of  its  members,  but  added  in  conclusion :  "  Such  is  the 
state  of  things  here  that  this  may  be  my  last  sermon  to  you ; 
for  they  who  are  in  power  would  force  me  to  do  what  God 
does  not  permit.  I  must,  therefore,  dearly  beloved,  like  Paul, 
commend  you  to  God,  and  to  the  Word  of  his  grace."  ^ 

These  words  made  a  deep  impression  even  upon  his  worst 
foes.  The  next  day  Calvin,  with  his  colleagues  and  the 
Presbytery,  demanded  of  the  Council  to  grant  them  an  audi- 
ence before  the  people,  as  a  law  was  attacked  which  had  been 
sanctioned  by  the  General  Assembly.  The  Council  refused 
the  request,  but  resolved  to  suspend  the  decree  by  which  the 
power  of  excommunication  was  declared  to  belong  to  the 
Council. 

In  the  midst  of  this  agitation  the  trial  of  Servetus  was 
going  on,  and  was  brought  to  a  close  by  his  death  at  the 
stake,  Oct.  27.  A  few  days  afterwards  (Nov.  3),  Berthelier 
renewed  his  request  to  be  admitted  to  the  Lord's  Table  —  he 
who  despised  religion.  The  Council  which  had  condemned 
the  heretic,  was  not  quite  willing  to  obey  Calvin  as  a  legisla- 
tor, and  wished  to  retain  the  power  of  excommunication  in 
their  own  hands.  Yet,  in  order  to  avoid  a  rupture  with  the 
ministers,  who  would  not  yield  to  any  compromise,  the 
Council  resolved  to  solicit  the  opinions  of  four  Swiss  cantons 
on  the  subject.^ 

BuUinger,  in  behalf  of  the  Church  and  magistracy  of 
Ziirich,  replied  in  December,  substantially  approving  of 
Calvin's  view,  though  he  admonished  him  privately  against 
undue  severity.     The  magistrates  of  Bern  replied  that  they 

1  The  sermon  was  taken  down  by  a  stenographer,  and  translated  into 
Latin  by  Beza. 

■■^  Reg.  da  Conseil,  Nov.  7,  9,  2o,  28,  1553,  in  Annul.  559-562. 


§  110.    GENEVA   REGENERATED.  515 

had  no  excommunication  in  their  Church.  The  answers  of 
the  two  other  cantons  are  lost,  but  seem  to  have  been  rather 
favorable  to  Calvin's  cause. 

In  the  meantime  matters  assumed  a  more  promising  aspect. 
On  Jan.  1,  1554,  at  a  grand  dinner  given  by  the  Council  and 
judges,  Calvin  being  present,  a  desire  for  peace  was  univer- 
sally expressed.  On  the  second  of  February  the  Council  of 
Two  Hundred  swore,  with  uplifted  hands,  to  conform  to  the 
doctrines  of  the  Reformation,  to  forget  the  past,  to  renounce 
all  hatred  and  animosity,  and  to  live  together  in  unity. 

Calvin  regarded  this  merely  as  a  truce,  and  looked  for 
further  troubles.  He  declared  before  the  Council  that  he 
readily  forgave  all  his  enemies,  but  could  not  sacrifice  the 
rights  of  the  Consistory,  and  would  rather  leave  Geneva. 
The  irritation  continued  in  1554.  The  opposition  broke  out 
again  in  the  conspiracy  against  the  foreigners  and  the  coun- 
cil, which  has  been  already  described.  The  plot  failed. 
Berthelier  was,  with  Perrin,  condemned  to  death,  but  escaped 
with  him  the  execution  of  justice  by  flight.^ 

This  was  the  end  of  Libertinism  in  Geneva. 

§  110.    Greneva  Regenerated.     Testhnonies  Old  and  New. 

The  final  result  of  this  long  conflict  with  Libertinism  is 
the  best  vindication  of  Calvin.  Geneva  came  out  of  it  a  new 
city,  and  with  a  degree  of  moral  and  spiritual  prosperity 
which  distinguished  her  above  any  other  Christian  city  for 
several  generations.  What  a  startling  contrast  she  presents, 
for  instance,  to  Rome,  the  city  of  the  vicar  of  Christ  and  his 
cardinals,  as  described  by  Roman  Catholic  writers  of  the 
sixteenth  century!  If  ever  in  this  wicked  world  the  ideal 
of  Christian  society  can  be  realized  in  a  civil  community 

1  Reg.  du  Conseil,  Aug.  6,  1555  (in  Annal.  611  sq.)  :  "  Philibert  Bertellier, 
P.  Vandel,  et  J.  B.  Sept  condamn^s  h  mart  par  contumace,  Michael  Sept  au  han- 
isspinent  /lerpe'tuel,  sans  peine  de  mori ;  six  autres  a  la  meme  peine  ;  deux  a  dix  ans 
ile  bunisstiaent,  et  tons  au.c  di-'pens." 


516         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

with  a  mixed  population,  it  was  in  Geneva  from  the  middle 
of  the  sixteenth  to  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
when  the  revolutionary  and  infidel  genius  of  Rousseau  (a 
native  of  Geneva)  and  of  Voltaire  (who  resided  twenty  years 
in  the  neighborhood,  on  his  estate  at  Ferney)  began  to 
destroy  the  influence  of  the  Reformer. 

After  the  final  collapse  of  the  Libertine  party  in  1555,  the 
peace  was  not  seriously  disturbed,  and  Calvin's  work  pro- 
gressed without  interruption.  The  authorities  of  the  State 
were  as  zealous  for  the  honor  of  the  Church  and  the  glory  of 
Christ  as  the  ministers  of  the  gospel.  The  churches  were 
well  filled;  the  Word  of  God  was  preached  daily;  family 
worship  was  the  rule  ;  prayer  and  singing  of  Psalms  never 
ceased ;  the  whole  city  seemed  to  present  the  aspect  of  a 
community  of  sincere,  earnest  Christians  who  pi'actised  what 
they  believed.  Every  Friday  a  spiritual  conference  and 
experience  meeting,  called  the  "  Congregation,"  was  held  in 
St.  Peter's,  after  the  model  of  the  meetings  of  "prophesying," 
which  had  been  introduced  in  Ziirich  and  Bern.  Peter  Paul 
Vergerius,  the  former  papal  nuncio,  who  spent  a  short  time 
in  Geneva,  was  especially  struck  with  these  conferences. 
"All  the  ministers,"  he  says,^  "and  many  citizens  attend. 
One  of  the  preachers  reads  and  briefly  explains  a  text  from 
the  Scriptures.  Another  expresses  his  views  on  the  subject, 
and  then  any  member  may  make  a  contribution  if  so  disposed. 
You  see,  it  is  an  imitation  of  that  custom  in  the  Corinthian 
Church  of  which  Paul  speaks,  and  I  have  received  much 
edification  from  these  public  colloquies." 

The  material  prosperity  of  the  city  was  not  neglected. 
Greater  cleanliness  was  introduced,  which  is  next  to  godli- 
ness, and  promotes  it.  Calvin  insisted  on  the  removal  of  all 
filth  from  the  houses  and  the  narrow  and  crooked  streets. 
He  induced  the  magistracy  to  superintend  the  markets,  and 

1  Letter  in  the  Zurich  library,  quoted  by  Gaberel,  I.  512,  and  StiLlielin, 
I.  364. 


§  110.    GENEVA   REGENERATED.  517 

to  prevent  the  sale  of  unhealthy  food,  which  was  to  be  cast 
into  the  Rhone.  Low  taverns  and  drinking  shops  were 
abolished,  and  intemperance  diminished.  Mendicancy  on 
the  streets  was  prohibited.  A  hospital  and  poor-house  was 
provided  and  well  conducted.  Efforts  were  made  to  give 
useful  employment  to  every  man  that  could  work.  Calvin 
urged  the  Council  in  a  long  speech,  Dec.  29,  1544,  to  intro- 
duce the  cloth  and  silk  industry,  and  two  months  afterwards 
he  presented  a  detailed  plan,  in  which  he  recommended  to 
lend  to  the  Syndic,  Jean  Ami  Curtet,  a  sufficient  sum  from 
the  public  treasury  for  starting  the  enterprise.  The  factories 
were  forthwith  established  and  soon  reached  the  highest 
degree  of  prosperity.  The  cloth  and  silk  of  Geneva  were 
highly  prized  in  Switzerland  and  France,  and  laid  the  foun- 
dation for  the  temporal  wealth  of  the  city.  When  Lyons, 
by  the  patronage  of  the  French  crown,  surpassed  the  little 
Republic  in  the  manufacture  of  silk,  Geneva  had  already 
begun  to  make  up  for  the  loss  by  the  manufacture  of  watches, 
and  retained  the  mastery  in  this  useful  industry  until  1885, 
when  American  machinery  produced  a  successful  rivalry.^ 

Altogether,  Geneva  owes  her  moral  and  temporal  pros- 
perity, her  intellectual  and  literary  activity,  her  social  refine- 
ment, and  her  world-wide  fame  very  largely  to  the  reformation 
and  discipline  of  Calvin.  He  set  a  high  and  noble  example 
of  a  model  community.  It  is  impossible,  indeed,  to  realize 
his  church  ideal  in  a  large  country,  even  with  all  the  help 
of  the  civil  government.  The  Puritans  attempted  it  in  Eng- 
land and  in  New  England,  but  succeeded  only  in  part,  and 
only  for  a  short  period.  But  nothing  should  prevent  a  pastor 
from  making  an  effort  in  his  own  congregation  on  the  volun- 
tary principle.  Occasional!}^  we  find  parallel  cases  in  small 
communities  under  the  guidance   of  pastors  of  exceptional 

1  Gaberel,  I.  524;  Stiihelin,  I.  372.  Even  now  the  Swiss  watches  (of 
Geneva  and  Neuchatel)  are  considered  the  best  of  those  made  wholly  or  mainly 
bv  liand  labor. 


518    THE  KEFORMATION  IN  FRENCH  SWITZERLAND. 

genius  and  consecration,  such  as  Oberlin  in  the  Steinthal, 
Harms  in  Hermannsburg,  and  Lohe  in  Neudettelsau,  wha 
exerted  an  inspiring  influence  far  beyond  their  fields  of  labor. 

Let  us  listen  to  some  testimonies  of  visitors  who  saw  with 
their  own  eyes  the  changes  wrought  in  Geneva  through 
Calvin's  influence. 

William  Farel,  who  knew  better  than  any  other  man  the 
state  of  Geneva  under  Roman  Catholic  rule,  and  during  the 
early  stages  of  reform  before  the  arrival  of  Calvin,  visited 
the  city  again  in  1557,  and  wrote  to  Ambrosius  Blaurer  that 
he  would  gladly  listen  and  learn  there  with  the  humblest 
of  the  people,  and  that  "he  would  rather  be  the  last  in 
Geneva  than  the  first  anywhere  else."  ^ 

John  Knox,  the  Reformer  of  Scotland,  who  studied  several 
years  in  Geneva  as  a  pupil  of  Calvin  (though  five  years  his 
senior),  and  as  pastor  of  the  English  congregation,  wrote 
to  his  friend  Locke,  in  1556 :  "  In  my  heart  I  could  have 
wished,  yea,  I  cannot  cease  to  wish,  that  it  might  please  God 
to  guide  and  conduct  yourself  to  this  place  where,  I  neither 
fear  nor  am  ashamed  to  say,  is  the  most  perfect  school  of 
Christ  that  ever  was  in  the  earth  since  the  days  of  the  Apostles. 
Li  other  places  I  confess  Christ  to  be  truly  preached;  but 
manners  and  religion  to  be  so  seriously  reformed,  I  have  not 
yet  seen  in  any  other  place  besides."  ^ 

Dr.  Valentine  Andrese  (1586-1654),  a  bright  and  shining 
light  of  the  Lutheran  Church  of  Wiirtemberg  (a  grandson  of 
Jacob  Andrese,  the  chief  author  of  the  Lutheran  Formula 
of  Concord')^  a  man  full  of  glowing  love  to  Christ,  visited 
Geneva  in  1610,  nearly  fifty  years  after  Calvin's  death,  with 
the  prejudices  of  an  orthodox  Lutheran  against  Calvinism, 
and  was  astonished  to  find  in  that  city  a  state  of  religion 

1  Kirchhofer,  Farel' s  Leben,  II.  125. 

2  Thomas  M'Crie,  Life  of  John  Knox,  p.  129  (Philadelphia  ed.  1845).  I 
quoted  a  sentence  from  this  letter  by  anticipation  on  p.  2G3,  but  cannot  omit 
it  at  tliis  place. 


§  110.    GENEVA   REGENERATED,  519 

which  came  nearer  to  his  ideal  of  a  Christocracy  than  any 
community  he  had  seen  in  his  extensive  travels,  and  even  in 
his  German  fatherland. 

"When  I  was  in  Geneva,"  he  writes,  "I  observed  some- 
thing great  which  I  shall  remember  and  desire  as  long  as 
I  live.  There  is  in  that  place  not  only  the  perfect  institute 
of  a  perfect  republic,  but,  as  a  special  ornament,  a  moral  disci- 
pline, which  makes  weekly  investigations  into  the  conduct, 
and  even  the  smallest  transgressions  of  the  citizens,  first 
through  the  district  inspectors,  then  through  the  Seniors, 
and  finally  through  the  magistrates,  as  the  nature  of  the 
offence  and  the  hardened  state  of  the  offender  may  require. 
All  cursing  and  swearing,  gambling,  luxury,  strife,  hatred, 
fraud,  etc.,  are  forbidden ;  while  greater  sins  are  hardly 
heard  of.  What  a  glorious  ornament  of  the  Christian  relig- 
ion is  such  a  purity  of  morals  !  We  must  lament  with  tears 
that  it  is  wanting  with  us,  and  almost  totally  neglected.  If 
it  were  not  for  the  difference  of  religion,  I  would  have 
forever  been  chained  to  that  place  by  the  agreement  in 
morals,  and  I  have  ever  since  tried  to  introduce  something 
like  it  into  our  churches.  No  less  distinguished  than  the 
public  discipline  was  the  domestic  discipline  of  my  landlord, 
Scarron,  with  its  daily  devotions,  reading  of  the  Scriptures, 
the  fear  of  God  in  word  and  in  deed,  temperance  in  meat  and 
drink  and  dress.  I  have  not  found  greater  purity  of  morals 
even  in  my  father's  home."  ^ 

A  stronger  and  more  impartial  testimony  of  the  deep  and 
lasting  effect  of  Calvin's  discipline  so  long  after  his  death 
could  hardly  be  imagined. 

1  See  his  autobiography,  written  in  1642,  and  his  "  Respublica  Christianopoli- 
tana,"  ov"  Christianopolis,"  1619,  —  a  description  of  a  Christian  model  common- 
wealth, dedicated  to  John  Arndt,  the  author  of  "True  Christianity."  Conip. 
Hossbach,  Das  Lehen  Vol.  Andrece,  p.  10;  Henry,  p.  196  (small  biography); 
Tholuck's  article  in  Herzog,  I.  388  sqq. ;  Schaff,  Creeds,  I.  460  (which  gives 
the  German  original).  Andreae's  memory  was  revived  by  the  great  Herder. 
Spener  said :  "  If  I  could  raise  any  one  from  the  dead  for  the  welfare  of  the 
Churcli,  it  would  be  Andreas." 


520         THE    REFORMATION   IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

NOTES.     MODERN   TESTIMONIES. 

The  condemnation  of  Calvin's  discipline  and  his  conduct  toward  the  Liber- 
tines has  been  transplanted  to  America  by  two  dignitaries  of  the  Roman 
Church  —  Dr.  John  McGill,  bishop  of  Richmond,  the  translator  of  Audin's 
Life  of  Calvin  (Louisville,  n.  d.),  and  Dr.  M.  S.  Spalding,  archbishop  of  Bal- 
timore (between  1864  and  1872),  in  his  History  of  the  Protestant  Reformation 
(Louisville,  1860),  8th  ed.,  Baltimore,  1875.  This  book  is  not  a  history,  but  a 
chronique  scandaleuse  of  the  Reformation,  and  unworthy  of  a  Christian  scholar. 
Dr.  Spalding  devotes  twenty-two  pages  to  Calvin  (vol.  I.  370-392),  besides  an 
appendix  on  Rome  and  Geneva,  and  a  letter  addressed  to  Merle  d'Aubigne 
and  Bungener  (pp.  495-5-30).  He  ignores  his  Commentaries  and  Institutes, 
wliicli  have  commanded  the  admiration  even  of  eminent  Roman  Catholic 
divines,  and  simply  repeats,  with  some  original  mistakes  and  misspellings,  the 
slanders  of  Bolsec  and  Audin,  which  have  long  since  been  refuted. 

"Calvin,"  he  says,  "crushed  the  liberties  of  the  people  in  the  name  of 
liberty.  A  foreigner,  he  insinuated  himself  into  Geneva  and,  serpent-like, 
coiled  himself  around  the  very  heart  of  the  Republic  which  had  given  him 
hospitable  shelter.  He  thus  stung  the  very  bosom  which  had  warmed  him. 
He  was  as  watchful  as  a  tiger  prej^aring  to  pounce  on  its  prey,  and  as  treach- 
erous. .  .  .  His  reign  in  Geneva  was  truly  a  reign  of  terror.  He  combined 
the  cruelty  of  Danton  and  Robespierre  with  the  eloquence  of  Marat  and 
Mirabeau.  .  .  .  He  was  worse  than 'the  Chalif  of  Geneva,' as  Audin  calls 
him  —  he  was  a  very  Nero  !  .  .  .  He  was  a  monster  of  impurity  and  iniquity. 
The  story  of  his  having  been  guilty  of  a  crime  of  nameless  turpitude  at 
Noyon,  though  denied  by  his  friends,  yet  rests  upon  very  respectable  authority. 
Bolsec,  a  contemporary  writer,  relates  it  as  certain.  .  .  .  He  ended  his  life 
in  despair,  and  died  of  a  most  shameful  and  disgusting  disease  which  God 
has  threatened  to  rebellious  and  accursed  reprobates."  The  early  Calvinists 
were  hypocrites,  and  "their  boasted  austerity  was  little  better  than  a  sham, 
if  it  was  not  even  a  cloak  to  cover  enormous  wickedness.  They  exhibit  their 
own  favorite  doctrine  of  total  depravity  in  its  fullest  practical  development ! " 
The  archbishop,  however,  is  kind  enough  to  add  in  conclusion  (p.  391),  that 
he  "  would  not  be  understood  as  wishing  to  reflect  upon  the  character  or  con- 
duct of  the  present  professors  of  Calvinistic  doctrines,  many  of  whom  are 
men  estimable  for  their  civic  virtues." 

The  best  answer  to  such  a  caricature,  which  turns  the  very  truth  into  a  lie, 
is  presented  in  the  facts  of  this  chapter.  With  ignorance  and  prejudice  even 
the  gods  contend  in  vain.  But  it  is  proper,  at  this  place,  to  record  the  judg- 
ments of  impartial  historians  who  have  studied  the  sources,  and  cannot  be 
charged  with  any  doctrinal  bias  in  favor  of  Calvinism.  Comp.  other  testi- 
monies in  §  68,  pp.  270  sqq. 

GiESELER,  one  of  the  coolest  and  least  dogmatic  of  church  historians,  says 
(K.  G.  III.  P.  I.  p.  389)  :  "  Durch  Calvin's  eiserne  Festigheit  wurden  Genf's 
Sitten  ganz  umgewandelt :  so  dankte  die  Stadt  der  Reformation  ihre  Freiheit,  ihre 
Ordnung,  und  ihren  aufbliihenden  Wohlstand." 

Erom  the  Article  "  Calvin "  in  La  France  Protestante  (III.  530)  :  "  Une 
telle  organisation,  un  pared  pouroir  sur  les  individus,  une  autorite'  aussi  parfaite- 


§  110.    GENEVA   REGENERATED.  521 

ment  inquisitoriale  nous  >ndi;;nent  aujourd'kui ;  c'<?tait  chose  tonte  simple  avec 
I'ardeur  religieuse  du  XVI'  Steele.  Le  consistoire  atteifjnit  le  but  que  Calvin  s'etait 
propose'.  En  mains  de  trois  generations,  les  moeurs  de  Geneve  subirent  une  me'la- 
morphose  complete.  A  la  mondanite'  naturelle  succ€da  cette  aust€rit€  un  peu  raide, 
cette  gravite'  un  peu  e'tudie'e  qui  caracte'riserent,  dans  les  slecles  passe's,  les  disciples 
du  reformateur.  L'histoire  ne  nous  offre  que  deux  homines  qui  aient  su  imprimer 
a  tout  un  peuple  le  cachet  particulier  de  leur  genie  :  Lycurgue  et  Calvin,  deux 
grands  caracteres  qui  offrent  plus  d'une  analogic.  Que  de  fades  plaisanteries  ne 
s'est-on  pas  pertnises  sur  I'esprit  genevois!  et  Geneve  est  devenue  un  foyer  de 
lumieres  et  (I'e'mancipation  intellectuelle,  meme  pour  ses  de'tracteurs." 

Marc-Monniek. 

Marc-Monnier  was  born  in  Florence  of  French  parents,  1829,  distinguislied  as  a  poet  and 
historian,  professor  of  literature  in  the  University  of  Geneva,  and  di«d  1885.  His 
"  La  Renaissance  de  Dante  d  Luther"  (1884)  was  crowned  by  the  French  Academy. 

From  "La  Reforme,  de  Luther  a  Shakespeare  "  (Paris,  1885),  pp.  70-72. 

"  Calvin  fut  done  de  son  temps  conime  les  papes,  les  empereurs  et  tons  les  rois, 
meme  Francois  2""',  qui  brulerent  des  la're'tiques,  mais  ceux  qui  ne  voient  dans  Calvin 
que  le  meurtrier  de  Servet  ne  le  connaissent  pas.  Ce  fut  une  conviction,  une  intelli- 
gence, une  des  forces  les  plus  e'tonnantes  de  ce  grand  siecle  :  pour  le  peser  selon  son 
vie'rite,  il  faut  jeter  dans  la  balance  autre  chose  que  nos  tendresses  et  nos  pities.  II 
faut  voir  tout  I'homme,  et  le  voir  tel  qu'il  fut  :  '  un  corps  frele  et  d€bile,  sobre  jusqu'a 
I'exces,'  range'  par  des  maladies  et  des  infirmite's  qui  devaient  I'emporter  avant  le 
temps,  mais  acharne'  a  sa  tdche,  '  ne  vivant  que  pour  le  travail  et  ne  travaillant  que 
pour  e'tablir  le  royaume  de  Dieu  sur  la  terre ;  devout  a  cette  cause  jusqu'a  lui  tout 
sacrijier  : '  le  repos,  la  sante',  la  vie,  plus  encore  :  les  e'tudes  favorites,  et  avec  une 
infaligable  activite  qui  €pouvantait  ses  adversaires,  menant  de  front,  a  brides  abat- 
tues,  religion,  morale,  politique,  legislation,  litte'rature,  enseignement,  predication, 
pamphlets,  ceuvres  de  longue  haleine,  correspondance  e'norme  avec  le  roi  et  la  reine 
de  Navarre,  la  duchesse  de  Ferrate,  le  roi  Francois  1"",  avec  d'autres  princes  encore, 
avec  les  reformateurs,  les  th€ologiens,  les  humanistes,  les  dmes  travaille'es  et  charge'es, 
les  pauvres  prisonnieres  de  Paris.  II  ecrivait  dans  I' Europe  entiere;  deux  mille 
Eglises  s'organisaient  selon  ses  ide'es  ou  celles  de  ses  amis ;  des  missionnaii-es, 
anivies  de  son  souffle,  partaient  pour  I'Angleterre,  VEcosse,  les  Pays-Bas,  'en 
remerciant  Dieu  et  lui  chantant  des  psaumes.'  En  meme  temps  cet  homme  seul,  ce 
malade  surmene'  s'emparait  a  Geneve  d'un  peuple  allegre,  raisonneur,  indiscipline, 
le  tenait  dans  sa  main  et  le  forgait  d'obe'ir.  Saiis  etre  magistral  ni  meme  ciloyen 
(il  ne  le  devint  qu'aux  dernieres  anne'es  de  sa  vie),  sans  mandat  officiel  ni  titre 
reeonnu,  sans  autre  autorite  que  celle  de  son  nom  et  d'une  volonte'  inflexible,  il 
commandait  aux  consciences,  il  gouvernait  les  maisons,  il  s'imposait,  avec  unefoule 
de  refugie's  venus  de  toute  part,  a  une  population  qui  n' a  jamais  aime' les  strangers 
ni  les  maitres;  il  heurtait  enfin  de  parti  pris  les  coutumes,  les  traditions,  les  sus- 
ceptibilite's  nationales  et  il  les  brisait.  Non  seulement  il  pesait  sur  les  consciences  et 
les  opinions,  mais  aussi  sur  les  maurs,  proscrivait  la  luxure  et  meme  le  luxe,  la 
bijouterie,  la  sole  et  le  velours,  les  cheveux  longs,  les  coiffures  frist'es,  la  bonne  chere: 
toute  espece  de  i)laisir  et  de  distraction  ;  cependant,  malgr€  les  haines  et  les  coleres 


522         THE   KEFORIVIATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

suscitees  par  cette  coinpression  morale,  '  le  corps  brise,  mais  la  tete  haute,'  il  gouverna 
longtemps  les  Genevois  par  I'autoriie  de  son  caraclere  et  fut  accompagne  a  sa  tombe 
par  le  peuple  tout  entier.  Voila  I'homme  dont  il  est  facile  de  rire,  mais  qu'il  importe 
avant  tout  de  connailre. 

"  Calvin  de'truisit  Geneve  pour  la  refaire  a  son  image  et,  en  de'pit  de  toutes  les 
re'rolutions,  cette  reconstitution  improvise'e  dure  encore  :  il  existe  aux  partes  de  la 
France  une  ville  de  strides  croyances,  de  bonnes  etudes  et  de  bonnes  moeurs :  une 
'  cit^  de  Calvin.'  " 

A  remarkable  tribute  from  a  scholar  who  was  no  theologian,  and  no  clergy- 
man, but  thoroughly  at  home  in  the  history,  literature,  manners,  and  society 
of  Geneva.  Marc-Monnier  speaks  also  very  highly  of  Calvin's  merits  as  a 
French  classic,  and  quotes  with  approval  the  judgment  of  Paul  Lacroix 
(in  his  ed.  of  select  (Euvres  Ji-angoises  de  J.  Calvin)  :  "  Le  style  de  Calvin  est 
tm  des  plus  grands  styles  du  seizieme  siecle  :  simple,  correct,  e'le'gant,  clair,  ingenieux, 
anime,  varie  de  formes  et  de  tons,  il  a  commence'  a  fixer  la  langue  francaise  pour 
la  prose,  comme  celui  de  Clement  Marot  I' av  ait  fait  pour  les  vers." 

George  Bancroft. 

George  Bancroft,  the  American  historian  and  statesman,  born  at  Worcester,  Mass.,  1800, 
died  at  Washington,  1891,  served  his  country  as  secretary  of  the  Navy,  and  ambassador 
at  London  and  Berlin,  with  the  greatest  credit. 

"  A  word  on  Calvin,  the  Reformer."     From  his  Literary  and  Historical  Miscel- 
lanies (New  York,  1855),  pp.  405  sqq. 

"  It  is  intolerance  only,  which  would  limit  the  praise  of  Calvin  to  a  single 
sect,  or  refuse  to  reverence  his  virtues  and  regret  his  failings.  He  lived  in 
the  time  when  nations  were  shaken  to  their  centre  by  the  excitement  of  the 
Reformation ;  when  the  fields  of  Holland  and  France  were  wet  with  the  car- 
nage of  persecution;  when  vindictive  monarchs  on  the  one  side  threatened 
all  Protestants  with  outlawry  and  death,  and  the  Vatican,  on  the  other,  sent 
forth  its  anathemas  and  its  cry  for  blood.  In  that  day,  it  is  too  true,  the 
influence  of  an  ancient,  long-established,  hardly  disputed  error,  the  constant 
danger  of  his  position,  the  intense  desire  to  secure  union  among  the  antago- 
nists of  popery,  the  engrossing  consciousness  that  his  struggle  was  for  the 
emancipation  of  the  Christian  world,  induced  the  great  Reformer  to  defend 
the  use  of  the  sword  for  the  extirpation  of  heresy.  Reprobating  and  lament- 
ing his  adhesion  to  the  cruel  doctrine,  which  all  Christendom  had  for  centu- 
ries implicitly  received,  we  may,  as  republicans,  remember  that  Calvin  was 
not  only  the  founder  of  a  sect,  but  foremost  among  the  most  efficient  of  mod- 
ern republican  legislators.  More  truly  benevolent  to  the  human  race  than 
Solon,  more  self-denying  than  Lycurgus,  the  genius  of  Calvin  infused  endur- 
ing elements  into  the  institutions  of  Geneva,  and  made  it  for  the  modern 
world  the  impregnable  fortress  of  popular  liberty,  the  fertile  seed-plot  of 
democracy. 

"  We  boast  of  our  common  schools ;  Calvin  was  the  father  of  popular  edu- 
cation, the  inventor  of  the  system  of  free  schools.  We  are  proud  of  the  free 
States  that  fringe  the  Atlantic.     The  pilgrims  of  Plymouth  were  Calvinists; 


§  110.    GENEVA   REGENERATED.  '  523 

the  best  influence  in  South  Carolina  came  from  the'  Calvinists  of  France. 
William  Penn  was  the  disciple  of  the  Huguenots;  the  ships  from  Holland 
that  first  brought  colonists  to  Manhattan  were  filled  with  Calvinists.  Ho  that 
will  not  honor  the  memory,  and  respect  the  influence  of  Calvin,  knows  but 
little  of  the  origin  of  American  liberty. 

"If  personal  considerations  chiefly  win  applause,  then  no  one  merits  our 
sympathy  and  our  admiration  more  than  Calvin  ;  tiie  young  exile  from  France- 
who  achieved  an  immortality  of  fame  before  he  was  twenty-eight  years  of 
age;  now  boldly  reasoning  with  the  king  of  France  for  religious  liherty  ;  now 
venturing  as  the  apostle  of  truth  to  carry  the  new  doctrines  into  the  heart  of 
Italy,  and  hardly  escaping  from  the  fury  of  papal  persecution  ;  tlie  purest 
writer,  tlie  keenest  dialectician  of  his  century ;  pushing  free  inquiry  to  its 
utmost  verge,  and  yet  valuing  inquiry  solely  as  the  means  of  arriving  at  fixed 
conclusions.  The  light  of  his  genius  scattered  the  mask  of  darkness  which 
superstition  had  held  for  centurief*  before  the  brow  of  religion.  His  probity 
was  unquestioned,  his  morals  spotless.  His  only  happiness  consisted  in  his 
'  task  of  glory  and  of  good ' ;  for  sorrow  found  its  way  into  all  his  private 
relations.  He  was  an  exile  from  his  country ;  he  became  for  a  season  an 
exile  from  his  place  of  exile.  As  a  husband  he  was  doomed  to  mourn  the 
premature  loss  of  his  wife  ;  as  a  father  he  felt  the  bitter  pang  of  burying  his 
only  child.  Alone  in  the  world,  alone  in  a  strange  land,  he  went  forward  in 
his  career  with  serene  resignation  and  inflexible  firmness  ;  no  love  of  ease 
turned  him  aside  from  his  vigils;  no  fear  of  danger  relaxed  the  nerve  of 
his  eloquence  ;  no  bodily  infirmities  checked  the  incredible  activity  of  his 
mind ;  and  so  he  continued,  year  after  year,  solitary  and  feeble,  yet  toiling 
for  humanity,  till  after  a  life  of  glory,  he  bequeathed  to  his  personal  heirs,  a 
fortune,  in  books  and  furniture,  stocks  and  money,  not  exceeding  two  hundred 
dollars,  and  to  the  world,  a  purer  reformation,  a  republican  spirit  in  religion, 
with  the  kindred  principles  of  republican  liberty." 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

CALVIN'S   THEOLOGY. 
§  111.    Calvhi's  Commentaries. 

I.  Calvin's   Commentaries  on  the  Old   Test,  in  Opera,  vols.  XXIII. -XLIV., 

on  the  New  Test.,  vols.  XLV.  sqq.  (not  j'et  completed).  Separate  Latin 
ed.  of  the  Commentaries  on  the  New  Test,  by  Tholuck,  Berlin,  and  Halle, 
1831,  1836,  etc.,  7  vols. ;  also  on  Genesis  (by  Hengstenberg,  Berlin,  1838) 
and  on  the  Psalms  (by  Tholuok,  1836,  2  vols.).  Translations  in  French 
(by  J.  Girard,  1550,  and  others),  English  (by  various  writers,  1570  sqq.), 
and  other  languages.  Best  English  ed.  by  the  "  Calvin  Translation  Soc," 
Edinburgh,  1843-55  (30  vols,  for  the  O.  T.,  13  for  the  N.  T.).  See  list  in 
Darling's  Ci/clopcedia  Bihliographica,  sub  "Calvin." 

II.  A.  Tholuck  :  Die  Verdienste  Calvin's  als  Schriftaushger,  in  his  "  Lit.  An- 
zeiger,"  1831,  reprinted  in  his  "  Vermischte  Schrif ten  "  (Hamburg,  1839), 
vol.  II.  330-360,  and  translated  by  Wm.  Pringle  (added  to  Com.  on 
Joshua  in  the  Edinb.  ed.  1854,  pp.  345-375).  —  G.  W.  Meyer:  Geschichte 
der  Schrifterklarung,  11.448-475. — D.  G.  Escher:  De  Calvino  interprete, 
Traj.,  1840.  —  Ed.  Reuss:  Calvin  conside're  comme  exegete,  in  "Revue," 
VI.  223.  —  A.  Vesson:  Calvin  exegete,  Montaub,  1855.  —  E.  Stahelin: 
Calvin,  I.  182-198.  —  Schaff  :  Creeds  of  Christendom,  I.  457-460.  — 
Merx  :  Joel,  Halle,  1879,  pp.  428-444.  —  Fred.  W.  Farrar  :  History  of 
Interpretation  (London,  1886),  pp.  342-354. 

Calvin  was  an  exegetical  genius  of  the  first  order.  His 
commentaries  are  unsurpassed  for  originality,  depth,  per- 
spicuity, soundness,  and  permanent  value.  The  Reformation 
period  was  fruitful  beyond  any  other  in  translations  and 
expositions  of  the  Scripture.  If  Luther  was  the  king  of 
translators,  Calvin  was  the  king  of  commentators.  Poole, 
in  the  preface  to  his  Si/nopsis,  apologizes  for  not  referring 
more  frequently  to  Calvin,  because  others  had  so  largely  bor- 
rowed from  him  that  to  quote  them  was  to  quote  him.  Reuss, 
the  chief  editor  of  his  works  and  himself  an  eminent  biblical 
scholar,  says  that  Calvin  was  "beyond  all  question  the  great- 

524 


§  111.  Calvin's  commentauies.  525 

est  exegete  of  the  sixteenth  century."  i  Archdeacon  Farrar 
literally  echoes  this  judgment.^  Diestel,  the  best  historian 
of  Old  Testament  exegesis,  calls  him  "  the  creator  of  genuine 
exegesis."  ^  Few  exegetical  works  outlive  their  generation  ; 
those  of  Calvin  are  not  likely  to  be  superseded  any  more 
than  Chrysostom's  Homilies  for  patristic  eloquence,  or  Ben- 
gel's  G-nomon  for  pregnant  and  stimulating  hints,  or  ]\fatthe\v 
Henry's  Exposition  for  devotional  purposes  and  epigrammatic 
suggestions  to  preachers.* 

Calvin  began  his  series  of  Commentaries  at  Strassburg  with 
the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  on  which  his  system  of  theology 
is  chiefly  built.  In  the  dedication  to  his  friend  and  HcbrcAv 
teacher  Grynieus,  at  Basel  (Oct.  18,  1539),  he  already  la^-s 
down  his  views  of  the  best  method  of  interpretation,  namely, 
comprehensive  brevity,  transparent  clearness,  and  strict  ad- 
herence to  the  spirit  and  letter  of  the  author.     He  gradually 


1  "  Ohne  alle  Fraqe  der  grosste  Exeijet  des  (^aec/iszehnteii)  Jahrlmnderta." 
Geschichte  der  hell.  Schriften  des  Neiten  Test.  p.  618  (6th  ed.  1887). 

2  "  The  greatest  exegete  and  theologian  of  the  Reformation  was  undoubtedly 
Calvin."  HIstori/  of  Interpretation,  London,  1886,  p.  342.  Farrar  quotes  from 
Keble  a  manuscript  note  of  Hooker,  who  says  tliat  "  tiie  sense  of  Scripture 
which  Calvin  alloweth  "  was  held  (in  tiie  Anglican  Cliurch)  to  be  of  more 
force  tlian  if  "  ten  thousand  Augustiiis,  Jeromes,  Chrysostonis,  Cyprians  were 
brought  fortii." 

3  "Der  Sc/iop/er  der  dchten  Exegese."  Diestel  adds:  "Johannes  Calvin  ragt 
ebensowohl  durch  den  Cm/ctng  seiner  exegetlschen  Arbelten  ivie  durch  eine  seltene 
Genialltat  in  der  Auslegung  hervor ;  unilbertroffen  In  scinem  Jahrhundert ,  bleten 
seine  Exegesen  fiir  alle  folgenden  Zelten  noch  bis  heute  einen  relchen  Staff  der 
Schriflkenntniss  dar."  Geschichte  des  Alien  Testaments  In  der  chrlstl.  KIrche, 
Jena,  1869,  p.  267.  Dr.  A.  Merx  of  Heidelberg,  another  master  in  biblical 
philology,  fully  agrees:  "Calvin  ist  der  grosste  Exeget  seiner  Zelt  .  .  .  der 
Schopfer  der  iichten  Exegese"  (on  Joel,  p.  428),  and  he  ascribes  to  him,  besides 
the  necessary  learning,  including  Hebrew,  the  sagacity  of  understanding  and 
explaining  tlie  whole  from  the  parts,  and  the  parts  from  the  whole. 

*  G.  Wohlenberg,  a  Lutheran  divine,  begins  a  notice  of  the  new  edition  of 
Calvin's  Commentaries  on  the  New  Test,  (in  Lutliardt's  "Theol.  Lit.-blatt," 
Oct.  0,  1891)  with  this  remark:  "Calvin's  Commentare  zum  N.  T.  ge/uiren  zu 
den  nie  veraltenden  Werken.  Und  so  gut  ule  Bengel's  '  Gnomon'  immer  wieder 
gedruckt  und  gelesen  icerden  tcird,  so  lange  es  eIne  gesunde  und  fromme  Schr(/ler- 
kliirung  glebt,  so  werden  uuck  Calvin's  Commentare  nie  vergessen  werden." 


626         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

expounded  the  most  important  books  of  the  Old  Testament, 
the  Pentateuch,  the  Psalms,  and  the  Prophets,  and  all  the 
books  of  the  New  Testament,  with  the  exception  of  the 
Apocalypse,  which  he  wisely  left  alone.  Some  of  his  expo- 
sitions, as  the  Commentary  on  the  Minor  Prophets,  were 
published  from  notes  of  his  free,  extempore  lectures  and 
sermons.  His  last  literary  work  was  a  Commentary  on 
Joshua,  which  he  began  in  great  bodily  infirmity  and  finished 
shortly  before  his  death  and  entrance  inio  the  promised 
land. 

It  was  his  delight  to  expound  the  Word  of  God  from  the 
chair  and  from  the  pulpit.  Hence  his  theology  is  biblical 
rather  than  scholastic.  The  Commentaries  on  the  Psalms 
and  the  Epistles  of  Paul  are  regarded  as  his  best.  He  was 
in  profound  sympathy  with  David  and  Paul,  and  read  in 
their  history  his  own  spiritual  biography.  He  calls  the 
Psalms  (in  the  Preface)  "  an  anatomy  of  all  the  parts  of  the 
soul ;  for  there  is  not  an  emotion  of  which  any  one  can  be 
conscious  that  is  not  here  represented  as  in  a  mirror.  Or, 
rather,  the  Holy  Spirit  has  here  drawn  to  the  life  the  griefs, 
the  sorrows,  the  fears,  the  doubts,  the  hopes,  the  cares,  the 
perplexities,  in  short,  all  the  distracting  emotions  with  which 
the  minds  of  men  are  wont  to  be  agitated."  He  adds  that 
his  own  trials  and  conflicts  helped  him  much  to  a  clearer 
understanding  of  these  divine  compositions. 

He  combined  in  a  very  rare  degree  all  the  essential  quali- 
fications of  an  exegete  —  grammatical  knowledge,  spiritual 
insight,  acute  perception,  sound  judgment,  and  practical  tact. 
He  thoroughly  sympathized  with  the  spirit  of  the  Bible;  he 
put  himself  into  the  situation  of  the  writers,  and  reproduced 
and  adapted  their  thoughts  for  the  benefit  of  his  age. 

Tholuck  mentions  as  the  most  prominent  qualities  of 
Calvin's  commentaries  these  four:  doctrinal  impartiality, 
exegetical  tact,  various  learning,  and  deep  Christian 
piety.     Winer  praises  his  "  truly  wonderful  sagacity  in  per- 


§  111.  Calvin's  commentaries.  527 

ceiving,  and  perspicuity  in  expounding,  the  meaning  of  the 
Apostle."  1 

1.  Let  us  first  look  at  his  philological  outfit.  Melanch- 
thon  well  says :  "  The  Scripture  cannot  be  understood 
theologically  unless  it  be  first  understood  grammatically."  2 
He  had  passed  through  the  school  of  the  Renaissance;  he 
had  a  rare  knowledge  of  Greek ;  he  thought  in  Greek,  and 
could  not  help  inserting  rare  Greek  words  into  his  letters  to 
learned  friends.  He  was  an  invaluable  help  to  Luther  in  his 
translation  of  the  Bible,  but  his  commentaries  are  dogmatical 
rather  than  grammatical,  and  very  meagre,  as  compared  with 
those  of  Luther  and  Calvin  in  depth  and  force.^ 

Luther  surpassed  all  other  Reformers  in  originality,  fresh- 
ness, spiritual  insight,  bold  conjectures,  and  occasional  flashes 
of  genius.  His  commentary  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians, 
which  he  called  "  his  wife,"  is  a  masterpiece  of  sympathetic 
exposition  and  forceful  application  of  the  leading  idea  of  evan- 
gelical freedom  to  the  question  of  his  age.  But  Luther  was  no 
exegete  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  term.  He  had  no  method 
and  discipline.  He  condemned  allegorizing  as  a  mere  "  mon- 
key-game "  (^Affenspiel)^  and  yet  he  often  resorted  to  it  in  Job, 
the  Psalms,  and  the  Canticles.  He  was  eminently  spiritual, 
and  yet,  as  against  Zwingli,  slavishly  literal  in  his  interpre- 
tation. He  seldom  sticks  to  the  text,  but  uses  it  only  as  a 
starting-point  for  popular  sermons,  or  polemical  excursions 
against  papists  and  sectarians.  He  cared  nothing  for  the 
consensus  of  the  fathers.  He  applied  private  judgment  to 
the  interpretation  with  the  utmost  freedom,  and  judged  the 
canonicity  and  authority  of  the  several  books  of  the  Bible 

1  "  Calvinus  miravi  in  pervidenda  apostoli  mente  snbtiUtatem,  in  exponenda 
prespicuitatem  probavit."  In  the  third  ed.  of  his  Com.  on  the  Ep.  to  the 
Galatians. 

2  "  Ignaviis  in  grammntira  est  ignavns  in  theologia."     Postill.  IV.  428. 

3  Calvin  himself  fully  acknowledged  the  exegetical  merits  of  Melanchthon, 
Bullinger,  and  Bucer,  in  their  commentaries  on  Romans,  but  modestly  hints 
at  their  defects  to  justify  his  own  commentary,  which  is  far  superior.  See  his 
interesting  dedication  to  Grynasus,  written  in  1539. 


528         THE   REFORMATION   IN    FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

by  a  dogmatic  and  subjective  rule  —  his  favorite  doctrine  of 
solifidian  justification ;  and  as  he  could  not  find  it  in  James, 
he  irreverently  called  his  epistle  "  an  epistle  of  straw."  He 
anticipated  modern  criticism,  but  his  criticism  proceeded 
from  faith  in  Christ  and  God's  Word,  and  not  from  scepti- 
cism. His  best  work  is  a  translation,  and  next  to  it,  his  little 
catechism  for  children. 

Zwingli  studied  the  Greek  at  Glarus  and  Einsiedeln  that 
he  might  be  able  "to  draw  the  teaching  of  Christ  from  the 
fountain."  ^  He  learnt  Hebrew  after  he  was  called  to  Ziirich. 
He  also  studied  the  fathers,  and,  like  Erasmus,  took  more  to 
Jerome  than  to  Augustin.  His  expositions  of  Scripture  are 
clear,  easy,  and  natural,  but  somewhat  superficial.  The  other 
Swiss  Reformers  and  exegetes  —  Qj^colampadius,  Grynseus, 
BuUinger,  Pellican,  and  Bibliander  —  had  a  good  philologi- 
cal preparation.  Pellican,  a  self-taught  scholar  (d.  1556), 
who  was  called  to  Ziirich  by  Zwingli  in  1525,  wrote  a  little 
Hebrew  grammar  even  before  Reuchlin,^  and  published  at 
Ziirich  comments  on  the  whole  Bible. ^  Bibliander  (d.  1564) 
was  likewise  professor  of  Hebrew  in  Ziirich,  and  had  some 
acquaintance  with  other  Semitic  languages ;  he  was,  how- 
ever, an  Erasmian  rather  than  a  Calvinist,  and  opposed  the 
doctrine  of  the  absolute  decrees. 

For  the  Hebrew  Bible  these  scholars  used  the  editions 
of  Daniel  Bomberg  (Venice,  1518-45)  ;  the  Complutensian 
Polyglot,  which  gives,  besides  the  Hebrew  text,  also  the 
Septuagint  and  Vulgate  and  a  Hebrew  vocabulary  (Alcala, 
printed  1514-17 ;  published  1520  sqq.) ;  also  the  editions  of 


1  He  wrote  in  1523  that,  ten  years  before  (when  priest  at  Glarus),  "  operam 
dedi  Grcecianis  Uteris,  ut  ex  fontibus  doctrinain  Christi  haurire  possem." 

2  De  Modo  legendi  et  inteUiijendi  Hebrauin,  written  at  TUbingen  or  Basel  in 
1501,  first  printed  in  the  Margarita  philosopkica,  at  Strassburg  in  1504  (one  or 
two  years  before  Reuchlin's  Rudimenta  Linguoi  Hehr.),  recently  discovered 
and  republislied  by  Nestle,  Tiibingen,  1877. 

^  Comtnentaria  Bibliorum,  Ziirich,  1532-39,  7  vols.  See  Diestel,  I.e.,  272 
sq.,  and  Strack  in  Herzog-  XI.  432  sqq. 


§  111.    CALVIN'S    COjMMENTAIUES.  529 

Sabastian  Miinster  (Basel,  1536),  and  of  Robert  Stephens 
(Etienne,  Paris,  1539-46).  For  the  Greek  Testament  they 
had  the  editions  of  Erasmus  (Basel,  live  ed.  1516-35),  the 
Complutensian  Polyglot  (1520),  Colin^us  (Paris,  1534), 
Stephens  (Paris  and  Geneva,  1546-51).  A  year  after  Cal- 
vin's death,  Beza  began  to  publish  his  popular  editions  of 
the  Greek  Testament,  with  a  Latin  version  (Geneva,  1565- 
1604). 

Textual  criticism  was  not  yet  born,  and  could  not  begin 
its  operations  before  a  collection  of  the  textual  material  from 
manuscripts,  ancient  versions,  and  patristic  quotations.  In 
this  respect,  therefore,  all  the  commentaries  of  the  Reforma- 
tion period  are  barren  and  useless.  Literary  criticism  was 
stimulated  by  the  Protestant  spirit  of  inquiry  with  regard 
to  the  Jewish  Apocrypha  and  some  Antilegomena  of  the 
New  Testament,  but  was  soon  repressed  by  dogmatism. 

Calvin,  besides  being  a  master  of  Latin  and  French,  had 
a  very  good  knowledge  of  the  languages  of  the  Bible.  He 
had  learned  the  Greek  from  Volmar  at  Bourges,  the  Hebrew 
from  Grynteus  during  his  sojourn  at  Basel,  and  he  industri- 
ously continued  the  study  of  both.^  He  was  at  home  in 
classical  antiquity ;  his  lirst  book  was  a  Commentary  on 
Seneca,  De  Clementia,  and  he  refers  occasionally  to  Plato, 
Aristotle,  Plutarch,  Polybius,  Cicero,  Seneca,  Virgil,  Horace, 
Ovid,  Terence,  Liv}^  Pliny,  Quintilian,  Diogenes  Laertius, 
Aulus  Gellius,  etc.  He  inferred  from  Paul's  quotation  of 
Epimenides,  Tit.  1:12,  "■  that  those  are  superstitious  who 
never   venture    to    quote    anything    from    profane    authors. 

1  His  knowledge  of  Hebrew  was  unjustly  depreciated  by  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic Richard  Simon.  But  Dr.  Diestel,  a  most  competent  judge,  ascribes  to 
Calvin  "  a  very  solid  knowledge  of  Hebrew."  See  above,  p.  270,  and  p.  525. 
Tholuck,  also,  in  his  essay  above  quoted,  asserts  that  "  every  glance  at  Cal- 
vin's Commentary  on  the  Old  Testament  assures  us  not  only  that  he  under- 
stood Hebrew,  but  that  he  had  a  very  thorougli  knowledge  of  this  language." 
He  mentions,  by  way  of  illustration,  a  number  of  difficult  Hebrew  and  Greek 
words  which  Calvin  correctly  explains.  He  denies  that  lie  was  dependent 
on  Pellican's  notes,  as  Semler  had  gratuitously  suggested. 


530         THE   REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Since  all  truth  is  from  God,  if  anything  has  been  said  aptly 
and  truly  even  by  impious  men,  it  ought  not  to  be  rejected, 
because  it  proceeded  from  God.  And  since  all  things  are  of 
God,  why  is  it  not  lawful  to  turn  to  his  glory  whatever  may 
be  aptly  applied  to  this  use  ?  "  On  1  Cor.  8  :  1,  he  observes  : 
"  Science  is  no  more  to  be  blamed  when  it  puffs  up  than 
a  sword  when  it  falls  into  the  hands  of  a  madman."  But  he 
never  makes  a  display  of  learning,  and  uses  it  only  as  a  means 
to  get  at  the  sense  of  the  Scripture.  He  wrote  for  educated 
laymen  as  well  as  for  scholars,  and  abstained  from  minute 
investigations  and  criticisms ;  but  he  encouraged  Beza  to 
publish  his  Commentar}^  on  the  New  Testament  in  which 
philological  scholarship  is  more  conspicuous. 

Calvin  was  also  familiar  with  the  patristic  commentators, 
and  had  much  more  respect  for  them  than  Luther.  He  fully 
appreciated  the  philological  knowledge  and  tact  of  Jerome, 
the  spiritual  depth  of  Augustin,  and  the  homiletical  wealth 
of  Chrysostom;  but  he  used  them  with  independent  judg- 
ment and  critical  discrimination  .^ 

1  He  expresses  his  estimate  of  tlie  Fathers  in  the  Preface  to  his  Institutes 
as  follows :  "  Another  calumny  is  their  charging  us  with  opposition  to  the 
fathers ;  I  mean  the  writers  of  the  earlier  and  purer  ages,  as  if  those  writers 
were  abettors  of  their  impiety ;  whereas  if  the  contest  were  to  be  terminated 
by  this  authority,  the  victory  in  most  parts  of  the  controversy,  to  speak  in 
the  most  modest  terms,  would  be  on  our  side.  But  though  the  writings  of 
those  fathers  contain  many  wise  and  excellent  things,  yet,  in  some  respects, 
they  have  suffered  the  common  fate  of  mankind ;  these  very  dutiful  children 
reverence  only  their  errors  and  mistakes,  but  their  excellencies  they  either 
overlook,  or  conceal,  or  corrupt ;  so  that  it  may  be  truly  said  to  be  their  only 
study  to  collect  dross  from  the  midst  of  gold.  Then  they  overwhelm  us  with 
senseless  clamors,  as  despisers  and  enemies  of  the  fathers.  But  we  do  not 
hold  them  in  such  contempt,  but  that  if  it  were  consistent  with  my  present 
design,  I  could  easily  support  by  their  suffrages  most  of  the  sentiments  that 
we  now  maintain.  Yet,  while  we  make  use  of  their  writings,  we  always  re- 
member that  '  All  things  are  ours'  to  serve  us,  not  to  have  dominion  over  us, 
and  that  '  we  are  Christ's  '  alone,  and  owe  him  universal  obedience.  He  who 
neglects  this  distinction  will  have  nothing  decided  in  religion,  since  those  holy 
men  were  ignorant  of  many  things,  frequently  at  variance  with  each  other 
and  sometimes  even  inconsistent  with  themselves."  In  the  preface  to  his 
commentary  on  the  Romans  he  praises  the  Fathers  for  their  pittas,  eruditio, 


§  111.  Calvin's  commentaries.  531 

2.  Calvin  kept  constantly  in  view  the  primary  and  fnnda- 
niental  aim  of  the  interpreter,  namely,  to  bring  to  light  the 
true  meaning  of  the  biblical  authors  according  to  the  laws 
of  thought  and  speech.^  He  transferred  himself  into  their 
mental  state  and  environment  so  as  to  become  identified  with 
them,  and  let  them  explain  what  they  actually  did  say,  and 
not  what  they  might  or  should  have  said,  according  to  our 
notions  or  wishes.  In  this  genuine  exegetical  method  he 
lias  admirably  succeeded,  except  in  a  few  cases  where  his 
judgment  was  biassed  by  his  favorite  dogma  of  a  double 
predestination,  or  his  antagonism  to  Rome  ;  though  even  there 
he  is  more  moderate  and  fair  than  his  contemporaries,  who 
indulge  in  diffuse  and  irrelevant  declamations  against  popery 
and  monkery.  Thus  he  correctly  refers  the  "  Rock "  in 
Matt.  16  :  18  to  the  person  of  Peter,  as  the  representative 
of  all  believers.^  He  stuck  to  the  text.  He  detested  irrele- 
vant twaddle  and  diffuseness.  He  was  free  from  pedantry. 
He  never  evades  difficulties,  but  frankly  meets  and  tries  to 
solve  them.  He  carefully  studies  the  connection.  His  judg- 
ment is  always  clear,  strong,  and  sound.  Commentaries  are 
usually  dry,  broken,  and  indifferently  written.  His  exposi- 
tion is  an  easy,  continuous  flow  of  repi'oduction  and  adapta- 
tion in  elegant  Erasmian  Latinity.  He  could  truly  assert 
on  his  death-bed  that  he  never  knowingly  twisted  or  misin- 
terpreted a  single  passage  of  tlie  Scriptures ;  that  he  always 

and  sanctimonia,  and  adds  that  tlieir  antiquity  lent  them  such  authority, 
"  ut  nihil  quod  ab  ipsis  profectum  sit,  conlemnere  debeavius."  Compare  with  lliis 
judgment  Luther's  bolder  and  cruder  opinions  on  the  Fathers,  quoted  in  vol. 
VL  534  sqq. 

1  In  the  dedicatory  preface  to  his  Com.  on  Romans  he  reminds  his  friend 
(irynajus  of  a  conversation  they  had  three  years  previously,  on  the  best  method 
of  interpretation,  when  they  agreed  that  the  chief  virtue  of  an  interpreter 
was  "perspicua  brevitas,"  and  adds:  " Et  sane  quum  hoc  sit  prope  unicum  illius 
officium,  mentetn  scriptoris,  quern  explicandum  sumpsit,  patefacere  :  quantum  ab  ea 
lectores  abducit,  tantundem  a  scopo  suo  aberrat,  vel  certe  asuisjinibus  quodammodo 
evagatur." 

2  Harmon.  II.  107. 


532         THE   REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

aimed  at  simplicity,  and  restrained  the  temptation  to  display 
acuteness  and  ingenuity. 

He  made  no  complete  translation  of  the  Bible,  but  gave 
a  Latin  and  a  French  version  of  those  parts  on  which  he 
commented  in  either  or  both  languages,  and  he  revised  the 
French  version  of  his  cousin,  Pierre  Robert  Olivetan,  which 
appeared  first  in  1535,  for  the  editions  of  1545  and  1551.^ 

3.  Calvin  is  the  founder  of  modern  grammatico-historical 
exegesis.  He  affirmed  and  carried  out  the  sound  and  funda- 
mental hermeneutical  principle  that  the  biblical  authors,  like 
all  sensible  writers,  wished  to  convey  to  their  readers  one 
definite  thought  in  words  which  they  could  understand. 
A  passage  may  have  a  literal  or  a  figurative  sense,  but  cannot 
have  two  senses  at  once.  The  word  of  God  is  inexhaustible 
and  applicable  to  all  times ;  but  there  is  a  difference  between 
explanation  and  application,  and  application  must  be  consist- 
ent with  explanation. 

Calvin  departed  from  the  allegorical  method  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  which  discovered  no  less  than  four  senses  in  the  Bible,^ 
turned  it  into  a  nose  of  wax,  and  substituted  pious  imposi- 
tion for  honest  exposition.  He  speaks  of  ''  puerile "  and 
"  far-fetched  "  allegories,  and  says  that  he  abstains  from  them 
because  there  is  nothing  "  solid  and  firm  "  in  them.  It  is  an 
almost  sacrilegious  audacity  to  twist  the  Scriptures  this  way 
and  that  way,  to  suit  our  fancy .^  In  commenting  on  the 
allegory  of  Sarah  and  Hagar,  Gal.  4 :  22-26,  he  censures 
Origen  for  his  arbitrary  allegorizing,  as  if  the  plain  historical 
e  of  the  Bible  were  too  mean  and  too  poor.  "  I  acknowl- 
edge," he  says,  "  that  Scripture  is  a  most  rich  and  inexhausti- 

1  See  Reuss,  Gesch.  des  X.  T.  §  474  (p.  539,  fith  ed.).  Reuss  prepared  from 
Calvin's  French  Commentaries  a  French  version  for  his  ed.  of  the  Opera. 

2  Expressed  in  the  memorial  lines  :  — 

"  Litem  gesta  docet ;  quid  credas,  AUegoria  : 
Moralis,  quid  agas  ;  quo  tendas,  Anagogia." 

8  Pref.  ad  Bomanos :  "  Affinis  sacrilegio  andacia  est  Scripturas  temere  hue 
illtic  versare  et  quasi  in  re  lusoria  lascivire  :  quod  a  multis  jam  olim  factitatum  est." 


§  111.  Calvin's  coMMEXTAiiiES.  533 

ble  fountain  of  all  wisdom,  but  I  deny  that  its  fertility  con- 
sists in  the  various  meanings  which  any  man  at  his  pleasure 
may  put  into  it.  Let  us  know,  then,  that  the  true  meaning 
of  Scripture  is  the  natural  and  obvious  meaning;  and  let  us 
embrace  and  abide  by  it  resolutely.  Let  us  not  onl}^  neg- 
lect as  doubtful,  but  boldly  set  aside  as  deadly  corruptions, 
those  pretended  expositions  which  lead  us  away  from  the 
natural  meaning."  He  approvingly  quotes  Clirysostom,  wlio 
says  that  the  word  "  allegory  "  in  this  passage  is  used  in  an  im- 
proper sense. ^  He  was  averse  to  all  forced  attempts  to  harmo- 
nize difficulties.  He  constructed  his  Harmony  of  the  Gospels 
from  the  three  Synoptists  alone,  and  explained  John  separately. 
4.  Calvin  emancipated  exegesis  from  the  bondage  of  dog- 
matism. He  was  remarkably  free  from  traditional  orthodox 
prepossessions  and  prejudices,  being  convinced  that  the  truths 
of  Christianity  do  not  depend  upon  the  number  of  dicta  pro- 
hantia.  He  could  see  no  proof  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity 
in  the  plural  Elohim^^  nor  in  the  three  angel  visitors  of  Abra- 
ham, 18  :  2,  nor  in  the  Trisagion,  Ps.  6  :  3,^  nor  of  the  divinity 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  Ps.  33  :  6.4 

1  "  Et  certe  Chrysosfomiis  in  vocahulo  AUegorice  fatetur  esse  catechresin  (^Kara- 
XPlfTis)  ."  quod  verissimum  est." 

2  Ad.  Gen.  1:1  (Opera,  XXIII.  15):  "  Habetur  apud  Moses  D'H^S,  nomen 
pluralis  numeri.  Unde  colligere  solent,  hie  in  Deo  notari  tres  personas ;  sed  quia 
parum  solida  mihi  videtur  tanUe  rei  probatio,  ego  in  voce  non  insistam.  Quin  potius 
manendi  sunt  lectores  ut  sibi  a  violentis  ejusmodi  g/ossis  caveant.  Putant  iili  se 
testimonium  habere  adversus  Arianos  ad  probandam  Filii  et  Spiritus  divinitatem, 
interea  se  involvunt  in  errorein  Sabellii."  But  in  the  words,  "  Let  us  make 
man,"  Gen.  1:26,  he  admits,  after  rejecting  the  Rabbinical  fancies,  the  inti- 
mation of  a  plurality  in  God:  "  Christiani  apposite  plures  subesse  in  Deo  personas 
ex  hoc  testimonio  contendunt.  Neminem  exfraneum  adiwcat  Dens  .■  hinc  colligimus, 
intus  eum  aliquid  distinctum  invenire  :  ut  certe  a-terna  eius  sapientia  et  virtus  in 
ipso  resident."     (lb.  25.) 

3  On  this  passage  he  remarks :  "  Veteres  hoc  testimonio  usi  sunt,  quum  vellent 
adi'ersus  Arianos  tres  personas  in  una  Dei  essentia  probare.  Quorum  ego  sententiam 
non  improbo;  sed  si  mihi  res  cum  hiereticis  esset,  mnllem  firmioribus  testimomis  uti." 

*  Older  Lutheran  divines  (even  Walch,  Biblioth.  theol.  IV.  413)  charged 
him  with  Judaizing  and  Socinian  misinterpretation  of  the  O.  T.  proof  texts 
for  the  Trinity  and  the  divinity  of  tlie  Messiah.  Aegidius  Hunnius,  in  his 
Calvinus  Judaizans  (Wittenberg.   1598),  thought  that  Calvin  ought  to  have 


534    THE  REFORMATION  IN  FRENCH  SWITZERLAND. 

5.  He  prepared  the  way  for  a  proper  historical  understand- 
ing of  prophecy.  He  fully  believed  in  the  Messianic  prophe- 
cies, which  are  the  very  soul  of  the  faith  and  hope  of  Israel ; 
but  he  first  perceived  that  they  had  a  primary  bearing  and 
practical  application  to  their  own  times,  and  an  ulterior  fulfil- 
ment in  Christ,  thus  serving  a  present  as  well  as  a  future  use. 
He  thus  explained  Psalms  2,  8, 16,  22,  40,  45,  68, 110,  as  typi- 
cally and  indirectly  Messianic.  On  the  other  hand,  he  made 
excessive  use  of  typology,  especially  in  his  Sermons,  and  saw 
not  only  in  David  but  in  every  king  of  Jerusalem  a  "•  figure 
of  Christ."  In  his  explanation  of  the  protevangelium,  Gen. 
3  :  15,  he  correctly  understands  the  "  seed  of  the  woman,'' 
collectively  of  the  human  race,  in  its  perpetual-conflict  with 
Satan,  which  will  culminate  ultimatel}'  in  the  victory  of 
Christ,  the  head  of  the  race.^  He  widens  the  sense  of  the 
formula  ''that  it  might  be  fulfilled"  {7va  irX'qpwOri),  so  as  to 
express  sometimes  simply  an  analogy  or  correspondence 
between  an  Old  Testament  and  a  New  Testament  event. 
The  prophecy,  Hos.  11  : 1,  quoted  by  Matthew  as  referring 
to  the  return  of  the  Christ-child  from  Egypt,  must,  accord- 
ingly, "not  be  restricted  to  Christ,"  but  is  "skilfull}'-  adapted 
to  the  present  occasion."  ^  In  like  manner,  Paul,  in  Rom. 
10  :  6,  gives  only  an  embellishment  and  adaptation  of  a  word 
of  Moses  to  the  case  in  hand.^ 

been  burnt  for  his  abominable  perversion  of  tlie  Scriptures.  D.  Parens  of 
Heidelberg  defended  him  against  this  charge  in  his  Orthodoxus  Calvinus, 
Modern  Lutheran  exegesis  fully  sustains  him. 

^  Ad  Gen.  3:  15  (^Opera,  XXIII.  71)  :  "  GeneraUter  semen  interpi-etor  de  pos- 
teris.  Sed  quum  experientia  doceat,  multum  abesse  quin  supra  diabolum  victores 
emergant  o nines  Jilii  Ada,  ad  caput  unuin  venire  jiecesse  est,  lit  reperiamus  ad  quevi 
pertineat  victoria.  Sic  Paulus  a  semine  Ahrah(V  ad  Christum  nos  deducit.  .  .  . 
Quare  sensus  est  (meo  judicio'),  humanuiii  genus,  quod  opprimere  conalus  erat  Satan, 
fore  tandem  superius." 

2  Harm.  I.  80.  Tholuck's  ed.  On  ver.  23  in  the  same  chapter,  Calvin 
says  (p.  83)  :  "  Non  deducit  Matthceus  Nazarceum  a  Nazareth  :  quasi  sit  hcec 
propria  et  certa  etijmologia,  sed  tantum  est  allusio,"  etc. 

3  Comp.  his  notes  on  Gen.  3:15;  Isa.  4:2;  6:3;  Ps.  33 : 6  ;  Matt.  2:15; 
8:17;  11:11;  John  1:51-  2:17;  5:31  sq.;  2  Cor.  12:7;  1  Pet.  3:19; 
Heb.  2:6-8;  4:3;  11:21, 


v^   111.    CALVIX'S    COMMENTARIES.  o35 

6.  He  had  the  in-ofoundest  reverence  for  the  Scriptures, 
as  containing  the  Word  of  the  living  God  and  as  the  oid}^ 
infallible  and  sutiicieut  rule  of  faith  and  duty;  but  he  was 
not  swayed  by  a  particular  theory  of  inspiration.  It  is  true, 
he  never  would  have  approved  the  unguaided  judgments  of 
Luther  on  James,  Jude,  Hebrews,  and  the  Apocal^-pse ;  •  but 
he  had  no  hesitancy  in  admitting  incidental  errors  which  do 
not  touch  the  vitals  of  faith.  He  remarks  on  Matt.  27  : 9 : 
'*  How  the  name  of  Jeremiah  crept  in,  I  confess  I  know  not, 
nor  am  I  seriously  troubled  about  it.  That  the  name  of  Jere- 
miah has  been  put  for  Zechariah  by  an  error,  the  fact  itself 
shows,  because  there  is  no  such  statement  in  Jeremiah."  ^ 
Concerning  the  discrepancies  between  the  speech  of  Stephen 
in  Acts  7  and  the  account  of  Genesis,  lie  sno-crests  that 
Stephen  or  Luke  drew  upon  ancient  traditions  rather  than 
upon  Moses,  and  made  "a  mistake  in  the  name  of  Abraham."'^ 

He  was  far  from  the  pedantry  of  the  Purists  in  the  seven- 
teenth centuiy,  who  asserted  the  classical  purity  of  the  New 
Testament  Greek,  on  the  ground  that  the  Holy  Spirit  could 
not  be  guilty  of  an}-  solecism  or  barbarism,  or  the  slightest 
violation  of  grammar;  not  remembering  that  the  Apostles 
and  Evangelists  carried  the  heavenly  treasure  of  truth  in 
earthen  vessels,  that  the  power  and  grace  of  God  might 
become  more  manifest,  and  that  Paul  himself  confesses  his 
rudeness  "in  speech,"  though  not  "in  knowledge."  Calvin 
justly  remarks,  with  special  reference  to  Paul,  that  by  a  sin- 
gular providence  of  God  the  highest  mysteries  were  com- 
mitted to  us  '■'■sub  contemptibili  verbonon  huviilitate^'"  that 
our  faith  may  not  rest  on   the  power  of   luuuau  eloquence, 

^  See  Luther's  judgments  in  vol.  VI.  oo  sq. 

2  Harm.  II.  340  (Tholuck's  ed.)  :  "  Qiwmodo  Jeremiu  nomen  obrepserit,  me 
nescirefateor,  nee  anxie  laboro  :  certe  Jeremice  nomen  errore  positum  esse  pro  Zacha- 
ria  (13:7),  res  ipsa  ostendit :  quia  nihil  tale  apud  Jeremlam  lepitnr,  rrl  etiam 
quod  accedat." 

^  Ad  Acta  7:16:  "  In  nomine  Abrahiv  erratum  esse  palam  fst.  .  .  .  Qiiare 
hie  locus  corrigendus  est."  According  to  Gen.  50 :  13,  Abraham  bought  the  cave 
of  Machpelah  at  Hebron,  and  Jacob  was  buried  there,  and  not  at  Sheclieni. 


536         THE    REFORMATION    TX   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

but  solely  on  the  efficacy  of  the  divine  Spirit ;  and  yet  he 
fully  recognized  the  force  and  fire,  the  majesty  and  weight  of 
Paul's  style,  which  he  compares  to  flashes  of  lightning.^ 

The  scholastic  Calvinists,  like  the  scholastic  Lutherans  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  departed  from  the  liberal  views 
of  the  Reformers,  and  adopted  a  mechanical  theory  which 
confounds  inspiration  with  dictation,  ignores  the  human 
element  in  the  Bible,  and  reduces  the  sacred  writers  to  mere 
penmen  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  This  theory  is  destructive  of 
scientific  exegesis.  It  found  symbolical  expression,  but  only 
for  a  brief  period,  in  the  Helvetic  Consensus  Formula  of  1675, 
which,  in  defiance  of  historical  facts,  asserts  even  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  Masoretic  vowel  points.  But  notwithstanding  this 
restraint,  the  Calvinistic  exegetes  adhered  more  closely  to 
the  natural  grammatical  and  historical  sense  of  the  Scriptures 
than  their  Lutheran  and  Roman  Catholic  contemporaries.^ 

7.  Calvin  accepted  the  traditional  canon  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament, but  exercised  the  freedom  of  tlie  ante-Nicene  Church 
concerning  the  origin  of  some  of  the  books.  He  denied  the 
Pauline  authorship  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  on  account 
of    the    differences   of   style   and   mode    of   teaching    (ratio 

1  See  his  admirable  comments  on  1  Cor.  1  :  17  sqq.,  and  2  Cor.  11  :  6,  where 
he  mentions  the  majestas,  altitudo,  pondus,  and  vis  of  Paul's  words,  and  says : 
"  Fulmina  sunt,  non  verba.  An  non  dilucidius  Spiritus  Sancti  efficacia  apparet  in 
nuda  verborum  rusticitate  (xit  ita  loqiiar)  quinn  in  elegantice  et  nitoris  larva?" 

2  Fr.  Turretin,  a  strict  scholastic  Calvinist,  and  one  of  the  authors  of  the 
Helvetic  Consensus  Formula,  opposed  the  allegorical  method  and  defended 
the  sound,  one-sense  principle  (in  his  Inst.  Theol.  Elencticce,  quaest.  XIX.,  vol. 
I.  135)  :  "  Nbs  ita  sentimus,  ScripturcE  S.  unicum  tantum  competere  verum  et  genu- 
inum  sensum,  sed  sensum  ilium  duplicem  posse  esse,  vel  Simplicem,  vel  Compo- 
SITHJM.  Simplex  et  historicus  est,  qui  unius  rei  declarationem  continet,  absque  ullius 
alterius  signijicatione ,  qui  vel  prcecepta,  vel  dogmata,  vel  historias  spectat.  Et  hie 
1-ursus  duplex,  vel  Proprius  et  Grammaticalis,  vel  Figuratus  et  Tropicus. 
Proprius  qui  ex  verbis  propriis  oritur;  Tropicvs  qui  ex  verbis Jigu7-atis.  Sen- 
sus  CoMPOSiTUS  sen  mixtus  est  in  oraculis  ti/pi  rationem  habentibus,  cujus  pars  est 
?n  typo,  pars  in  antitype ;  quce  non  constituunt  duos  sensus,  sed  duas  partes  unius 
ejusdemque  sensus  intenti  a  Spiritu  Sancto,  qui  cum  litera  mi/sterium  respexit,  ut  in 
isto  Oraculo,  '  Os  non  confringetis  ei,'  Exo.  12  :  46,  plenus  non  potest  haberi  sensus, 
nisi  cum  veritate  typi,  seu  Agni  Paschalis,  conjungatur  Veritas  Antitypi  seu  Christi 
ex  Jo.  19  :  36." 


§  111.  Calvin's  commentaries.  537 

docendi),  but  admitted  its  apostolic  spirit  and  value.  He 
doubted  the  genuineness  of  the  Second  Epistle  of  Peter,  and 
was  disposed  to  ascribe  it  to  a  pupil  of  the  Apostle,  but  he 
saw  nothing  in  it  which  is  unworthy  of  Peter.  He  prepared 
the  way  for  a  distinction  between  authorship  and  editorship 
as  to  the  Pentateuch  and  the  Psalter. 

He  departed  from  the  traditional  view  that  the  Scripture 
rests  on  the  authority  of  the  Church.  He  based  it  on  inter- 
nal rather  than  external  evidence,  on  the  authority  of  God 
rather  than  the  authority  of  men.  He  discusses  the  subject 
in  his  Institutes,^  and  states  the  case  as  follows :  — 

"There  has  very  generally  prevailed  a  most  pernicious  error  tliat  the 
Scriptures  have  only  so  much  weight  as  is  conceded  to  them  by  the  suffrages 
of  the  Church,  as  though  the  eternal  and  inviolable  truth  of  God  depended  on 
the  arbitrary  will  of  men.^  .  .  .  For,  as  God  alone  is  a  suflScient  witness  of 
Himself  in  His  own  Word,  so  also  the  Word  will  never  gain  credit  in  the 
hearts  of  men  till  it  be  confirmed  by  the  internal  testimony  of  the  Spirit. 
It  is  necessary,  therefore,  that  the  same  Spirit,  who  spake  by  the  mouths  of 
the  prophets,  should  penetrate  into  our  hearts,  to  convince  us  that  they  faith- 
fully delivered  the  oracles  which  were  divinely  intrusted  to  them.  .  .  .  Let 
it  be  considered,  then,  as  an  undeniable  truth,  that  they  who  have  been  in- 
wardly taught  by  the  Spirit,  feel  an  entire  acquiescence  in  the  Scripture,  and 
that  it  is  self-authenticated,  carrying  with  it  its  own  evidence,  and  ought  not 
to  be  made  the  subject  of  demonstrations  and  arguments  from  reason;  but  it 
obtains  the  credit  which  it  deserves  with  us  by  tlie  testimony  of  the  Spirit. 
For  though  it  commands  our  reverence  by  its  internal  majesty,  it  never  seri- 
ously affects  us  till  it  is  confirmed  by  the  Spirit  in  our  hearts.  Therefore, 
being  illuminated  by  him,  we  now  believe  the  divine  original  of  the  Scripture, 
not  from  our  own  judgment  or  that  of  others,  but  we  esteem  the  certainty 
that  we  have  received  it  from  God's  own  mouth,  by  the  ministry  of  men,  to 
be  superior  to  that  of  any  human  judgment,  and  equal  to  that  of  an  intuitive 
perception  of  God  himself  in  it.  .  .  .  Without  this  certainty,  better  and 
stronger  than  any  human  judgment,  in  vain  will  the  authority  of  the  Scripture 
be  either  defended  by  arguments,  or  established  by  the  authority  of  the 
Church,  or  confirmed  by  any  other  support,  since,  unless  the  foundation  be 
laid,  it  remains  in  perpetual  suspense."^ 

1  Bk.  I.  ch.  VII.  and  VIII. 

-  Luther  said  substantially  the  same  thing  in  his  controversy  with  Eck : 
"  The  Church  cannot  give  any  more  authority  or  power  to  the  Scripture  than 
It  has  of  itself.  A  Council  cannot  make  that  to  be  Scripture  which  is  not 
Scripture  by  its  own  nature." 

3  Selected  from  Inst.  I.  VII.  §§1.4,.'^,  and  VI II.  §  1. 


.538         THE   KEFORMATION    iN   FRENCH   SWITZEllLAND. 

This  doctrine  of  the  intrinsic  merit  and  self-evidencing 
character  of  the  Scripture,  to  all  who  are  enlightened  by  the 
Holy  Spirit,  passed  into  the  Gallican,  Belgic,  Second  Helvetic, 
Westminster,  and  other  Reformed  Confessions.  They  pre- 
sent a  fuller  statement  of  the  objective  or  formal  principle 
of  Protestantism, — namel}^  the  absolute  supremacy  of  the 
Word  of  God  as  the  infallible  rule  of  faith  and  practice,  — 
than  the  Lutheran  symbols  which  give  prominence  to  the 
subjective  or  material  principle  of  justification  by  faith.^ 

At  the  same  time,  the  ecclesiastical  tradition  is  of  great 
value,  as  a  witness  to  the  human  authorship  and  canonicity 
of  the  several  books,  and  is  more  fully  recognized  by  modern 
biblical  scholarship,  in  its  conflict  with  destructive  criticism, 
than  it  was  in  the  days  of  controversy  with  Romanism.  The 
internal  testimony  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  the  external  testi- 
mony of  the  Church  join  in  establishing  the  divine  authority 
of  the  Scriptures. 

§  112.    The  Calvinistic  System. 

Comp.  §  78,  pp.  327-o-t3,  and  the  exposition  of  the  Augustinian  System  and 
the  Pelagian  controversy  in  vol.  III.  §§  146-158,  pp.  783-856.  —  Dorner  : 
Geschichte  der  protestantischen  TAeo/o^iV,  pp.  374-404.  —  Loofs  :  Dogmenge- 
schichte,  2d  ed.,  pp.  390-401. 

Calvin  is  still  a  living  force  in  theology  as  much  as  Augus- 
tin  and  Thomas  Aquinas.  No  dogmatician  can  ignore  his 
Institutes  any  more  than  an  exegete  can  ignore  his  Comvien- 
taries.  Calvinism  is  embedded  in  several  confessions  of  the 
Reformed  Church,  and  dominates,  with  more  or  less  rigor, 
the  spirit  of  a  large  section  of  Protestant  Christendom,  espe- 
cially in  Great  Britain  and  North  America.  Calvinism  is 
not  the  name  of  a  Church,  but  it  is  the  name  of  a  theological 
school  in  the  Reformed  Churches.  Luther  is  the  only  one 
among  the  Reformers  whose  name  was  given  to  the  Church 
which  he  founded.     The  Reformed    Churches   are   indepen- 

^  Comp.  vol.  VI.  36  sqq. 


§  112.    THE    CALVINISTIC    SYSTEM.  539 

dent  of  personal  authority,  but  all  the  more  bound  to  the 
teaching  of  the  Bible. 

Calvinism  is  usually  identified  with  Augustinianism,  as  to 
anthropology  and  soteriology,  in  opposition  to  Pelagianism 
and  Semi-Pelagianism.  Augustin  and  Calvin  were  intensely 
religious,  controlled  by  a  sense  of  absolute  dependence  on 
God,  and  wholly  absorbed  in  the  contemplation  of  his 
majesty  and  glory.  To  them  God  was  everything ;  man  a 
mere  shadow.  Blessed  are  the  elect  upon  whom  God  bestows 
all  his  amazing  mercy ;  but  woe  to  the  reprobate  from  whom 
he  withholds  it.  They  lay  equal  emphasis  on  the  doctrines 
of  sin  and  grace,  the  impotence  of  man  and  the  omnipotence 
of  God,  the  sinfulness  of  sin  and  the  sovereignty  of  regener- 
ating grace.  In  Christology  they  made  no  progress.  Their 
theology  is  Pauline  rather  than  Johannean.  They  passed 
through  the  same  conflict  with  sin,  and  achieved  the  same 
victory,  by  the  power  of  divine  grace,  as  the  great  Apostle  of 
the  Gentiles.  Their  spiritual  experience  is  reflected  in  their 
theology.  But  Calvin  left  us  no  such  thrilling  record  of 
his  experience  as  Augustin  in  his  Confessions.  He  barely 
allndes  to  his  conversion,  in  the  preface  to  his  Commentary 
on  the  Psalms  and  in  his  Answer  to  Sadolet. 

The  profound  sympathy  of  Calvin  with  Augustin  is  shown 
in  the  interesting  fact  that  he  quotes  him  far  more  frequently 
than  all  the  Greek  and  Latin  fathers  combined,  and  quotes 
him  nearly  always  with  full  approbation.^ 

But  in  some  respects  Augustin  and  Calvin  were  widely 
different.      Augustin  wandered  for  nine  years  in  the  laby- 

1  According  to  the  Index  of  the  List  of  Authors  quoted  in  Calvin's  Insti- 
tutes, which  is  appended  to  Beveridge's  translation,  Edinburgh,  185G,  vol.  III. 
626-663,  the  number  of  his  quotations  from  the  principal  fathers  is  as  follows  : 
228  from  Augustin  ;  39  from  Pope  Gregory  I. ;  27  from  Chrysostom ;  23  from 
Bernard;  18  from  Ambrose;  14  from  Cyprian;  12  from  Jerome;  11  from 
Hilary ;  7  from  TertuUian.  Of  classical  authors  there  are,  in  the  Institutes, 
7  quotations  from  Plato;  5  from  Aristotle;  9  from  Cicero;  3  from  Seneca;  t 
from  Plutarch,  etc.  The  Index  theologicus  in  Opera,  XXII.  136-143,  gives  7  col- 
umns of  quotations  from  Augustin.     This  does  not  include  the  commentaries. 


640         THE    llEFOKMATION    IN    FllENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

rinth  of  the  Manichsean  heresy,  and  found  at  hist  rest  and 
peace  in  the  orthodox  Catholic  Church  of  his  day,  which  was 
far  better  than  any  philosophical  school  or  heretical  sect, 
thouo-h  not  much  ])urer  than  in  the  sixteenth  century.  He 
became  the  chief  architect  of  scholastic  and  mystic  theology, 
which  ruled  in  the  Middle  Ages,  and  he  still  carries  more 
weight  in  the  Roman  communion  than  any  of  the  ancient 
fathers.  Calvin  was  brought  up  in  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  but  lied  from  its  prevailing  corruptions  to  the  citadel 
of  the  Holy  Scripture,  and  became  the  most  formidable 
enemy  of  the  papacy.  If  Augustin  had  lived  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  he  might,  perhaps,  have  gone  half  way  with  the 
Reformers ;  but,  judging  from  his  high  estimate  of  visible 
church  unity  and  his  conduct  towards  the  schismatic  Dona- 
tists,  it  is  more  probable  that  he  would  have  become  the 
leader  of  an  evangelical  school  of  Catholicism  within  the 
Roman  Church. 

The  difference  between  the  two  great  teachers  may  be 
briefly  stated  in  two  sentences  which  are  antagonistic  on  the 
surface,  though  reconcilable  at  bottom.  Augustin  says : 
"I  would  not  believe  the  gospel  if  it  were  not  for  the 
Church."  ^  Calvin  teaches  (in  substance,  though  not  in  these 
words) :  "  I  would  not  believe  the  Church  if  it  were  not  for 
the  gospel."  The  reconciliation  must  be  found  in  the  higher 
principle :  I  believe  in  Christ,  and  therefore  I  believe  in  the 
gospel  and  the  Church,  which  jointly  bear  witness  of  him. 

As  to  the  doctrines  of  the  fall,  of  total  depravity,  the 
slavery  of  the  human  will,  the  sovereignty  of  saving  grace, 
the  bishop  of  Hippo  and  the  pastor  of  Geneva  are  essentially 
agreed ;  the  former  has  the  merit  of  priority  and  originality ; 

1  Contra  Ep.  ]\fanichcei  (juam  vocani  Fundamenti,  c.  5 :  "Efjo  evangelio  non 
crederem  nisi  vie  moreret  ecclesi(V  auctoritas."  This  famous  anti-Manichaean 
passage  is  often  quoted  by  Roman  Catholics  against  Protestants.  Calvin 
discusses  it  at  length  in  his  Inst.  (Bk.  I.  eh.  VII.  §  3),  and  tries  to  deprive  it 
of  its  anti-Protestant  force,  but  he  admits  it  in  the  sense  that  "the  authority 
of  the  Church  is  an  introduction  to  prepare  us  for  the  faith  of  the  gospel." 


§  112.     THE    CALVINISTIC    SYSTEM.  541 

the  latter  is  clearer,  stronger,  more  logical  and  rigorous,  and 
far  superior  as  an  exegete. 

Their  views  are  chiefly  derived  from  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans  as  they  understood  it,  and  may  be  summed  up  in 
the  following  propositions :  God  has  from  eternity  foreor- 
dained all  things  that  should  come  to  pass,  with  a  view  to 
the  manifestation  of  his  glory ;  he  created  man  pure  and  holy, 
and  with  freedom  of  choice ;  Adam  was  tried,  disobeyed, 
lost  his  freedom,  and  became  a  slave  of  sin ;  the  whole 
human  race  fell  with  him,  and  is  justly  condemned  in  Adam 
to  everlasting  death ;  but  God  in  his  sovereign  mercy  elects 
a  part  of  this  mass  of  corruption  to  everlasting  life,  without 
any  regard  to  moral  merit,  converts  the  elect  by  irresistible 
grace,  justifies,  sanctifies,  and  perfects  them,  and  thus  dis- 
plays,in  them  the  riches  of  his  grace  ;  while  in  his  inscrutable, 
yet  just  and  adorable  counsel  he  leaves  the  rest  of  mankind 
in  their  inherited  state  of  condemnation,  and  reveals  in  the 
everlasting  punishment  of  the  wicked  the  glory  of  his  awful 
justice. 

The  Lutheran  system  is  a  compromise  between  Augustin- 
ianism  and  Semi-Pelagianism.  Luther  himself  was  fully 
agreed  with  Augustin  on  total  depravity  and  predestination, 
and  stated  the  doctrine  of  the  slavery  of  the  human  will  even 
more  forcibly  and  paradoxically  than  Augustin  or  Calvin.^ 
But  the  Lutheran  Church  followed  him  only  half  way.  The 
Formula  of  Concord  (1577)  adopted  his  doctrine  of  total 
depravity  in  the  strongest  possible  terms,  but  disclaimed  the 
doctrine  of  reprobation ;  it  represents  the  natural  man  as 
spiritually  dead  like  "  a  stone  "  or  "  a  block,"  and  teaches  a 

1  De  Servo  Arbitrio,  against  Erasmus  (1525).  He  never  retracted  this 
book,  but  declared  it  many  years  afterwards  to  be  one  of  liis  best.  He  was 
followed  by  Amsdorf,  Flacius,  Wigand,  and  Brenz.  See  Church  History,  vol. 
VI.  430  sqq.  ;  KiJstlin,  Luther's  Theologie,  I.  773  sqq.  ;  Luthardt,  Dogmatik, 
p.  120  ((3th  ed.),  and  his  Lehre  vomfreien  Willen :  Harnack,  Dogmengeschichte, 
III.  714  sq.  ;  and  Loofs,  Leitfaden  zuin  Studium  der  Dogmengeschichte,  2d  ed. 
Halle,  1890,  pp.  322-324,  and  317-350. 


542        THE    KKFORMATION    IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

particular  and  uiicoiiditioiial  election,  but  also  an  universal 
vocation.^ 

The  Augustinian  system  was  unknown  in  the  ante-Nicene 
age,  and  was  never  accepted  in  the  Eastern  Church.  This 
is  a  strong  historical  argument  against  it.  Augustin  himself 
developed  it  only  during  the  Pelagian  controversy ;  while  in 
his  earlier  writings  he  taught  the  freedom  of  the  human  will 
ao-ainst  the  fatalism  of  the  Manichieans.^  It  triumphed  in 
the  Latin  Church  over  Pelagianism  and  Semi-Pelagianism, 
which  were  mildly  condemned  by  the  Synod  of  Orange  (629). 
But  his  doctrine  of  an  absolute  predestination,  which  is  only 
a  legitimate  inference  from  his  anthropological  premises,  was 
indirectly  condemned  by  the  Catholic  Church  in  the  Gott- 
schalk  controversy  (853),  and  in  the  Jansenist  controversy 
(1653),  although  the  name  and  authority  of  the  great  (Rector 
and  saint  were  not  touched. 

The  Calvinistic  system  was  adopted  by  a  large  portion  of 
the  Reformed  Church,  and  has  still  able  and  earnest  advo- 
i;ates.  Calvin  himself  is  now  better  understood,  and  more 
highly  respected  by  scholars  (French  and  German)  than  ever 
before  ;  but  his  predestinarian  system  has  been  effectively 
opposed  by  the  Arminians,  the  Quakers,  and  the  Methodists, 
and  is  undergoing  a  serious  revision  in  the  Presbyterian  and 
Calvinistic  Churches  of  Europe  and  America. 

The  Augustinian,  Lutheran,  and  Calvinistic  systems  rest 
on  the  same  anthropology,  and  must  stand  or  fall  together 
with  the  doctrine  of  the  universal  damnation  of  the  whole 
human    race   on  the  sole  ground  of  Adam's  sin,  including 

^  See  Schaff,  Creeds  of  Christendom,  I.  313  sqq. ;  and  the  works  on  the 
Formida  Concord  ice. 

^  Calvin  was  well  aware  of  Augustin's  change  on  this  point.  "Origen, 
Ambrose,  and  Jerome,"  he  says,  "believed  that  God  dispenses  his  grace 
among  men,  according  to  his  foreknowledge  of  the  good  use  which  every 
individual  will  make  of  it.  Augustin  also  was  once  of  the  same  sentiment, 
but  when  he  had  made  a  greater  proficiency  in  scriptural  knowledge,  he  not 
only  retracted,  but  powerfully  confuted  it."  Then  he  quotes  in  proof  a  num- 
ber of  passages.     Inst.  III.  ch.  XXII.  §  8. 


§    112.     THE    CALVINISTIC    SYSTEM.  543 

infants  and  entire  nations  and  generations  which  never  heard 
of  Adam,  and  which  cannot  possibly  have  been  in  him  as  self- 
conscious  and  responsible  beings. ^  They  have  alike  to  answer 
the  question  how  such  a  doctrine  is  reconcilable  with  the  jus- 
tice and  mercy  of  God.  They  are  alike  dualistic  and  particu- 
laristic. They  are  constructed  on  the  ruins  of  the  fallen 
race,  instead  of  the  rock  of  the  redeemed  race ;  they  destroy 
the  foundation  of  moral  responsibility  by  teaching  the 
slavery  of  the  human  will ;  they  turn  the  sovereignty  of 
God  into  an  arbitrary  power,  and  his  justice  into  partiality ; 
they  confine  the  saving  grace  of  God  to  a  particular  class. 
Within  that  favorite  and  holy  circle  all  is  as  bright  as  sun- 
shine, but  outside  of  it  all  is  as  dark  as  midnight.  These 
systems  have  served,  and  still  serve,  a  great  purpose,  and 
satisfy  the  practical  wants  of  serious  Christians  who  are  not 
troubled  with  theological  and  philosophical  problems ;  but 
they  can  never  satisfy  the  vast  majority  of  Christendom. 

We  are,  indeed,  born  into  a  world  of  sin  and  death,  and  we 
cannot  have  too  deep  a  sense  of  the  guilt  of  sin,  especially 
our  own ;  and,  as  members  of  the  human  family,  we  should 
feel  the  overwhelming  weight  of  the  sin  and  guilt  of  the  whole 
race,  as  our  Saviour  did  when  he  died  on  the  cross.  But  we 
are  also  born  into  an  economy  of  righteousness  and  life,  and 
we  cannot  have  too  high  a  sense  of  God's  saving  grace  which 
passeth  knowledge.  As  soon  as  we  enter  into  the  world  we 
are  met  with  the  invitation,  "  Suffer  little  children  to  come 
unto  me."  The  redemption  of  the  race  is  as  much  an  accom- 
plished fact  as  the  fall  of  the  race,  and  it  alone  can  answer 
the  question,  why  God  permitted  or  caused  the  fall.     Where 

^  Augustin  based  his  view  of  a  quasi  pre-existence  of  all  men  in  the  loins 
of  Adam  on  a  false  exegesis  of  Kom.  ^  -.12,  iv  4>,  by  following  the  Vulgate 
rendering  in  quo  (in  whom),  and  referring  it  back  to  Adam ;  while  it  has  the 
meaning  because  (evl  rovrt^  6ti  =  Sl6tC),  or  on  condition  that  (iiri  tovtcj)^  ware,  ea 
ratione  tit,  inasmuch  as).  It  is  neuter,  not  masculine.  On  the  exegesis  of  that 
famous  passage,  and  the  doctrinal  discussions  on  it,  see  my  extensive  notes 
in  Lange's  Comm.  on  Rotnans,  pp.  172  sqq. 


544         THE    REFORMATION   IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

sin  has  abounded,  grace  has  abounded  not  less,   but  much 
more. 

Calvinism  has  the  advantage  of  logical  compactness,  con- 
sistency, and  completeness.  Admitting  its  premises,  it  is 
difficult  to  escape  its  conclusions.  A  system  can  only  be 
overthrown  by  a  system.  It  requires  a  theological  genius 
of  the  order  of  Augustin  and  Calvin,  who  shall  rise  above 
the  antagonism  of  divine  sovereignty  and  human  freedom, 
and  shall  lead  us  to  a  system  built  upon  the  rock  of  the 
historic  Christ,  and  inspired  from  beginning  to  end  with 
the  love  of  God  to  all  mankind. 

NOTES  ON  AMERICAN  CALVINISM. 

1.  Calvinism  was  imported  and  naturalized  in  America,  by  the  Puritans, 
since  1620,  and  dominated  the  theology  and  church  life  of  New  England 
during  the  colonial  period.  It  found  its  ablest  defender  in  Jonathan  Edwards, 
—  the  great  theological  metaphysician  and  revival  preacher,  —  who  maybe 
called  the  American  Calvin.  It  still  controls  tlie  orthodox  Congregational 
and  Baptist  churches.  But  it  has  provoked  Unitarianism  in  New  England 
(as  it  did  in  England),  and  has  undergone  various  modifications.  It  is  now 
gradually  giving  way  to  a  more  liberal  and  catholic  type  of  Calvinism.  The 
new  Congregational  Creed  of  1883  is  thoroughly  evangelical,  but  avoids  all 
the  sharp  angles  of  Calvinism. 

2.  The  Presbyterian  Calvinism  is  best  represented  by  the  theological  sys- 
tems of  Charles  Hodge,  W.  G.  T.  Shedd,  and  Henry  B.  Smith.  Tiie  first  is 
the  mildest,  the  second  the  severest,  tiie  third  the  broadest,  champion  of 
modern  American  Calvinism ;  they  alike  illustrate  the  compatibility  of  logical 
Calvinism  with  a  sweet  and  lovely  Christian  temper,  but  they  dissent  from 
Calvin's  views  by  their  infralapsarianism,  their  belief  in  the  salvation  of  all 
infants  dying  in  infancy,  and  of  the  large  number  of  the  saved. 

Henry  B.  Smith,  under  the  influence  of  modern  German  theology,  took  a 
step  in  advance,  and  marks  the  transition  from  old  Calvinism  to  Christological 
divinity,  but  died  before  he  could  elaborate  it.  "The  central  idea,"  he  says, 
in  his  posthumous  Si/stem  of  Christian  Theologi/  (New  York,  p.  341,  4th  ed., 
1890),  "  to  which  all  the  parts  of  theology  are  to  be  referred,  and  by  which  the 
system  is  to  be  made  a  system,  or  to  be  constructed,  is  what  we  have  termed 
the  Ciiristological  or  Mediatorial  idea,  viz.,  that  God  was  in  Christ  reconcil- 
ing the  world  unto  himself.  This  idea  is  central,  not  in  the  sense  that  all 
the  other  parts  of  theology  are  logically  deduced  from  it,  but  rather  that  they 
centre  in  it.  The  idea  is  that  of  an  Incarnation  in  order  to  Redemption.  This 
is  the  central  idea  of  Christianity,  as  distinguished,  or  distinguishable,  from 
all  other  religions,  and  from  all  forms  of  philosophy ;  and  by  this,  and  this 
alone,  are  we  able  to  construct  the  whole  system  of  the  Christian  faith  on  its 


§  113.    PREDESTINATION.  545 

proper  grounds.  This  idea  is  the  proper  centre  of  unity  to  the  whole  Chris- 
tian system,  as  the  soul  is  the  centre  of  unity  to  the  body,  as  the  North  Pole 
is  to  all  the  magnetic  needles.  It  is  so  really  the  centre  of  unity  that  when 
we  analyze  and  grasp  and  apply  it,  we  find  that  the  whole  of  Christian  theol- 
ogy is  in  it."  To  this  remarkable  passage  should  be  added  a  note  which 
Dr.  George  L.  Prentiss,  his  most  intimate  friend,  found  among  the  last  papers 
of  Dr.  Smith,  which  may  be  called  his  theological  will  and  testament.  "  What 
Reformed  theology  has  got  to  do  is  to  christolofjize  predestination  and  decrees, 
regeneration  and  sanctification,  the  doctrine  of  the  Church,  and  the  whole  of 
eschatolog  y ." 

3.  The  movement  for  the  revision  of  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith 
has  seized,  by  an  irresistible  force  within  the  last  few  years,  the  Presbyterian 
Churches  of  England,  Scotland,  and  North  America,  and  is  inspired  by  the 
cardinal  truth  of  God's  love  to  all  mankind  (John  3:  16),  and  the  consequent 
duty  of  the  Church  to  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature,  in  obedience  to 
Christ's  command  (Mark  16  :  15;  Matt.  28  :  19,  20).  The  United  Presbyterian 
Church  (1879;  and  the  Free  Church  (1891)  of  Scotland  express  their  dissent 
from  the  Westminster  Standards  in  an  explanatory  statement,  setting  forth 
their  belief  in  the  general  love  of  God,  in  the  moral  responsibility  of  man, 
and  in  religious  liberty, — all  of  which  are  irreconcilable  with  a  strict  con- 
struction of  those  standards.  The  English  Presbyterian  Church  has  adopted 
a  new  creed,  together  with  a  declaratory  statement  (1890).  The  General 
Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States  ordered,  in  1889,. 
a  revision  of  the  Westminster  Confession,  which  is  now  going  on ;  and,  at  the 
same  time,  the  preparation  of  a  new,  short,  and  popular  creed  that  will  give 
expression  to  the  living  faith  of  the  present  Church,  and  serve,  not  as  a  sign 
of  division  and  promoter  of  sectarian  strife,  but  as  a  bond  of  harmony  with 
other  evangelical  churches,  and  help  rather  than  hinder  the  ultimate  reunion 
of  Christendom.     See  SchafE,  Creed  Revision  in  the  Presbyterian  Churches,  1890. 


§  113.   Predestination. 

1.  Inst.  Bk.  III.  chs.  XXI.-XXIV.    Arliculi  de  Prccdestinatione,  first  published 

from  an  autograph  of  Calvin  by  the  Strassburg  editors,  in  Opera,  IX.  713. 
The  Consensus  Genevensis  (1552),  Opera,  VIII.  2i9-366.  Calvin's  polem- 
ical writings  against  Pighius  (1543),  vol.  VI.  224-404;  Bolsec  (1551), 
vol.  VIII.  85-140 ;  and  Castellio  (1557-58),  vol.  IX.  253-318.  He  treats  the 
subject  also  in  several  of  his  sermons,  e.r/.  on  First  and  Second  Timothy. 

2.  Alex.    Schweizer:    Die    Protestantischen    Centraldogmen    (Ziirich,    1854), 

vol.  I.  150-179.  —  Stahelin,  I.  271  sqq.  —  Doener  :  Geschichte  der  protest. 
TheoL,  386-395.  — Philip  Schaff  :   Creeds  of  Christendom,  I.  451-455. 

Luther  and  Calvin. 

The  dogma  of  a  double  predestination  is  the  corner-stone 
of  the  Calvinistic  system,  and  demands  special  consideration. 


546        THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Calvin  made  the  eternal  election  of  God,  Luther  made  the 
temporal  justification  by  faith,  the  article  of  the  standing  or 
fallino-  Church,  and  the  source  of  strength  and  peace  in  the 
battle  of  life.  They  agreed  in  teaching  salvation  by  free 
grace,  and  personal  assurance  of  salvation  by  a  living  faith 
in  Christ  and  his  gospel.  But  the  former  went  back  to  the 
ultimate  root  in  a  pre-mundane  unchangeable  decree  of  God ; 
the  latter  looked  at  the  practical  effect  of  saving  grace  upon 
the  individual  conscience.  Both  gave  undue  prominence  to 
their  favorite  dogma,  in  opposition  to  Romanism,  which 
weakened  the  power  of  divine  grace,  magnified  human  merit, 
and  denied  the  personal  certainty  of  salvation.  They  wished 
to  destroy  all  basis  for  human  pride  and  boasting,  to  pluck 
up  Phariseeism  by  the  root,  and  to  lay  a  firm  foundation  for 
humility,  gratitude,  and  comfort.  This  was  a  great  progress 
over  the  mediaeval  soteriology. 

But  there  is  a  higher  position,  which  modern  evangelical 
theology  has  reached.  The  predestinarian  scheme  of  Calvin 
and  the  solifidian  scheme  of  Luther  must  give  way  or  be  sub- 
ordinated to  the  Christocentric  scheme.  We  must  go  back 
to  Peter's  confession,  which  has  only  one  article,  but  it  is  the 
most  important  article,  and  the  oldest  in  Christendom.  The 
central  place  in  the  Christian  system  belongs  to  the  divine- 
human  person  and  work  of  Christ :  this  is  the  immovable 
rock  of  the  Church,  against  which  the  gates  of  Hades  shall 
never  prevail,  and  on  which  the  creeds  of  Christendom  will 
have  to  unite  (Matt.  16 :  16-18  ;  comp.  1  Cor.  2:2;  3  :  11 ; 
Rom.  4  :  25 ;  1  John  4  :  2,  3).  The  Apostles'  Creed  and  the 
Nicene  Creed  are  Christocentric  and  Trinitarian. 

The  Reformers  All  Predestixarians. 

All  the  Reformers  of  the  sixteenth  century,  following  the 
lead  of  Augustin  and  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  —  as  they  under- 
stood him,  —  adopted,  under  a  controlling  sense  of  human 
depravity   and    saving    grace,    and    in    antagonism    to   self- 


§  113.    PREDESTINATION.  547 

righteous  legalism,  the  doctrine  of  a  double  predestination 
which  decides  the  eternal  destiny  of  all  men.^  Nor  does  it 
seem  possible,  logically,  to  evade  this  conclusion  if  we 
admit  the  two  premises  of  Roman  Catholic  and  Evangelical 
orthodoxy  —  namely,  the  wholesale  condemnation  of  all  men 
in  Adam,  and  the  limitation  of  saving  grace  to  the  present 
life.  All  orthodox  Confessions  reject  Universalism,  and 
teach  that  some  men  are  saved,  and  some  are  lost,  and  that 
there  is  no  possibility  of  salvation  beyond  the  grave.  The 
predestinarians  maintain  that  this  double  result  is  the  out- 
come of  a  double  decree,  that  history  must  harmonize  with 
the  divine  will  and  cannot  defeat  it.  They  reason  from  the 
effect  to  the  cause,  from  the  end  to  the  beginning. 

Yet  there  were  some  characteristic  differences  in  the  views 
of  the  leading  Reformers  on  this  subject.  Luther,  like 
Augustin,  started  from  total  moral  inability  or  the  servum 
arhitrium  ;  Zwingli,  from  the  idea  of  an  all-ruling  providentia  ; 
Calvin,  from  the  eternal  decretum  absolutum. 

The  Augustinian  and  Lutheran  predestinarianism  is  mod- 
erated by  the  churchly  and  sacramental  principle  of  baptismal 
regeneration.  The  Calvinistic  predestinarianism  confines  the 
sacramental  efficacy  to  the  elect,  and  turns  the  baptism  of 
the  non-elect  into  an  empty  form ;  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
it  opens  a  door  for  an  extension  of  electing  grace  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  visible  Church.  Zwingli's  position  was  pecul- 
iar :  on  the  one  hand,  he  went  so  far  in  his  supralapsarianism 
as  to  make  God  the  sinless  author  of  sin  (as  the  magistrate 
in  inflicting  capital  punishment,  or  the  soldier  in  the  battle, 

1  The  essential  agreement  of  the  Eeformers  on  the  doctrine  of  free-will 
and  predestination  has  been  proven  by  scholars  of  different  schools,  as  Jul. 
-Miiller  (Littheri  doctrina  de  pnedestiitatione  et  libera  arhitrio,  and  in  his  Dogma- 
tfsche  AbJiandlungen,  pp.  169-179),  Hundeshagen  {Confllcte  des  Zivinr/liatiisimts, 
Lutherthums,  und  Calvinismus  in  der  Bernischen  Landeshirche  von  1532-1558), 
Baur  {Der  Gegensatz  des  Katholicismus  und  Frolesfantismus,  and  in  his  Dog- 
mengeschichte),  Schweizer  (Centraldogmeti),  Gieseler,  Hagenbach,  Dorner, 
Luthardt,  Loofs,  and  others. 


548         THE    REFORMATION    IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

are  innocently  gnilty  of  murder)  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
he  undermined  the  very  foundation  of  the  Augustinian 
system — namely,  the  wholesale  condemnation  of  the  race  for 
the  sino-le  transgression  of  one ;  he  admitted  hereditary  sin, 
but  denied  hereditary  guilt ;  and  he  included  all  infants  and 
pious  heathen  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Such  a  view  was 
then  universally  abhorred,  as  dangerous  and  heretical.^ 

Melanchthon,  on  further  study  and  reflection,  retreated 
in  the  Semi-Pelagian  direction,  and  prepared  the  way  for 
Arminianism,  which  arose,  independently,  in  the  heart  of 
Calvinism  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century.  He 
abandoned  his  earlier  view,  which  he  characterized  as  Stoic 
fatalism,  and  proposed  the  Synergistic  scheme,  which  is  a 
compromise  between  Augustinianism  and  Semi-Pelagianism, 
and  makes  the  human  will  co-operate  with  preceding  divine 
grace,  bat  disowns  human  merit.^ 

The  Formula  of  Concord  (1577)  rejected  both  Calvinism 

and  Synergism,  yet  taught,  by  a  logical  inconsistency,  total 

disability  and  unconditional   election,  as  well   as   universal 

vocation. 

Calvin's  Theory. 

Calvin  elaborated  the  doctrine  of  predestination  with 
greater  care  and  precision  than  his  predecessors,  and  avoided 
their  "  paradoxes,"  as  he  called  some  extravagant  and  un- 
guarded expressions  of  Luther  and  Zwingli.     On  the  other 

1  Calvin  expressed  to  Bullinger,  in  a  confidential  letter,  Jannary,  1552,  his 
dissatisfaction  with  the  paradoxical  expressions  of  Zvvingli's  tract  De  Provi- 
dentia.  "  Zwinglii  libellus,"  he  writes,  "  ut  familiar  iter  inter  nos  ioqiiamtir,  tarn 
du7-is  paradoxis  refertus  est,  ut  longissime  ab  ea  quam  adhihui  moderatione  distet." 
Bullinger,  however,  never  contradicted  the  liberal  sentiments  of  his  teacher 
and  friend,  and  believed  in  extraordinary  modes  of  salvation,  "sine  externa 
ministerio,  quo  et  quando  velit  (^Deus)  :  et  quod  ejus  potentia:  est."  Second  Helv. 
Conf.  I.  7. 

2  For  a  fuller  exposition  of  Melanchthon's  Synergism  see  Herrlinger's 
monograph;  Frank,  Theologie  der  Concordienformel ;  Dorner,  Geschichte  der 
protest.  Theologie,  pp.  361-374,  and  his  Si/stem  der  christl.  Glauhenslehre,  II. 
706  sq.  and  716  sq. ;  Schweizer,  Central dogmen,  I.  380  sqq. ;  Schaff,  Creeds  of 
Christendom,  I.  262  sq. ;  Loofs,  Dogmengeschichte,  pp.  403  sq.  (2d  ed.). 


§  113.    PREDESTINATION.  549 

hand,  he  laid  greater  emphasis  on  the  dogma  itself,  and 
assigned  it  a  higher  position  in  his  theological  system.  He 
was,  by  his  Stoic  temper  and  as  an  admirer  of  Seneca,  pre- 
disposed to  predestinarianism,  and  found  it  in  the  teaching 
of  Paul,  his  favorite  apostle.  But  his  chief  interest  in  the 
doctrine  was  religious  rather  than  metaphysical.  He  found 
in  it  the  strongest  support  for  his  faith.  He  combined  with 
it  the  certainty  of  salvation,  Avhich  is  the  privilege  and 
comfort  of  every  believer.  In  this  important  feature  he 
differed  from  Augustin,  who  taught  the  Catholic  view  of  the 
subjective  uncertainty  of  salvation.^  Calvin  made  the  cer- 
tainty, Augustin  the  uncertainty,  a  stimulus  to  zeal  and 
holiness. 

Calvin  was  fully  aware  of  the  unpopularity  of  the  doctrine. 
"  Many,"  lie  says,  "  consider  nothing  more  unreasonable  than 
that  some  of  the  common  mass  of  mankind  should  be  fore- 
ordained to  salvation,  and  others  to  destruction.  .  .  .  When 
the  human  mind  hears  these  things,  its  petulance  breaks  all 
restraint,  and  it  discovers  a  serious  and  violent  agitation  as 
if  alarmed  by  the  sound  of  a  martial  trumpet."  But  he 
thought  it  impossible  to  "  come  to  a  clear  conviction  of  our 
salvation,  till  we  are  acquainted  with  God's  eternal  election, 
which  illustrates  his  grace  by  this  comparison,  that  he  adopts 
not  all  promiscuously  to  the  hope  of  salvation,  but  gives  to 
some  what  he  refuses  to  others."  It  is,  therefore,  not  from 
the  general  love  of  God  to  all  mankind,  but  from  his  particu- 
lar favor  to  the  elect  that  they,  and  they  alone,  are  to  derive 
their  assurance  of  salvation  and  their  only  solid  comfort. 
The  reason  of  this  preference  can  only  be  found  in  the 
inscrutable  will  of  God,  which  is  the  supreme  law  of  tlie 
universe.  As  to  others,  we  must  charitably  assume  that  they 
are  among  the  elect ;  for  there  is  no  certain  sign  of  reproba- 
tion except  perseverance  in  impenitence  until  death. 

Predestination,  according   to    Calvin,   is    the  eternal  and 

^  De  Dono  Persev.,  eh.  XXXIII. 


550         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLA:^D. 

unchangeable  decree  of  God  by  which  he  foreordained,  for 
his  own  glory  and  the  display  of  his  attributes  of  mercy  and 
justice,  a  part  of  the  human  race,  without  any  merit  of  their 
own,  to  eternal  salvation,  and  another  part,  in  just  punish- 
ment of  their  sin,  to  eternal  damnation.  "  Predestination," 
he  says,  "we  call  the  eternal  decree  of  God,  by  which  he 
has  determined  in  himself  the  destiny  of  every  man.  For 
they  are  not  all  created  in  the  same  condition,  but  eternal 
life  is  foreordained  for  some,  and  eternal  damnation  for 
others.  Every  man,  therefore,  being  created  for  one  or  the 
other  of  these  ends,  we  say,  he  is  predestinated  either  to  life 
or  to  death."  ^ 

This  applies  not  only  to  individuals,  but  to  whole  nations. 
God  has  chosen  the  people  of  Israel  as  his  own  inheritance, 
and  rejected  the  heathen ;  he  has  loved  Jacob  with  his  pos- 
terity, and  -hated  Esau  with  his  posterity.  "  The  counsel 
of  God,  as  far  as  concerns  the  elect,  is  founded  on  his  gratui- 
tous mercy,  totally  irrespective  of  human  merit;  but  to 
those  whom  he  devotes  to  condemnation  the  gate  of  life  is 
closed  by  a  just  and  irreprehensible,  though  incomprehensi- 
ble judgment."  2  God's  will  is  the  supreme  rule  of  justice,^ 
so  that  "•  what  he  wills  must  be  considered  just  for  the  very 
reason  that  he  wills  it.  When  you  ask,  therefore,  why  the 
Lord  did  so,  the  answer  must  be,  Because  he  would.  But 
if  you  go  further  and  ask  why  he  so  determined,  you  are  in 
search  of  something  higher  and  greater  than  the  will  of  God, 
which  can  never  be  found.  Let  human  temerity,  therefore, 
desist  from  seeking  that  which  is  not,  lest  it  should  fail  of 
finding  that  which  is.     This  will  be  a  sufficient  restraint  to 

1  "  Prondestinationem  vocamus  (eternum  Dei  decretum,  quo  apud  se  constitutum 
hahuit,  quid  de  unoquoque  homine  fieri  vellet.  Non  enini  pari  conditione  creantur 
omnes  ;  sed  aliis  vita  ceterna,  aliis  damnatio  externa  praordinatur.  Itaque,  prout  in 
alterutrum  finem  quisque  conditus  est,  ita  vel  ad  vitam,  vel  ad  mortem  prcedestina- 
tum  dicimus."     Inst.  III.  ch.  XXI.  §  5  {Opera,  vol.  II.  pp.  682,  683). 

2  Ibid.  III.  ch.  XXI.  §  7. 

^  "  Summa  justitite  regula  est  Dei  voluntas." 


§  113.    PREDESTINATION.  551 

any  one  disposed  to  reason  with  reverence  concerning  the 
secrets  of  his  God."  ^  Calvin  infers  from  the  passage,  "  God 
hath  mercy  on  whom  he  will  have  mercy,  and  whom  he  will, 
he  hardeneth"  (Rom.  9: 13),  that  Paul  attributes  both  equally 
'-'•  to  the  mere  will  of  God.  If,  therefore,  we  can  assign  no 
reason  why  God  grants  mercy  to  his  people  but  because  such 
is  his  pleasure,  neither  shall  we  find  any  other  cause  but  his 
Avill  for  the  reprobation  of  others.  For  when  God  is  said  to 
harden  or  show  mercy  to  whom  he  pleases,  men  are  taught 
by  this  declaration  to  seek  no  cause  behind  his  will."  ^ 

Predestination,  therefore,  implies  a  twofold  decree  —  a 
decree  of  election  unto  holiness  and  salvation,  and  a  decree 
of  reprobation  unto  death  on  account  of  sin  and  guilt.  Calvin 
deems  them  inseparable.  "Many  indeed,"  he  says,  "as  if 
they  wished  to  avert  odium  from  God,  admit  election  in  such 
a  way  as  to  deny  that  any  one  is  reprobated.  But  this  is 
puerile  and  absurd,  because  election  itself  could  not  exist 
without  being  opposed  to  reprobation.  .  .  .  Whom  God 
passes  by,  he  reprobates  (^Quos  Deus  prceterit^  rejirohat^)^  and 
from  no  other  cause  than  his  determination  to  exclude  them 
from  the  inheritance  which  he  predestines  for  his  children."'^ 

1  Inst.  III.  ch.  XXII.  §  1. 

2  Ibid.  III.  ch.  XXII.  11.  Calvin's  definition  of  divine  justice  is  contrary 
to  the  general  conception  of  human  justice,  which  must  be  a  reflection  of 
divine  justice. 

3  Ibid.  III.  ch.  XXIII.  §  1.  The  scholastic  Calvinists  distinguished  in 
reprobation  a  negative  element,  namely,  prwteritio  or  indebiUe  gratioe  negatio, 
and  a  positive  element  of  predamnation,  prcedamnatio  or  debitce  pceme  destinatio. 
See  the  definitions  of  Wolleb,  Keckermann,  Heidegger,  etc.,  in  Heppe's  Dog- 
matik  der  evang.  reform.  Kirche  (18G1),  p.  132.  The  Westminster  Confession 
(ch.  III.  7)  uses  the  term  "passing  by,"  which  is  equivalent  to  preterition  or 
omission ;  the  Galilean  Conf.  (ch.  XII.)  and  the  Belgic  Conf.  (ch.  XVI.)  use 
the  milder  term  laisser,  relinquere,  to  leave,  namely,  in  the  natural  state  of  con- 
demnation and  ruin.  Shedd  {Syst.  Theol.  I.  433)  says:  "Reprobation  com- 
prises preterition  and  condemnation  or  damnation,"  and  he  makes  these 
distinctions :  1)  Preterition  is  a  sovereign  act ;  condemnation  is  a  judicial 
act.  2)  The  reason  of  preterition  is  unknown ;  the  reason  of  damnation  is 
sin.  3)  In  preterition  God's  action  is  permissive  (inaction  rather  than  action)  ; 
in  condemnation,  God's  action  is  eflBcient  and  positive.  His  proof  text  is 
Luke  17  :  34 :  "  The  one  shall  be  taken,  and  the  other  shall  be  left." 


552         THE   llEFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

God  bestows  upon  the  reprobate  all  the  common  mercies 
of  daily  life  as  freely  as  upon  the  elect,  but  he  withholds 
from  them  his  saving  mercy.  The  gospel  also  is  offered  to 
them,  but  it  will  only  increase  their  responsibility  and  en- 
hance their  damnation,  like  the  preaching  of  Christ  to  the 
unbelieving  Jews  (Isa.  6  :  9,  10  ;  Matt.  13  :  13-15).  But  how 
shall  we  reconcile  this  with  the  sincerity  of  such  an  offer  ? 

Infralapsarianism  and  Supralapsariaxism. 

Within  the  Calvinistic  system  there  arose  two  schools  in 
Holland  during  the  Arminian  controversy,  the  Infralapsa- 
rians  (also  called  Sublapsarians)  and  the  Supralapsarians, 
who  held  different  views  on  the  order  of  the  divine  decrees 
and  their  relation  to  the  fall  Qapsns^.  The  Infralapsarians 
adjust,  as  it  were,  the  eternal  counsel  of  God  to  the  temporal 
fall  of  man,  and  assume  that  God  decreed,  first  to  create  man 
in  holiness ;  then  to  permit  him  to  fall  by  the  self-determina- 
tion of  his  free  will ;  next,  to  save  a  definite  number  out  of 
the  guilty  mass ;  and  last,  to  leave  the  rest  in  sin,  and  to 
ordain  them  to  eternal  punishment.^  The  Supralapsarians 
reverse  the  order,  so  that  the  decree  of  election  and  reproba- 
tion precedes  the  decree  of  creation;  they  make  uncreated 
and  unfallen  man  (that  is,  a  non-ens)  the  object  of  God's 
double  decree.  The  Infralapsarians,  moreover,  distinguish 
between  an  efhcient  or  active  and  a  permissive  or  passive 
decree  of  God,  and  exclude  the  fall  of  Adam  from  the  effi- 
cient decree ;  in  other  words,  they  maintain  that  God  is  not 
in   any  sense   the   author   of   the   fall,  but   that  he    simply 

1  This  is  the  order  given  in  the  Formula  Consensus  Helvetica,  canon  IV.  (in 
Niemeyer,  p.  731)  :  "  Ita  Deus  gloriam  suam  ilhistrare  constituit,  ut  decreverit, 
prima  quidem  hominem  integrum  creare,  turn  ejusdem  lapsum  permittere,  ac 
demum  ex  lapsis  quorundam  misereri,  adeoque  eosdem  eligere,  alios  vera  in 
corrupta  massa  relinquere,  ceternoque  tandem  exitio  devovere."  This  does  not 
go  beyond  the  limits  of  Augustinianism.  Van  Oosterzee  errs  when  lie  says 
(Christian  Dogmatics,  vol.  I.  p.  4-523  that  the  Form.  Cons.  Helv.  asserts  the 
supralapsarian  view. 


§  113.    PREDESTINATION.  553 

allowed  it  to  come  to  pass  for  higher  ends.  He  did  not 
cause  it,  but  neither  did  he  prevent  it.  The  Supralapsarians, 
more  logically,  include  the  fall  itself  in  the  efficient  and 
positive  decree ;  yet  they  deny  as  fully  as  the  Infralapsarians, 
though  less  logically,  that  God  is  the  author  of  sin.  The 
Infralapsarians  attribute  to  Adam  before  the  fall  the  gift  of 
free  choice,  which  was  lost  by  the  fall ;  some  Supralapsarians 
deny  it.  The  doctrine  of  probation  (except  in  the  one  case 
of  Adam)  has  no  place  in  the  Calvinistic  system,  and  is 
essentially  Arminian.  It  is  entirely  inapplicable  to  infants 
dying  in  infancy.  The  difference  between  the  two  schools 
is  practically  worthless,  and  only  exposes  the  folly  of  man's 
daring  to  search  the  secrets  of  God's  eternal  counsel.  They 
proceed  on  a  pure  metaphysical  abstraction,  for  in  the  eternal 
God  there  is  no  succession  of  time,  no  before  nor  after.^ 

Calvin  was  claimed  by  both  schools.  He  must  be  classed 
rather  with  the  Supralapsarians,  like  Beza,  Gomarus,  Twysse, 
and  Emmons.  He  saw  the  inconsistency  of  exempting  from 
the  divine  foreordination  the  most  important  event  in  history, 
which  involved  the  whole  race  in  ruin.  "  It  is  not  absurd," 
he  says,  "  to  assert  that  God  not  only  foresaw,  but  also  fore- 
ordained the  fall  of  Adam  and  the  ruin  of  his  posterity." 
He  expressly  rejects  the  distinction  between  permission  (^per- 
missio)  and  volition  (voluntas)  in  God,  who  cannot  permit 
what  he  does  not  will.  "What  reason,"  he  asks,  "shall  we 
assign  for  God's  permitting  the  destruction  of  the  impious, 
but  because  it  is  his  will  ?  It  is  not  probable  that  man  pro- 
cured his  own  destruction  by  the  mere  permission,  and  with- 

1  On  the  distinction,  see  Beza,  Summa  totius  Ghristianismi  {Opera,  I.  170)  ; 
Limborcli,  Theol.  Christ.  IV.  2  ;  Heppe,  Dor/matik  der  evang.  reform.  KIrche, 
pp.  108  sqq.,  and  the  curious  oi'der  of  Beza  there  printed,  as  if  the  order  of 
tlie  divine  counsels  were  a  mathematical  problem.  The  infralapsarian  view 
is  milder  and  passed  into  most  of  the  Calvinistic  Confessions.  The  West- 
minster Confession  is  a  compromise  between  the  two  schools,  and  puts  the 
fall  of  Adam  under  a  permissive  decree  (ch.  V.  4),  and  yet  not  under  a  bare 
permission,  but  including  it  in  the  purpose  of  God,  who  ordered  it  for  his  own 
glory  (VI.  1). 


554         THE    EEFOKINIATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

out  any  appointment  of  God.  As  though  God  liad  not 
determined  what  he  would  choose  to  be  the  condition  of  the 
chief  of  his  creatures.  I  shall  not  hesitate,  therefore,  to  con- 
fess with  Augustin,  '  that  the  will  of  God  is  the  necessity  of 
things,  and  what  he  has  willed  will  necessarily  come  to  pass ;  as 
those  things  are  really  about  to  happen  which  he  has  foreseen.'  "^ 
But  while  his  inexorable  logic  pointed  to  this  abyss,  his 
moral  and  religious  sense  shrunk  from  the  last  logical  infer- 
ence of  making  God  the  author  of  sin;  for  this  would  be 
blasphemous,  and  involve  the  absurdity  that  God  abhors  and 
justly  punishes  what  he  himself  decreed.  He  attributes  to 
Adam  the  freedom  of  choice,  by  which  he  might  have  obtained 
eternal  life,  but  he  wilfully  disobeyed.^     Hence  his  signifi- 

1  List.  III.  XXIII.  7  and  8.  The  passage  quoted  from  Augustin  is  De  Gen. 
ad  lit.,  1.  VI.  c.  15.  In  List.  III.  ch.  XXIV.  12,  Calvin  uses  strong  supralap- 
sarian  language :  "  Those  whom  God  has  created  to  a  life  of  shame  and  death 
(qitos  in  vitce  contumeliam  et  mortis  exltitim  crenvit),  that  thej"^  might  he  instru- 
ments of  his  wrath,  and  examples  of  his  severity,  he  causes  to  reach  their 
appointed  end;  sometimes  depriving  them  of  the  opportunity  of  hearing  the 
Word,  sftmetimes  by  the  preaching  of  it  increasing  their  blindness  and  stu- 
pidity." Tlien  he  illustrates  this  by  examples,  especially  that  of  Pharaoh, 
and  the  aim  of  the  parables  of  Christ  (Matt.  13:11;  John  12:39,40).  In 
the  Consensus  Genevensis  (Niemeyer,  p.  251),  he  saj's  that  the  fall  was  ordained 
by  the  admirable  counsel  of  God  (admirabili  Dei  consilio  fuisse  ordinatum). 
Beza  understood  Calvin  correctly. 

2  He  gives  his  view  of  the  primitive  state  in  Inst.  I.  ch.  XV.  §  8 :  "  God 
has  furnished  the  soul  of  man  with  a  mind  capable  of  discerning  good  from 
evil,  and  just  from  unjust;  and  of  discovering,  by  the  liglit  of  reason,  what 
ought  to  be  pursued  or  avoided:  whence  the  philosophers  called  this  directing 
faculty  rh  iiye/xoyiKov,  the  principal  or  governing  "part.  To  this  he  hath  an- 
nexed the  will,  on  which  depends  the  choice.  The  primitive  condition  of  man 
was  ennobled  with  those  eminent  faculties ;  he  possessed  reason,  understand- 
ing, prudence,  and  judgment,  not  only  for  the  government  of  his  life  on  earth, 
but  to  enable  him  to  ascend  even  to  God  and  eternal  felicity.  To  these  were 
added  choice,  to  direct  the  appetites,  and  regulate  all  the  organic  motions,  so 
that  the  will  was  entirely  conformed  to  the  government  of  reason.  In  this 
integrity  man  was  endued  with  free  will,  by  which,  if  he  had  chosen,  he  might 
have  obtained  eternal  life.  For  here  it  would  be  unreasonable  to  introduce 
the  question  respecting  the  secret  predestination  of  God,  because  we  are  not 
discussing  what  might  possibly  have  happened  or  not,  but  what  was  the  real 
nature  of  man.  Adam,  therefore,  could  have  stood  if  he  would,  since  he  fell 
merely  by  his  own  trill ;  but  because  his  will  was  flexible  to  either  side,  and  he 


§  113.    PREDESTINATION.  565 

cant  phrase :  "  Man  falls,  God's  providence  so  ordaining  it ; 
yet  he  falls  by  his  own  guilt."  ^  Here  we  have  supralapsa- 
rian  logic  combined  with  ethical  logic.  He  adds,  however, 
that  we  do  not  know  the  reason  why  Providence  so  ordained 
it,  and  that  it  is  better  for  us  to  contemplate  the  guilt  of  man 
than  to  search  after  the  hidden  predestination  of  God. 
"  There  is,"  he  says,  "  a  learned  ignorance  of  things  which 
it  is  neither  permitted  nor  lawful  to  know,  and  avidity  of 
knowledge  is  a  species  of  madness." 

Here  is,  notwithstanding  this  wholesome  caution,  the  cru- 
cial point  where  the  rigorous  logic  of  Calvin  and  Augustin 
breaks  down,  or  where  the  moral  logic  triumphs  over  intel- 
lectual logic.  To  admit  that  God  is  the  author  of  sin  would 
destroy  his  holiness,  and  overthrow  the  foundation  of  morality 
and  religion.  This  would  not  be  Calvinism,  but  fatalism 
and  pantheism.  The  most  rigorous  predestinarian  is  driven 
to  the  alternative  of  choosing  between  logic  and  morality. 
Augustin  and  Calvin  could  not  hesitate  for  a  moment. 
Again  and  again,  Calvin  calls  it  blasphemy  to  make  God 
the  author  of  sin,  and  he  abhorred  sin  as  much  as  any  man 
ever  did.  It  is  an  established  fact  that  the  severest  Calvinists 
have  always  been  the  strictest  moralists.'-^ 

was  not  endued  with  constancy  to  persevere,  therefore  he  so  easily  fell.  Yet 
his  choice  of  good  and  evil  was  free ;  and  not  only  so,  but  his  mind  and  will 
were  possessed  of  consummate  rectitude,  and  all  his  organic  parts  were 
rightly  disposed  to  obedience,  till  destroying  himself  he  corrupted  all  his 
excellencies." 

^  "Lapsus  est  eniin  primus  homo,  quia  Dominus  ita  expedire  censtierat ;  cur 
censuerit,  nos  latet.  Certum  tamen  est  non  aliter  censuisse,  nisi  quia  videbat,  nominis 
sui  gloriam  inde  merito  illustrari.  Unde  mentionem  glori(v  Dei  audis,illic  justitiam 
cogita.  Justum  enim  esse  oportet  quod  laudem  meretur.  Cadit  igitur  homo, 
Dei  providentia  sic  ordinantb,  sed  suo  vitio  cadit.  .  .  .  Propria  ergo 
malitia,  quam  acceperat  a  Domino  puram  naturam  corrtipit ;  sua  ruina  totam  pos- 
teritatem  in  exitium  secum  attraxit."  List.  III.  eh.  XXIII.  §  8  (vol.  II.  p.  705). 
In  his  reply  to  Castellio  (Opera,  IX.  294)  he  says:  "  Prcenidit  Deus  lapsum 
Adce:  penes  ipsum  facultas  erat  prohibendi :  noluit.  Cur  noluerit,  a/in  non  potest 
afferri  ratio  nisi  quia  alio  lendebat  ejus  voluntas." 

-  Comp.  here  the  powerful  sections  against  the  abuse  of  the  doctrine  of 
election,  in  III.  ch.  XXIII.  12  sqq. 


556         THE   KEFOKMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Infant  Salvation  and  Damnation. 

.  Are  infants  dying  in  infancy  included  in  the  decree  of 
reprobation  ?  This  is  another  crucial  point  in  the  Augustinian 
system,  and  the  rock  on  which  it  splits. 

St.  Augustin  expressly  assigns  all  unbaptized  children 
dying  in  infancy  to  eternal  damnation,  because  of  original 
sin  inherited  from  Adam's  transgression.  It  is  true,  he 
mitigates  their  punishment  and  reduces  it  to  a  negative 
state  of  privation  of  bliss,  as  distinct  from  positive  suffering.^ 
This  does  credit  to  his  heart,  but  does  not  relieve  the  matter; 
for  '-'•  damnatio^'''  though  ^'' levissima''  and  '•'•  mitissima,^^  is  still 
damnatio. 

The  scholastic  divines  made  a  distinction  between  'poena 
damni.,  which  involves  no  active  suffering,  and  poena  sensus, 
and  assigned  to  infants  dying  unbaptized  the  former  but  not 
the  latter.  They  invented  the  fiction  of  a  special  department 
for  infants  in  the  future  world,  namely,  the  Limhus  Infantum, 
on  the  border  region  of  hell  at  some  distance  from  fire  and 
brimstone.  Dante  describes  their  condition  as  one  of  "sorrow 
without  torment."  ^  Roman  divines  usually  describe  their 
condition  as  a  deprivation  of  the  vision  of  God.  The  Roman 
Church  maintains  the  necessity  of  baptism  for  salvation,  but 
admits  the  baptism  of  blood  (martyrdom)  and  the  baptism 
of  intention,  as  equivalent  to  actual  baptism.  These  excej)- 
tions,  however,  are  not  applicable  to  infants,  unless  the 
vicarious  desire  of  Christian  parents  be  accepted  as  sufficient. 

Calvin  offers  an  escape  from  the  horrible  dogma  of  infant 
damnation  by  denying  the  necessity  of  water  baptism  for 
salvation,  and  by  making  salvation  dependent  on  sovereign 

1  See  the  passages  in  vol.  III.  835  sq.  Augustin  was  called  durus  infantum 
pater.  But  his  view  was  only  the  logical  inference  from  the  doctrine  of  the 
necessity  of  baptism  for  salvation,  which  was  taught  long  before  him  on  the 
ground  of  John  3 :  8  and  Mark  16  :  16.  Even  Pelagius  excluded  unbaptized 
infants  from  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  though  not  from  eternal  life.  He 
assigned  them  to  a  middle  state  of  half-blessedness. 

-  Inferno,  IV.  28,  duol  senza  mnrtiri,  i.e.  mental,  not  physical  pain. 


§  113.    PREDESTINATION.  557 

election  alone,  wliicli  may  work  regeneration  without  baptism, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  Old  Testament  saints  and  the  thief  on 
the  cross.  We  are  made  children  of  God  by  faith  and  not 
by  baptism,  which  onl}-  recognizes  the  fact.  Calvin  makes 
sure  the  salvation  of  all  elect  children,  whether  baptized  or 
not.  This  is  a  great  gain.  In  order  to  extend  election  beyond 
the  limits  of  the  visible  means  of  grace,  he  departed  from 
the  pati'istic  and  scholastic  interpretation  of  John  3  : 5,  that 
"  water "  means  the  sacrament  of  baptism,  as  a  necessary 
condition  of  entrance  into  the  kingdom  of  God.  He  thinks 
that  a  reference  to  Christian  baptism  before  it  was  instituted 
Avould  have  been  untimely  and  unintelligible  to  Nicodemus. 
He,  therefore,  connects  water  and  Spirit  into  one  idea  of 
purification  and  regeneration  by  the  Spirit.^ 

Whatever  be  the  meaning  of  "  water,"  Christ  cannot  here 
refer  to  infants,  nor  to  such  adults  as  are  beyond  the  reach 
of  the  bajjtismal  ordinance.  He  said  of  children,  as  a  class, 
without  au}^  reference  to  baptism  or  circumcision :  "  Of  such 
is  the  kingdom  of  God."  A  word  of  unspeakable  comfort  to 
bereaved  parents.  And  to  make  it  still  stronger,  he  said: 
"It  is  not  the  will  of  your  Father,  who  is  in  heaven,  that  one 
of  these  little  ones  should  perish"  (Matt.  18:14).  These 
declarations  of  our  Saviour,  wliich  must  decide  the  whole 
question,  seem  to  justify  the  inference  that  all  children  who 
die  before  having  committed  any  actual  transgression,  are 
included  in  the  decree  of  election.  They  are  born  into  an 
economy  of  salvation,  and  their  early  death  may  be  consid- 
ered as  a  sign  of  gracious  election. 

But  Calvin  did  not  go  so  far.     On  the  contrary,  he  inti- 

1  "Aqua  nihil  aliud  est  r/iium  interior  Spiritus  Sancti  purgatio  et  vegetatio." 
Com.  in  loco.  He  takes  /cat  epexegetically  and  lays  the  stress  on  -nviv/xa, 
which  alone  is  mentioned  in  the  following  verses,  6  and  8.  Similarly  Grotius  : 
"  Spiritus  aquceus,  i.e.  aquce  instar  emundaus."  But  the  natural  reference  is  to 
baptismal  water,  as  the  symbol  of  purification  and  remission  of  sins.  Conip. 
Jolm  1  :  33;  Tit.  3:5;  Eph.  5  :  20.  The  different  interpretations  arc  discussed 
at  lengtli  in  Scliaff's  ed.  of  Lange's  Comin.  on  John,  pp.  126  sqq. 


558         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

mates  very  clearly  that  there  are  reprohate  or  non-elect 
children  as  well  as  reprobate  adults.  He  says  that  ''some 
infants,"  having  been  previously  regenerated  by  the  Holy 
Spirit,  "are  certainly  saved,"  but  he  nowhere  says  that  all 
infants  are  saved.^  In  his  comments  on  Rom.  5 :  17,  he  con- 
fines salvation  to  the  infants  of  pious  (elect)  parents,  but 
leaves  the  fate  of  the  rest  more  than  doubtful.^  Arguing 
with  Catholic  advocates  of  free-will,  who  yet  admitted  the 
damnation  of  unbaptized  infants,  he  asks  them  to  explain  in 
any  other  way  but  by  the  mysterious  will  of  God,  the  terrible 
fact  "  that  the  fall  of  Adam,  independent  of  any  remedy, 
should  involve  so  many  7iations  ivith  their  irifant  children  in 
eternal  death.  Their  tongues  so  loquacious  on  every  other 
point  must  here  be  struck  dumb."^ 

1  List.  bk.  IV.  ch.  XVI.  17  :  "Infantes,  qui  servandi  sint  —  ttt  certe  ex  ea 
>«TATE  OMNiN'O  ALiQUi  SERVANTL'R  —  aiiteu  a  Domino  regenerari  minime  obscurum 
est."  This  was  the  doctrine  of  the  Westminster  divines,  and  is  expressed  in 
the  Westminster  Confession,  cli.  X.  3:  "Elect  infants,  dying  in  infancy,  are 
regenerated  and  saved  by  Christ  through  the  Spirit,  who  worketh  when,  and 
wliere,  and  how  he  pleaseth."  Although  this  passage  admits  of  a  liberal 
construction,  yet  the  natural  sense,  as  interpreted  by  the  private  opinions  of 
the  framers  of  the  Confession,  makes  it  almost  certain  that  the  existence 
and  damnation  of  non-elect  infants  is  implied.  The  Presbyterian  Revision- 
ists, therefore,  wishing  to  avoid  this  logical  implication,  propose  to  strike  out 
elect,  or  to  substitute  all  for  it  (as  the  Cumberland  Presbyterians  have  done 
in  their  Confession).  The  change  will  be  acted  upon  by  the  General  Assem- 
bly in  May,  1892. 

^  "  De  piorum  liberis  loquor,  ad  qiios  promissio  gratue  dirigitur ;  nam  alii  a 
communi  sorte  nequaquam  e.rimuntur." 

^  "  Tot  gentes  una  cum  liberis  eoriim  infantibus."  Inst.  III.  ch.  XXIII.  §  7. 
To  this  should  be  added  the  challenge  to  Castellio  :  "  Put  forth  now  thy  viru- 
lence against  God,  who  hurls  innocent  babes  even  from  their  mothers'  breast 
into  eternal  death."  Calvin  here  argues  e  concessis.  The  passage  has  been 
often  distorted.  We  give  it  in  Latin  with  the  connection  {Opera,  IX.  289)  : 
"  Negas  Deo  licere  nisi  propter  facinus  damnare  quenquam  mortalium.  Tolluntur 
e  vita  innumeri  adhuc  infantes.  Exsere  nunc  tuam  virulentiam  contra  Deum,  qui 
innoxios  foetus  a  matrum  uberibus  avulsos  in  ceternam  mortem  prcecipitat.  Ilanc 
blasphemiam,  ubi  jialam  detecta  est,  quisquis  non  detestabitur,  mihi  pro  sua  libidine 
maledicat."  In  the  same  way  he  challenges  Castellio  (fol.  289),  to  explain 
the  admitted  fact,  that  God  allows  innocent  infants  to  be  devoured  by  tigers 
or  lions  or  bears  or  wolves  {"  qui  Jit  ut  Dens  parvulos  infantes  a  tigribus  vel  ursis 
vel  leonibus  vel  hipis  laniari  vorarique  sineat").     The  attempt  of  Dr.  Shields  of 


§  113.    PREDESTINATION.  559 

And  in  this  connection  he  adds  the  significant  words  :  "  It 
is  an  awful  (horrible)  decree^  I  confess,  but  no  one  can  deny 
that  God  foreknew  the  future,  final  fate  of  man  before  he 
created  him,  and  that  he  did  foreknow  it,  because  it  was 
appointed  by  his  own  decree."  ^ 

Our  best  feelings,  which  God  himself  has  planted  in  our 
hearts,  instinctively  revolt  against  the  thought  that  a  God 
of  infinite  love  and  justice  should  create  millions  of  immortal 
beings  in  his  own  image  —  probably  more  than  half  of  the 
human  race  —  in  order  to  hurry  them  from  the  womb  to  the 
tomb,  and  from  the  tomb  to  everlasting  doom !  And  this 
not  for  any  actual  sin  of  their  own,  but  simply  for  the  trans- 
gression of  iVdam  of  which  they  never  heard,  and  which  God 
himself  not  only  pei'mitted,  but  somehow  foreordained. 
This,  if  true,  would  indeed  be  a  "  decretum  horrlbile." 

Calvin,  by  using  this  expression,  virtually  condemned  his 
own  doctrine.  The  expression  so  often  repeated  against  him, 
does  great  credit  to  his  head  and  heart,  and  this  has  not 
been  sufficiently  appreciated  in  the  estimate  of  his  character. 
He  ventured  thus  to  utter  his  humane  sentiments  far  more 
strongly  than  St.  Augustin  dared  to  do.  If  he,  nevertheless, 
accepted  this  horrible  decree,  he  sacrificed  his  reason  and 
heart  to  the  rigid  laws  of  logic  and  to  the  letter  of  the 
Scripture  as  he  understood  it.  We  must  honor  him  for  his 
obedience,  but  as  he  claimed  no  infallibility,  as  an  interpreter, 
we  must  be  allowed  to  challenge  his  interpretation. 

Zwingli,  as  already  remarked,  was  the  first  and  the  only 

Princeton  to  prove  that  Calvin  believed  in  the  salvation  of  all  infants,  is  an 
entire  failure  ("The  Presbyt.  and  Ref.  Review"  for  October,  1890). 

1  "Decretum  quideni  horribile  fateor."  This  famous  expression  is  often 
ignorantly  applied  to  the  whole  doctrine  of  predestination,  while  Calvin  only 
uses  it  of  the  decree  of  reprobation.  The  decree  of  election  is  glorious  and 
most  comforting.  There  is  no  need,  therefore,  of  moderating  the  term  horri- 
bile, which  means  horrible,  terrible,  dreadful.  In  French  he  calls  it  "  ce  decret 
qui  nous  doit  espouvanter,"  a  decree  which  should  terrify  us.  Hase  (Kirchen- 
geschichte,  III.  I.  196)  says  :  "  Calvin  ist  ein  dofftnatischer  Dante  :  dieselbe  grauen- 
volle  Lust,  die  Majestdt  Gottes  aitch  in  der  Hdlle  anzuerkennen  und  zu  preisen, 
diese  grauenvolle  Macht,  welche  fiihlende  Wesen  yeschaffen  hat  zu  ewiger  Qual." 


560         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

Reformer  who  entertained  and  dared  to  express  the  charita- 
ble hope  and  belief  in  universal  infant  salvation  by  the  atone- 
ment of  Christ,  who  died  for  all.  The  Anabaptists  held  the 
same  view,  but  they  were  persecuted  as  heretics  by  Protes- 
tants and  Catholics  alike,  and  were  condemned  in  the  ninth 
article  of  the  Augsburg  Confession.i  The  Second  Scotch 
Confession  of  1590  was  the  first  and  the  only  Protestant 
Confession  of  the  Reformation  period  which  uttered  a  testi- 
mony of  abhorrence  and  detestation  of  the  cruel  popish 
doctrine  of  infant  damnation.^ 

But  gradually  the  doctrine  of  universal  infant  salvation 
o-ained  ground  among  Arminians,  Quakers,  Baptists,  Wesley- 
ans,  Presbyterians,  and  is  now  adopted  by  almost  all  Prot- 
estant divines,  especially  by  Calvinists,  who  are  not  hampered 
by  the  theory  of  baptismal  regeneration.^ 

Zwingli,  as  we  have  previously  shown,  was  equally  in 
advance  of  his  age  in  regard  to  the  salvation  of  pious 
heathens,  who  die  in  a  state  of  readiness  for  the  reception 
of  the  gospel;  and  this  view  has  likewise  penetrated  the 
modern  Protestant  consciousness.'* 

1  "  They  condemn  the  Anabaptists,  who  disapprove  the  baptism  of  chil- 
dren, and  afBrm  tliat  children  are  saved  icithout  buplism."  The  edition  of  1540 
adds  after  "  baptism  "  "et  extra  ecclesiam  Christi,"  wliich  must  refer  to  heathen 
infants.  The  German  text  omits  the  clause  and  condemns  the  Anabaptists 
simplj'  for  rejecting  infant  baptism.  This  shows  that  Melanchthon  was  in 
doubt  on  tiie  subject  of  infant  damnation. 

2  "  Abhorremus  et  detestainur  .  .  .  crudele  judicium  contra  in/antes  sine  bap- 
tismo  morientes." 

•5  Among  English  Calvinists,  who  teach  universal  infant  salvation,  are 
Doddridge,  Thomas  Scott,  John  Newton,  Toplady,  Robert  S.  Candlish ; 
among  American  Calvinists,  Drs.  Charles  Hodge,  A.  A.  Hodge,  and  B.  B. 
Warfield,  of  Princeton,  and  Drs.  H.  B.  Smith,  G.  L.  Prentiss,  and  Shedd,  of 
Union  Seminary,  New  York.  Comp.  on  this  subject  Schaff,  Creeds  of  Christen- 
dom, I.  378,  381,  794,  898 ;  Dr.  Prentiss,  who  brings  out  the  theological  bear- 
ings, in  the  "  Presbyterian  Review "  for  1883 ;  Benjamin  B.  Warfield,  The 
Development  of  the  Doctrine  of  Infant  Salvation,  New  York  (Christ.  Lit.  Co.), 
1891,  pp.  61;  also  Chas.  P.  Krauth  (Lutheran),  Infant  Baptism  and  Infant 
Salvation,  Pliiladelphia  (Lutheran  Book  Store),  1874,  pp.  83. 

*  See  above,  pp.  95  sqq. 


§  113.    PREDESTINATION.  561 

Defence  of  the  Doctrine  of  Predestination. 

Calvin  defended  the  doctrine  of  predestination  in  his 
Institutes^  and  his  polemical  writings  against  Pighius,  Bolsec, 
and  Castellio,  with  consummate  skill  against  all  objections, 
and  may  be  said  to  have  exhausted  the  subject  on  his  side 
of  the  question.  His  arguments  were  chiefly  drawn  from  the 
Scriptures,  especially  tlie  ninth  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans;  but  he  unduly  stretched  passages  which  refer  to 
the  historical  destiny  of  individuals  and  nations  in  this  world, 
into  declarations  of  their  eternal  fate  in  the  other  world; 
and  he  undervalued  the  proper  force  of  opposite  passages 
(such  as  Ezek.  33  :  11 ;  18  :  23,  32  ;  John  1 :  29;  3  :  16  ; 
1  John  2  :  2 ;  4  :  14 ;  1  Tim.  2  :  4 ;  2  Pet.  3  :  9)  by  a  distinc- 
tion between  the  secret  and  revealed  will  of  God  (voluntas 
arcani  and  voluntas  beneplaciti),  which  carries  an  intolerable 
dualism  and  contradiction  into  the  divine  will. 

He  closes  the  whole  discussion  with  this  sentence:  "Now 
while  many  arguments  are  advanced  on  both  sides,  let  our 
conclusion  be  to  stand  astonished  with  Paul  at  so  great 
a  mystery ;  and  amidst  the  clamor  of  petulant  tongues  let  us 
not  be  ashamed  to  exclaim  with  him,  '  O  man,  who  art  thou 
that  repliest  against  God?'  For,  as  Augustin  justly  con- 
tends, it  is  acting  a  most  perverse  part  to  set  up  the  measure 
of  human  justice  as  the  standard  by  which  to  measure  the 
justice  of  God." 

Very  true ;  but  how  can  we  judge  of  God's  justice  at  all 
without  our  own  sense  of  justice,  which  comes  from  God? 
And  how  can  that  be  justice  in  God  which  is  injustice  in 
man,  and  which  God  himself  condemns  as  injustice  ?  A  fun- 
damental element  in  justice  is  impartiality  and  equity. 

Practical  Effect. 

The  motive  and  aim  of  this  doctrine  was  not  speculative 
but  practical.  It  served  as  a  bulwark  of  free  grace,  an  anti- 
dote to  Pelagianism  and  human  pride,  a  stimulus  to  humility 


562         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

and  gratitude,  a  source  of  comfort  and  peace  in  trial  and 
despondency.  The  charge  of  favoring  license  and  carnal 
security  was  always  indignantly  repelled  as  a  slander  by  the 
Pauline  "God  forbid!"  and  refuted  in  practice.  He  who 
believes  in  Christ  as  his  Lord  and  Saviour  may  have  a  rear 
sonable  assurance  of  being  among  the  elect,  and  this  faith 
will  constrain  him  to  follow  Christ  and  to  persevere  to  the 
end  lest  he  be  cast  away.  Those  who  believe  in  the  perse- 
verance of  saints  are  likely  to  practice  it.  Present  unbelief 
is  no  sure  sign  of  reprobation  as  long  as  the  way  is  open  for 
repentance  and  conversion. 

Calvin  sets  the  absolute  sovereignty  of  God  and  the  infalli- 
bility of  the  Bible  over  against  the  pretended  sovereignty 
and  infallibility  of  the  pope.  Fearing  God,  he  was  fearless 
of  man.  The  sense  of  God's  sovereignty  fortified  his  follow- 
ers against  the  tyranny  of  temporal  sovereigns,  and  made 
them  champions  and  promoters  of  civil  and  political  liberty 
"in  France,  Holland,  England,  and  Scotland. 

CONFESSIOXAL    APPROVAL. 

The  doctrine  of  predestination  received  the  official  sanc- 
tion of  the  pastors  of  Geneva,  who  signed  the  Consensus 
Genevensis  prepared  by  Calvin  (1552)  .1  It  was  incorporated, 
in  its  milder,  infralapsarian  form,  in  the  French  Confession 
(1559),  the  Belgic  Confession  (1561),  and  the  Scotch  Con- 
fession (1560).  It  was  more  logically  formulated  in  the 
Lambeth  Articles  (1595),  the  Irish  Articles  (1615),  the 
Canons  of  Dort  (1619),  the  Westminster  Confession  and 
Larget-  Catechism  (1647),  and  the  Helvetic  Consensus  For- 
mula (1675).  On  the  other  hand,  the  First  Helvetic  Con- 
fession (1536),  the  Heidelberg  Catechism  (1563),  the  Second 

1  The  Consensus  Genevensis  was  occasioned  by  the  controversj''  with 
Pighius  and  Bolsec,  but  received  no  authority  outside  of  Geneva.  The  attempt 
to  enlist  Zurich,  Bern,  and  Basel  in  favor  of  this  dogma  created  disturb- 
ance and  opposition.     See  Schaff,  Creeds,  etc.,  1.  474  sqq. 


§  113.    PREDESTINATION.  663 

Helvetic  Confession  (1566),  and  the  Anglican  Articles  (1571, 
Art.  XVII.)  indorse  merely  the  positive  part  of  the  free  elec- 
tion of  believers,  and  are  wisely  silent  concerning  the  decree 
of  reprobation  and  preterition ;  leaving  this  to  theological 
science  and  private  opinion.^  It  is  noteworthy  that  Calvin 
himself  omitted  the  doctrine  of  predestination  in  his  own 
catechism.  Some  minor  Reformed  Confessions,  as  that  of 
Brandenburg,  expressly  declare  that  God  sincerely  wishes 
the  salvation  of  all  men,  and  is  not  the  author  of  sin  and 
damnation. 

NOTES. 

AUTHORITATIVE    STATEMENTS    OF    THE    CALVINISTIC    DOC- 
TRINE  OF   A   DOUBLE   PREDESTINATION. 

I.    Calvin's  Aeticuli  de  Pr^destinatione. 

Calvin  gave  a  condensed  statement  of  his  system  in  the  following  arti- 
cles, which  were  first  published  by  the  Strassburg  editors,  in  1870,  from  his 
autograph  in  the  University  library  of  Geneva :  — 

\_Ex  autographo  Calvini  Bihl.  Genev.,  Cod.  145,  fol.  100.~\ 

"Ante  creatum  prinium  hominem  statuerat  Deus  ceterno  consilio  quid  de  toto 
genere  humano  fieri  vellet. 

"  Hoc  arcano  Dei  consilio  factum  est  ut  Adam  ah  integro  naturae  suce  statu 
deficeret  ac  sua  defectione  traheret  omnes  sues  posteros  in  reatum  ceternce  mortis. 

"^6  hoc  eodem  decreto  pendet  discrimen  inter  electos  et  reprobos :  quia  alios 
sibi  adoptavit  in  salutem,  alios  ceterno  exitio  destinavit. 

"  Tametsi  justce  Dei  vindictce  vasa  sunt  reprobi,  rursum  electi  vasa  misericor- 
dice,  causa  tamen  discriminis  non  alia  in  Deo  qucerenda  est  quam  mera  eius  voluntas, 
qucE  summa  est  justitice  regula. 

"  Tametsi  electi  fide  percipiunt  adoptionis  gratiam,  non  tamen  pendet  electio 
a  fide,  sed  tempore  et  ordine  prior  est. 

1  The  Second  Helvetic  Confession  (chs.  VIII.  and  IX.)  uses  the  term 
reprobate  (ad6KifMos,  reprobus),  but  says  nothing  of  a  decree  of  reprobation. 
Reprobate  is  descriptive  of  moral  character,  and  means  not  approved,  unfit,  Rom. 
1:28;  1  Cor.  9:27;  2  Cor.  13:5-7;  2  Tim.  3:8;  Tit.  1:16.  The  plural 
reprobates  is  an  inaccurate  rendering  of  the  A.  V.  in  2  Cor.  13  : 6,  7,  and  2  Tim. 
3 :  8,  and  suggests  the  idea  of  a  class  of  persons.  The  R.  V.  correctly  has 
reprobate,  since  the  Greek  word  is  an  adjective,  not  a  noun. 


564         THE    REFOUMATION    IX    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

"Sicut  initium  et  perseverantia  Jidei  a  gratuita  Dei  eleclionefluit,  ila  non  alii 
vere  illuminantur  in  Jidem,  nee  alii  spiritu  regenerationis  donantur,  nisi  quos  Deus 
elegit :  reprobos  vera  vel  in  sua  ccecitate  manere  necesse  est,  vel  excidere  a  parte 
Jidei,  si  qua  in  ilUsfnent. 

"  Tametsi  in  Christo  eligimur,  ordine  tamen  illud  prius  est  ut  nos  Dominiis  in 
suis  censeat,  qua  in  ut  facial  Christi  membra. 

"  Tametsi  Dei  voluntas  summa  et  prima  est  rerum  omnium  causa,  et  Deus  dia- 
holum  et  impios  omnes  suo  arbitrio  subiectos  habet,  Deus  tamen  neque  peccuti  causa 
I'ocari  potest,  neque  mali  autor,  neque  iilli  culpa  obnoxius  est. 

«  Tametsi  Deus  peccato  vere  infensus  est  et  damnat  quidquid  est  iniustitice  in 
hominibus,  quia  illi  displicet,  non  tamen  nuda  eius  permissione  tantum,  sed  nutu 
quoque  et  arcano  decreto  gubernantur  omnia  hominum  facta. 

"  Tametsi  diabolus  et  reprobi  Dei  ministri  sunt  et  organa,  et  arcana  eius  Judicia 
exsequuntur,  Deus  tamen  incomprehensibili  modo  sic  in  illis  et  per  illos  operatur  ut 
nihil  ex  eorum  vitio  labis  contrahat,  quia  illorum  malitia  iuste  recteque  utitur  in 
bonumfnem,  licet  modus  scepe  nobis  sit  absconditus. 

"Inscite  vet  calumniose  faciunt  qui  Deum  fieri  dicunt  autorem  peccati,  si  omnia 
eo  volente  et  ordinante  fiant :  quia  inter  manifestam  hominnm  pravitatem  et  arcana 
Dei  iudicia  non  distinguunt." 

II.   The  Lambeth  Articles. 

In  full  agreement  with  Calvin  are  the  Lambeth  Articles,  1595.  Thej 
were  intended  to  be  an  obligatory  appendix  to  tiie  Thirty-nine  Articles  which, 
in  Art.  XVII.,  present  only  the  positive  side  of  the  doctrineof  predestination, 
and  ignore  reprobation.  They  were  prepared  by  Dr.  Whitaker,  Professor  of 
Divinity  in  Cambridge,  and  approved  by  Dr.  Whitgift,  Archbisliop  of  Canter- 
bury, Dr.  Hutton,  Archbishop  of  York,  and  a  number  of  prelates  convened 
at  Lambeth  Palace,  London;  also  by  Hooker  (with  a  slight  modification;  see 
Hooker's  iroiis,  ed.  by  Keble,  II.  752  sq.).  But  they  were  not  sanctioned 
by  Queen  Elizabeth,  who  was  displeased  that  a  Lambeth  Synod  was  called 
without  her  authority,  nor  by  James  I.,  and  gradually  lost  their  power  during 
the  Arminian  reaction  under  the  Stuarts.     They  are  as  follows  :  — 

"1.  God  from  eternity  hath  predestinated  certain  men  unto  life;  certain 
men  he  hath  reprobated. 

"2.  The  moving  or  efficient  cause  of  predestination  unto  life  is  not  the 
foresight  of  faith,  or  of  perseverance,  or  of  good  works,  or  of  anything  that 
is  in  tlie  person  predestinated,  but  only  the  good  will  and  pleasure  of  God. 

"  3.  Tiiere  is  predetermined  a  certain  number  of  the  predestinate,  which 
can  neither  be  augmented  nor  diminished. 

"4.  Tliose  wlio  are  not  predestinated  to  salvation  shall  be  necessarily 
damned  for  their  sins. 

"5.  A  true,  living,  and  justifying  faith,  and  the  Spirit  of  God  justifying 
[sanctifying]  is  not  extinguished,  falleth  not  away  ;  it  vanisheth  not  away  in 
the  elect,  either  finally  or  totally. 

"'6.  A  man  truly  faithful,  that  is,  such  a  one  who  is  endued  with  a  justify- 
ing faith,  is  certain,  with  the  full  assurance  of  faith,  of  the  remission  of  his 
sins  and  of  his  everlasting  salvation  bv  Christ. 


§  113.    PREDESTINATION.  565 

"  7.  Saving  grace  is  not  given,  is  not  granted,  is  not  communicated  to  all 
men,  by  wiiich  tliey  may  be  saved  if  the}'  will. 

"8.  No  man  can  come  unto  Christ  unless  it  sliall  be  given  unto  him,  and 
unless  the  Father  siiall  draw  him ;  and  all  men  are  not  drawn  by  the  Father 
that  they  may  come  to  the  Son. 

"  9.    It  is  not  in  the  will  or  power  of  every  one  to  be  saved." 

The  Lambeth  Articles  were  accepted  by  tlie  Convocation  at  Dublin, 
1615,  and  engrafted  on  tlie  Irish  Auticles  of  Religion,  wliich  were  proba- 
bly composed  by  the  learned  Archbishop  Usslier  (at  that  time  Professor  of 
Divinity  in  Trinity  College,  Dublin),  and  form  the  connecting  link  between 
the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  and  the  Westminster  Confession.  Some  of  the 
strongest  statements  of  the  Irish  Articles  passed  literally  (witliout  any 
acknowledgment)  into  the  Westminster  Confession.  The  Irish  Articles  are 
printed  in  Schaff's  Creeds  of  Christendom,  III.  526-544. 

III.    The  Westminster  Confession. 

Chap.  III.     Of  God's  Eternal  Decree. 

The  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith,  prepared  by  the  Westminster 
Assembly  in  1647,  adopted  by  the  Long  Parliament,  by  the  Kirk  of  Scotland, 
and  the  Presbyterian  Churches  of  America,  gives  the  clearest  and  strongest 
symbolic  statement  of  this  doctrine.  It  assigns  to  it  more  space  than  to  the 
holy  Trinity,  or  the  Person  of  Christ,  or  the  atonement. 

"1.  God  from  all  eternity  did,  by  the  most  wise  and  holy  counsel  of  his 
own  will,  freely  and  unchangeably  ordain  whatsoever  comes  to  pass ;  yet  so 
as  thereby  neither  is  God  the  author  of  sin,  nor  is  violence  offered  to  the  will 
of  the  creatures,  nor  is  the  liberty  or  contingency  of  second  causes  taken 
away,  but  rather  established. 

"2.  Although  God  knows  whatsoever  may  or  can  come  to  pass  upon  all 
supposed  conditions,  yet  hath  he  not  decreed  anything  because  he  foresaw 
it  as  future,  or  as  that  which  would  come  to  pass  upon  such  conditions. 

".3.  By  the  decree  of  God,  for  the  manifestation  of  his  glory,  some  men 
and  angels  are  predestinated  unto  everlasting  life,  and  others  foreordained 
to  everlasting  death. 

"4.  These  angels  and  men,  tlius  predestinated  and  foreordained,  are 
particularly  and  unchnngeably  designed ;  and  their  number  is  so  certain  and 
definite  that  it  cannot  be  either  increased  or  diminished. 

"5.  Those  of  mankind  that  are  predestinated  unto  life,  God,  before  the 
foundation  of  the  world  was  laid,  according  to  his  eternal  and  immutable 
purpose,  and  the  secret  counsel  and  good  pleasure  of  his  will,  hath  chosen  in 
Christ,  unto  everlasting  glory,  out  of  his  mere  free  grace  and  love,  without 
any  foresight  of  faith  or  good  works,  or  perseverance  in  either  of  them,  or 
any  other  thing  in  the  creature,  as  conditions,  or  causes  moving  him  there- 
unto ;  and  all  to  the  praise  of  his  glorious  grace. 

"6.  As  God  bath  appointed  the  elect  unto  glory,  so  hath  he,  by  the 
eternal  and  most  free  purpose  of  his  will,  foreordained  all  the  means  there- 


566  THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

unto.  Wherefore  tlicy  who  are  elected,  being  fallen  in  Adam,  are  redeemed 
by  Clirist,  are  effectually  called  unto  faith  in  Christ  by  his  Spirit  working  in 
due  season;  are  justified,  adopted,  sanctified,  and  kept  by  his  power  through 
faith  unto  salvation.  Neitlier  are  any  other  redeemed  by  Christ,  effectually 
called,  justified,  adopted,  sanctified,  and  saved,  but  the  elect  only. 

"  7.  The  rest  of  mankind  God  was  pleased,  according  to  the  unsearch- 
able counsel  of  his  own  will,  whereby  he  extendeth  or  withholdeth  mercy  as 
he  pleaseth,  for  the  glory  of  his  sovereign  power  over  his  creatures,  to  pass 
by,  and  to  ordain  them  to  dishonor  and  wrath  for  their  sin,  to  the  praise  of 
his  glorious  justice. 

"8.  The  doctrine  of  this  high  mystery  of  predestination  is  to  be  han- 
dled with  special  prudence  and  care,  that  men  attending  tlie  will  of  God 
revealed  in  his  Word,  and  yielding  obedience  thereunto,  may,  from  the  cer- 
tainty of  their  effectual  vocation,  be  assured  of  their  eternal  election.  So 
shall  this  doctrine  afford  matter  of  praise,  reverence,  and  admiration  of  God; 
and  of  humility,  diligence,  and  abundant  consolation  to  all  that  sincerely 
obey  the  gospel." 

IV.   Methodism  and  Calvinism. 

The  severest  condemnation  of  the  Westminster  Calvinism  came  from  John 
Wesley,  the  most  apostolic  man  that  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  has  produced. 
He  adopted  the  Arminian  creed  and  made  it  a  converting  agency ;  he  mag- 
nified the  free  grace  of  God,  like  the  Calvinists,  but  extended  it  to  all  men. 
In  a  sermon  on  Free  Grace,  preached  at  Bristol  (Sermons,  vol.  I.  482  sqq.),  he 
charges  the  doctrine  of  predestination  with  "  making  vai«  all  preaching,  and 
tending  to  destroy  holiness,  the  comfort  of  religion  and  zeal  for  good  works, 
yea,  the  whole  Christian  revelation  by  involving  it  in  fatal  contradictions." 
He  goes  so  far  as  to  call  it  "  a  doctrine  full  of  blasphemy,"  because  "  it  repre- 
sents our  blessed  Lord  as  a  hypocrite,  a  deceiver  of  the  people,  a  man  void 
of  common  sincerity,  as  mocking  ];is  helpless  creatures  by  offering  what  he 
never  intends  to  give,  by  saying  one  thing  and  meaning  another."  It  destroys 
"all  the  attributes  of  God,  his  justice,  mercy,  and  truth,  yea,  it  represents 
the  most  holy  God  as  worse  than  the  devil,  as  both  more  false,  more  cruel, 
and  more  unjust."  This  is  as  hard  and  unjust  as  anything  that  Pighius, 
Bolsec,  Castellio,  and  Servetus  said  against  Calvin.  And  yet  Wesley  co- 
operated for  some  time  with  George  Whitefield,  the  great  Calvinistic  revival 
preacher,  and  delivered  his  funeral  sermon  in  Tottenham-Court-Road,  Nov. 
18,  1770,  on  the  text.  Num.  23:  10,  in  which  he  spoke  in  the  higliest  terms 
of  Whitefield's  personal  piety  and  great  usefulness  (Sermons,  I.  470-480). 
"Have  we  read  or  heard,"  he  asked,  "of  any  person  since  the  apostles,  who 
testified  the  gospel  of  the  grace  of  God  through  so  widely  extended  a  space, 
through  so  large  a  part  of  the  habitable  world  ?  Have  we  read  or  heard 
of  any  person,  who  called  so  many  thousands,  so  many  myriads  of  sinners 
to  repentance  ?  Above  all,  have  we  read  or  heard  of  any,  who  has  been  a 
blessed  instrument  in  his  hand  of  bringing  so  many  sinners  from  '  darkness 
to  light,  and  from  the  power  of  Satan  unto  God?'"  —  This  is  a  striking 
illustration  how  widely  great  and  good  men  may  differ  in  theology,  and  yet 
how  nearly  they  may  agree  in  religion. 


§  113.    PREDESTINATION.  567 

Charles  Wesley  fully  sided  with  the  Arminianism  of  his  brother  John, 
and  abused  his  poetic  gift  by  writing  poor  doggerel  against  Calvinism. i  He 
had  a  bitter  controversy  on  the  subject  with  Toplady,  who  was  a  devout 
Calvinist.  But  their  theological  controversy  is  dead  and  buried,  while  their 
devotional  hymns  still  live,  and  Calvinists  and  Methodists  heartily  join  in 
singing  Wesley's  "Jesus,  Lover  of  my  Soul,"  and  Toplady's  "  Rock  of  Ages, 
cleft  for  me." 

V.    Modern  Calvinism. 

Modern  Calvinism  retains  the  doctrine  of  an  all-ruling  providence  and 
saving  grace,  but  denies  reprobation  and  pretention,  or  leaves  them  to  tiie 
sphere  of  metaphysical  theology.  It  lays  also  great  stress  on  the  moral 
responsibility  of  the  human  will,  and  on  the  duty  of  offering  the  gospel 
sincerely  to  every  creature,  in  accordance  with  the  modern  missionary  spirit. 
This,  at  least,  is  the  prevailing  and  growing  tendency  among  Presbyterian 
Churches  in  Europe  and  America,  as  appears  from  the  recent  agitation 
on  the  revision  of  the  Westminster  Confession.  The  new  creed  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  of  England,  which  was  adopted  in  1890,  avoids  all  tlie  objec- 
tionable features  of  old  Calvinism,  and  substitutes  for  the  eight  sections  of 
the  third  chapter  of  the  Westminster  Confession  the  following  two  articles, 
which  contain  all  that  is  necessary  in  a  public  confession :  — 

Art.  IV.    Of  Providence. 

"  We  believe  that  God  the  Creator  upholds  all  things  by  the  word  of  his 
power,  preserving  and  providing  for  all  his  creatures,  according  to  the  laws 
of  their  being;  and  that  he,  through  the  presence  and  energy  of  liis  Spirit 
in  nature  and  history,  disposes  and  governs  all  events  for  his  own  high 
design ;  yet  is  he  not  in  any  wise  the  author  or  approver  of  sin,  neither  are 
the  freedom  and  responsibility  of  man  taken  away,  nor  have  any  bounds 
been  set  to  the  sovereign  liberty  of  him  who  worketh  when  and  where  and 
how  he  pleaseth." 

Art.  XII.    0/  Election  and  Hegeneration. 

"  We  humbly  own  and  believe  that  God  the  Father,  before  the  foundation 
of  the  world,  was  pleased  of  his  sovereign  grace  to  choose  unto  himself  in 
Christ  a  people,  whom  he  gave  to  the  Son,  and  to  whom  the  Holy  Spirit 
imparts  spiritual  life  by  a  secret  and  wonderful  operation  of  his  power,  using 
as  liis  ordinary  means,  where  years  of  understanding  have  been  reached,  tlie 
truths  of  his  Word  in  ways  agreeable  to  the  nature  of  man;  so  that,  being 
born  from  above,  they  are  the  children  of  God,  created  in  Christ  Jesus  unto 
good  works." 


1  This  is  a  specimen  :  — 


'  O  Horrible  Decree, 

Worthy  of  whence  it  came! 
Forgive  their  hellish  blasphemy, 
Who  charge  it  on  the  Lamb!  " 


568         THE   REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

§  114.    Calvinism  examined. 

We  cannot  dismiss  this  important  subject  without  examin- 
ino-  the  Calvinistic  system  of  predestination  in  the  light  of 
Christian  experience,  of  reason,  and  the  teaching  of  the 
Bible. 

Calvinism,  as  we  have  seen,  starts  from  a  double  decree 
of  absolute  predestination,  which  antedates  creation,  and  is 
the  divine  program  of  human  history.  This  program  in- 
cludes the  successive  stages  of  the  creation  of  man,  an  uni- 
versal fall  and  condemnation  of  the  race,  a  partial  redemption 
and  salvation,  and  a  partial  reprobation  and  perdition :  all 
for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  display  of  his  attributes  of 
mercy  and  justice.  History  is  only  the  execution  of  the 
original  design.  There  can  be  no  failure.  The  beginning 
and  the  end,  God's  immutable  plan  and  the  issue  of  the 
world's  history,  must  correspond. 

We  should  remember  at  the  outset  that  we  have  to  deal 
here  with  nothing  less  than  a  solution  of  the  world-problem, 
and  should  approach  it  with  reverence  and  an  humble  sense 
of  the  limitation  of  our  mental  capacities.  We  stand,  as  it 
were,  before  a  mountain  whose  top  is  lost  in  the  clouds. 
Many  who  dared  to  climb  to  the  summit  have  lost  their  vision 
in  the  blinding  snow-drifts.  Dante,  the  deepest  thinker 
among  poets,  deems  the  mystery  of  predestination  too  far 
removed  from  mortals  who  cannot  see  "  the  first  cause  in  its 
wholeness,"  and  too  deep  even  for  the  comprehension  of  the 
saints  in  Paradise,  who  enjoy  the  beatific  vision,  yet  "do 
not  know  all  the  elect,"  and  are  content  "  to  will  whatso- 
ever God  wills."  1     Calvin  himself  confesses  that  "  the  pre- 

1  Paradiso,  XX.  130-138  :  — 

"  O  predestinazion,  quanto  rimota 
E  la  radice  tua  da  quegli  aspetti 
Che  la  prima  cagion  non  veggion  tola  ! 

"  E  voi,  mortali,  tenetevi  sireiti 

A  giudicar;  cM  noi,  die  Dio  vedemo, 
yon  conosciamo  ancor  ttttii  gli  eletti : 


§  114.    CALVINISM    EXAMINED.  569 

destination  of  God  is  a  labyrinth,  from   wliicli  the  mind  of 
man  can  by  no  means  extricate  itself."  ^ 

The  only  way  out  of  the  labyrinth  is  the  Ariadne  thread 
of  the  love  of  God  in  Christ,  and  this  is  a  still  greater,  but 
more  blessed  mystery,  which  we  can  adore  rather  than 
comprehend. 

The  Facts  of  Experience. 

We  find  everywhere  in  this  world  the  traces  of  a  revealed 
God  and  of  a  hidden  God ;  revealed  enough  to  strengthen 
our  faith,  concealed  enough  to  try  our  faith. 

We  are  surrounded  by  mysteries.  In  the  realm  of  nature 
we  see  the  contrasts  of  light  and  darkness,  day  and  night, 
heat  and  cold,  summer  and  winter,  life  and  death,  blooming 
valleys  and  barren  deserts,  singing  birds  and  poisonous  snakes, 
useful  animals  and  ravenous  beasts,  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence and  the  survival  of  the  fittest.  Turning  to  human  life, 
we  find  that  one  man  is  born  to  prosperity,  the  other  to 
misery;  one  a  king,  the  other  a  beggar;  one  strong  and 
healthy,  the  other  a  helpless  cripple ;  one  a  genius,  the  other 
an  idiot ;  one  inclined  to  virtue,  another  to  vice ;  one  the 
son  of  a  saint,  the  other  of  a  criminal ;  one  in  the  darkness 
of  heathenism,  another  in  the  light  of  Christianity.  The 
best  men  as  well  as  the  worst  are  exposed  to  fatal  accidents, 
and  whole  nations  with  their  innocent  offspring  are  ravaged 
and  decimated  by  war,  pestilence,  and  famine. 

Who  can  account  for  all  these  and  a  thousand  other  differ- 
ences and  perplexing  problems?  They  are  beyond  the  con- 
'trol  of  man's  will,  and  must  be  traced  to  the  inscrutable  will 
of  God,  whose  ways  are  past  finding  out. 


"  Ed  inne  dolce  cosifatto  scemo, 

Perche  it  ben  nostra  in  questo  ben  s'affina, 
Che  quel  die  vuole  Dio,  e  noi  volemo." 

1  Com.  on  Rom.  9  :  14  :  "  Est  prcedestinatio  Dei  veie  lahijrinthus,  unde  homi- 
nis  ingenium  nullo  modo  se  explicare  cjiteat." 


570         THE   KEFORMATION    IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Here,  then,  is  predestination,  and,  apparent!}-,  a  double 
predestination  to  good  or  evil,  to  happiness  or  misery. 

Sin  and  death  are  universal  facts  which  no  sane  man  can 
deny.  They  constitute  the  problem  of  problems.  And  the 
only  practical  solution  of  the  problem  is  the  fact  of  redemp- 
tion. "  Where  sin  has  abounded,  grace  did  abound  more 
exceedingly ;  that  as  sin  reigned  in  death,  even  so  might 
grace  reign  through  righteousness  unto  eternal  life,  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord"  (Rom.  5  :  20,  21). 

If  redemption  were  as  universal  in  its  operation  as  sin,  the 
solution  would  be  most  satisfactory  and  most  glorious.  But 
redemption  is  only  partially  revealed  in  this  world,  and  the 
great  question  remains :  What  will  become  of  the  immense 
majority  of  human  beings  who  live  and  die  without  God  and 
without  hope  in  this  world?  Is  this  terrible  fact  to  be  traced 
to  the  eternal  counsel  of  God,  or  to  the  free  agency  of  man  ? 
Here  is  the  point  where  Augustinianism  and  Calvinism  take 
issue  with  Pelagianism,  Semi-Pelagianism,  Synergism,  and 
Arminianism. 

The  Calvinistic  system  involves  a  positive  truth :  the  elec- 
tion to  eternal  life  by  free  grace,  and  the  negative  inference : 
the  reprobation  to  eternal  death  by  arbitrary  justice.  The 
former  is  the  strength,  the  latter  is  the  weakness  of  the 
system.  The  former  is  practically  accepted  by  all  true 
believers ;  the  latter  always  has  been,  and  always  will  be, 
repelled  by  the  great  majority  of  Christians. 

The  doctrine  of  a  gracious  election  is  as  clearly  taught  in 
the   New  Testament  as  any  other  doctrine.     Consult  such 
passages  as  Matt.  25  :  34  ;  John  6  :  37,  44,  65  ;  10  :  28 ;  15 
16  ;  17:12;  18:9;  Acts  13  :  48  ;  Rom.  8  :  28-39  ;  GaL  1  :  4 
Eph.  1 : 4-11 ;  2 :  8-10 ;  1  Thess.  1:4;  2  Thess.  2:13,  14 
2  Tim.  1:9;    1  Pet.  1:2.     The    doctrine    is    confirmed   by 
experience.     Christians  trace  all  their  temporal  and  spiritual 
blessings,  their  life,  health,  and  strength,  their  regeneration 
and  conversion,  every  good  thought  and  deed  to  the  unde- 


§  114.    CALVINISM    EXAMINED.  571 

served  mercy  of  God,  and  hope  to  be  saved  solely  by  the 
merits  of  Christ,  "by  grace  through  faith,"  not  by  works  of 
their  own.  The  more  they  advance  in  spiritual  life,  the 
more  grateful  they  feel  to  God,  and  the  less  inclined  to  claim 
any  merit.  The  greatest  saints  are  also  the  humblest. 
Their  theology  reflects  the  spirit  and  attitude  of  prayei-, 
which  rests  on  the  conviction  that  God  is  the  free  giver  of 
every  good  and  perfect  gift,  and  that,  without  God,  we  are 
nothing.  Before  the  throne  of  grace  all  Christians  may  be 
called  Augustinians  and  Calvinists. 

It  is  the  great  merit  of  Calvin  to  have  brought  out  this 
doctrine  of  salvation  by  free  grace  more  forcibly  and  clearly 
than  any  divine  since  the  days  of  Augustin.  It  has  been  the 
effective  theme  of  the  great  Calvinistic  preachers  and  writers 
in  Europe  and  America  to  this  day.  Howe,  Owen,  Baxter, 
Bunyan,  South,  Whitefield,  Jonathan  Edwards,  Robert  Hall, 
Chalmers,  Spurgeon,  were  Calvinists  in  their  creed,  though 
belonging  to  different  denominations,  —  Congregational,  Pres- 
byterian, Episcopal,  Baptist,  — and  had  no  superiors  in  pulpit 
power  and  influence.  Spurgeon  was  the  most  popular  and 
effective  preacher  of  the  nineteenth  century,  who  addressed 
from  week  to  week  five  thousand  hearers  in  his  Tabernacle, 
and  millions  of  readers  through  his  printed  sermons  in  many 
tongues.  Nor  should  we  forget  that  some  of  the  most 
devout  Roman  Catholics  were  Augustinians  or  Jansenists. 

On  the  other  hand,  no  man  is  saved  mechanically  or  by 
force,  but  through  faith,  freely,  by  accepting  the  gift  of  God. 
This  implies  the  contrary  power  of  rejecting  the  gift.  To 
accept  is  no  merit,  to  reject  is  ingratitude  and  guilt.  All 
Calvinistic  preachers  appeal  to  man's  responsibility.  Tliey 
pray  as  if  everything  depended  on  God  ;  and  yet  they  preach 
and  work  as  if  everything  depended  on  man.  And  the  Church 
is  directed  to  send  the  gospel  to  every  creature.  We  pray  for 
the  salvation  of  all  men,  but  not  for  the  loss  of  a  single 
human  being.  Christ  interceded  even  for  his  murderers  on 
the  cross. 


572         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Here,  then,  is  a  practical  difficulty.  Tlie  decree  of  repro- 
bation cannot  be  made  an  object  of  prayer  or  preaching,  and 
this  is  an  argument  against  it.  Experience  confirms  election, 
but  repudiates  reprobation. 

The  Logical  Argument. 

The  logical  argument  for  reprobation  is  that  there  can  be 
no  positive  without  a  negative ;  no  election  of  some  without 
a  reprobation  of  others.  This  is  true  by  deductive  logic,  but 
not  by  inductive  logic.  There  are  degrees  and  stages  of 
election.  There  must  be  a  chronological  order  in  the  his- 
tory of  salvation.  All  are  called  sooner  or  later;  some  in 
the  sixth,  others  in  the  ninth,  others  in  the  eleventh,  hour, 
according  to  God's  providence.  Those  who  accept  the  call 
and  persevere  in  faith  are  among  the  elect  (1  Pet.  1:1; 
2  :  9).  Those  who  reject  it,  become  reprobate  by  their  own 
unbelief,  and  against  God's  wish  and  will.  There  is  no  ante- 
cedent decree  of  reprobation,  but  only  a  judicial  act  of 
reprobation  in  consequence  of  man's  sin. 

Logic  is  a  two-edged  sword.  It  may  lead  from  predestina- 
rian  premises  to  the  conclusion  that  God  is  the  author  of 
sin,  which  Calvin  himself  rejects  and  abhors  as  a  blasphemy. 
It  may  also  lead  to  fatalism,  pantheism,  or  universalism. 
We  must  stop  somewhere  in  our  process  of  reasoning,  or  sac- 
rifice a  part  of  the  truth.  Logic,  it  should  be  remembered, 
deals  only  with  finite  categories,  and  cannot  grasp  infinite 
truth.  Christianity  is  not  a  logical  or  mathematical  prob- 
lem, and  cannot  be  reduced  to  the  limitations  of  a  human 
system.  It  is  above  any  particular  system  and  comprehends 
the  truths  of  all  systems.  It  is  above  logic,  yet  not  illogical; 
as  revelation  is  above  reason,  yet  not  against  reason. 

We  cannot  conceive  of  God  except  as  an  omniscient  and 
omnipotent  being,  who  from  eternity  foreknew  and,  in  some 
way,  also  foreordained  all  things  that  should  come  to  pass  in 
his  universe.     He  foreknew  what  he  foreordained,  and  he 


§  114.    CALVINISM   EXAMINED,  573 

foreordained  what  he  foreknew ;  his  foreknowledge  and  fore- 
ordination,  his  intelligence  and  will  are  coeternal,  and  must 
harmonize.  Tliere  is  no  succession  of  time,  no  before  nor 
after  in  the  eternal  God.  The  fall  of  the  first  man,  with  its 
effects  ^ipon  all  future  generations,  cannot  have  been  an 
accident  which  God,  as  a  passive  or  neutral  spectator,  simply 
permitted  to  take  place  when  he  might  so  easily  have  pre- 
vented it.  He  must  in  some  way  have  foreordained  it,  as 
9,  means  for  a  higher  end,  as  a  negative  condition  for  the 
greatest  good.  So  far  the  force  of  reasoning,  on  the  basis 
of  belief  in  a  personal  God,  goes  to  the  full  length  of  Calvin- 
istic  supralapsarianism,  and  even  beyond  it,  to  the  very  verge 
of  universalism.  If  we  give  up  the  idea  of  a  self-conscious, 
personal  God,  reason  would  force  us  into  fatalism  or  pantheism. 
But  there  is  a  logic  of  ethics  as  well  as  of  metaphysics. 
God  is  holy  as  well  as  almighty  and  omniscient,  and  there- 
fore cannot  be  the  author  of  sin.  Man  is  a  moral  as  well  as 
an  intellectual  being,  and  the  claims  of  his  moral  constitution 
are  equal  to  the  claims  of  his  intellectual  constitution.  Con- 
science is  as  powerful  a  factor  as  reason.  The  most  rigid 
believer  in  divine  sovereignty,  if  he  be  a  Christian,  cannot 
get  rid  of  the  sense  of  personal  accountability,  though  he 
may  be  unable  to  reconcile  the  two.  The  harmony  lies  in 
God  and  in  the  moral  constitution  of  man.  They  are  the 
two  complementary  sides  of  one  truth.  Paul  unites  them 
in  one  sentence  :  "  Work  out  your  own  salvation  with  fear 
and  trembling ;  for  it  is  God  who  worketh  in  you  both  to 
will  and  to  work,  for  his  good  pleasure"  (Phil.  2:13). 
The  problem,  however,  comes  within  the  reach  of  possible 
solution,  if  we  distinguish  between  sovereignt}'-  as  an  inherent 
power,  and  the  exercise  of  sovereignty.  God  may  limit  the 
exercise  of  his  sovereignty  to  make  room  for  the  free  action 
of  his  creatures.  It  is  by  his  sovereign  decree  that  man  is 
free.  Without  such  self-limitation  he  could  not  admonish 
men  "to  repent  and  believe.     Here,  again,  the  Calvinistic  logic 


574         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

must  either  bend  or  break.  Strictly  carried  out,  it  would 
turn  the  exhortations  of  God  to  the  sinner  into  a  solemn 
mockery  and  cruel  irony. 

The  Scripture  Argument.  . 

Calvin,  though  one  of  the  ablest  logicians,  cared  less 
for  logic  than  for  the  Bible,  and  it  is  his  obedience  to  the 
Word  of  God  that  induced  him  to  accept  the  decretum  horri- 
hile  against  his  wish  and  will.  His  judgment  is  of  the  great- 
est weight,  for  he  had  no  superior,  and  scarcely  an  equal,  in 
thorough  and  systematic  Bible  knowledge  and  exegetical 
insight. 

And  here  we  must  freely  admit  that  not  a  few  passages, 
especially  in  the  Old  Testament,  favor  a  double  decree  to  the 
extent  of  supreme  supralapsarianism ;  yea,  they  go  beyond 
the  Calvinistic  system,  and  seem  to  make  God  himself  the 
author  of  sin  and  evil.  See  Ex.  4 :  21 ;  7  :  13  (repeatedly 
said  of  God's  hardening  Pharaoh's  heart) ;  Isa.  6:9,  10 ; 
44:18;  Jer.  6:21;  Amos  3:6  ("Shall  there  be  evil  in  a 
city,  and  the  Lord  hath  not  done  it?")  ;  Prov.  16  :  4 ;  Matt. 
11  :  25  ;  13  :  14,  15  ;  John  12  :  40  ;  Rom.  9  :  10-23  ;  11 :  7,  8  ; 
1  Cor.  14  :  3 ;  2  Thess.  2  :  11 ;  1  Pet.  2:8;  Jude  4  ("  who 
were  of  old  set  forth  unto  this  condemnation  ").i 

The  rock  of  reprobation  is  the  ninth  chapter  of  Romans. 
It  is  not  accidental  that  Calvin  elaborated  and  published  the 
second  edition  of  his  Institutes  simultaneously  with  his  Com- 
mentary on  the  Romans,  at  Strassburg,  in  1539. 

There  are  especially  three  passages  in  the  ninth  chapter, 
which  in  their  strict  literal  sense  favor  extreme  Calvinism, 


1  The  last  passage  is  often  quoted  for  a  decree  of  reprobation ;  but  the 
verb  Trpoyeypa/jLfxevoi  is  wrongly  translated  "  ordained  "  in  the  E.  V.  npoypd.(p(a 
means  to  write  before,  and  refers  to  previous  writings,  namely,  the  Scrip- 
tures of  the  0.  T.  Calvin  correctly  translates  "pmscripti  in  hoc  judicium,"  but 
refers  it,  metaphorically,  to  the  book  of  the  divine  counsel:  "sternum  Dei 
consilium  liber  vacatur." 


§  114.    CALVINISM   EXAMINED.  575 

and  are  so  explained  by  some  of  the  severest  grammatical 
commentators  of  modern  times  (as  Meyer  and  Weiss). 

(a)  9  :  13 :  "  Jacob  I  loved,  but  Esau  I  hated,"  quoted 
from  Mai.  1 :  2,  3.  This  iDassage,  whether  we  take  it  in 
a  literal  or  anthropopathic  sense,  has  no  reference  to  the  eter- 
nal destiny  of  Jacob  and  Esau,  but  to  their  representative 
position  in  the  history  of  the  theocracy.  This  removes  the 
chief  difhculty.  Esau  received  a  temporal  blessing  from  his 
father  (Gen.  27  :  39,  40),  and  behaved  kindly  and  generously 
to  his  brother  (33  :  4)  ;  he  probably  repented  of  the  folly  of 
his  youth  in  selling  his  birthright,^  and  may  be  among  the 
saved,  as  well  as  Adam  and  Eve  —  the  first  among  the  lost 
and  the  first  among  the  saved. 

Moreover,  the  strict  meaning  of  a  positive  hatred  seems 
impossible  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  since  it  would  contra- 
dict all  we  know  from  the  Bible  of  the  attributes  of  God. 
A  God  of  love,  who  commands  us  to  love  all  men,  even  our 
enemies,  cannot  hate  a  child  before  his  birth,  or  any  of  his 
creatures  made  in  his  own  image.  "  Can  a  woman  forget 
her  sucking  child,"  says  the  Lord,  "that  she  should  not 
have  compassion  on  the  son  of  her  womb?  Yea,  these  may 
forget,  yet  will  I  not  forget  thee  "  (Isa.  49  :  15).  This  is  the 
prophet's  conception  of  the  tender  mercies  of  God.  How 
much  more  must  it  be  the  conception  of  the  New  Testament? 
The  word  hate  must,  therefore,  be  understood  as  a  strong 
Hebraistic  expression  for  loving  less  or  putting  back ;  as  in 
Gen.  29  :  31,  where  the  original  text  says,  "  Leah  was  hated  " 
by  Jacob,  i.e.  loved  less  than  Rachel  (comp.  ver.  30).  When 
our  Saviour  says,  Luke  14  :  26  :  "  If  any  man  hateth  not  his 
own  father  and  mother  and  wife  and  children  and  brothers 
and  sisters,  yea,  and  his  own  life  also,  he  cannot  be  my  dis- 
ciple," he  does  not  mean  that  his  disciples  should  break  the 

1  This  is  implied  in  the  passage,  Heb.  12  :  17,  whether  we  refer  fxerdvoia  to 
Esau's  late  repentance  (Calvin,  Bleek),  or  to  a  change  of  mind  in  Isaac 
(Beza,  Weiss). 


576         THE   REFORMATION   IN    FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

fifth  commandment,  and  act  contrary  to  his  direction:  "Love 
your  enemies,  pray  for  them  that  persecute  you"  (Matt. 
5  :  44),  but  simply  that  we  should  prefer  him  above  every- 
thing, even  life  itself,  and  should  sacrifice  whatever  comes  in 
conflict  with  him.  This  meaning  is  confirmed  by  the  parallel 
passage,  Matt.  10 :  37 :  "  He  that  loveth  father  and  mother 
more  than  me  is  not  worthy  of  me." 

(6)  9  :  17.  Paul  traces  the  hardening  of  Pharaoh's  heart 
to  the  agency  of  God,  and  so  far  makes  God  responsible  for 
sin.  But  this  was  a  judicial  act  of  punishing  sin  with  sin; 
for  Pharaoh  had  first  hardened  his  own  heart  (Ex.  8  :  15,  32 ; 
9 :  34).  Moreover,  this  passage  has  no  reference  to  Pharaoh's 
future  fate  any  more  than  the  passage  about  Esau,  but  both 
refer  to  their  place  in  the  history  of  Israel. 

(c)  In  9 :  22  and  23,  the  Apostle  speaks  of  "  vessels  of 
wrath  fitted  unto  destruction "  (^Karrjprcaueva  eh  cnrmXeLav)^ 
and  "  vessels  of  mercy  which  he  (God)  prepared  unto  glory  " 
(a  TrporjToifiacrev  et?  ^o^av).  But  the  difference  of  the  verbs, 
and  the  difference  between  the  passive  (or  middle)  in  the 
first  clause  and  the  active  in  the  second  is  most  significant, 
and  shows  that  God  has  no  direct  agency  in  the  destruction 
of  the  vessels  of  wrath,  which  is  due  to  their  self-destruction ; 
the  participle  perfect  denotes  the  result  of  a  gradual  process  and 
a  state  of  maturity  for  destruction,  but  not  a  divine  purpose. 
Calvin  is  too  good  an  exegete  to  overlook  this  difference,  and 
virtually  admits  its  force,  although  he  tries  to  weaken  it. 

"  They  observe,"  he  says  of  his  opponents,  "  that  it  is  not 
said  without  meaning,  that  the  vessels  of  wrath  are  fitted  for 
destruction,  but  that  God  prepared  the  vessels  of  mercy; 
since  by  this  mode  of  expression,  Paul  ascribes  and  challenges 
to  God  the  praise  of  salvation,  and  throws  the  blame  of  per- 
dition on  those  who  by  their  choice  procure  it  to  themselves. 
But  though  I  concede  to  them  that  Paul  softens  the  asperity 
of  the  former  clause  hy  the  difference  of  phraseology  ;  yet  it  is 
not  at  all  consistent  to  transfer  the  preparation  for  destruc- 


§  114.    CALVINISM   EXAMINED.  577 

tion  to  any  other  than  the  secret  counsel  of  God,  which  is 
also  asserted  just  before  in  the  context,  '  that  God  raised  up 
Pharaoh,  and  whom  he  will  he  hardeneth.'  Whence  it  fol- 
lows, that  the  cause  of  hardening  is  the  secret  counsel  of  God. 
This,  however,  I  maintain,  which  is  observed  by  Augustin, 
that  when  God  turns  wolves  into  sheep,  he  renovates  them 
by  more  powerful  grace  to  conquer  their  obstinacy;  and 
therefore  the  obstinate  are  not  converted,  because  God  exerts 
not  that  mightier  grace,  of  which  he  is  not  destitute  if  he 
chose  to  display  it."  ^ 

Paul's  Teaching  of  the  Extent  of  Redemption. 

Whatever  view  we  may  take  of  these  hard  passages,  we 
should  remember  that  the  ninth  chapter  of  Romans  is  only 
a  part  of  Paul's  philosophy  of  history,  unfolded  in  chapters 
9-11.  While  the  ninth  chapter  sets  forth  the  divine  sov- 
ereignty, the  tenth  chapter  asserts  the  human  responsibility, 
and  the  eleventh  looks  forward  to  the  future  solution  of  the 
dark  problem,  namely,  the  conversion  of  the  fulness  of 
the  Gentiles  and  the  salvation  of  all  Israel  (11 :  25).  And 
he  winds  up  the  whole  discussion  with  the  glorious  sentence : 
"  God  hath  shut  up  all  unto  disobedience,  that  he  might  have 
mercy  upon  alV  (32).  This  is  the  key  for  the  understand- 
ing, not  only  of  this  section,  but  of  the  whole  Epistle  to  the 
Romans.^ 

1  Inst.  III.  ch.  XXII.  1.  In  his  Com.  on  Rom.  9.22,  23,  he  ignores  this 
distinction  and  explains  KaTripTia;ueva,  "  given  up  and  appointed  to  destruc- 
tion, made  and  formed  for  this  end"  (devota  et  destinata  exitio :  sunt  enim  vasa 
ircv,  id  est  in  hoc  facta  et  for  mat  a,  ut  documenta  sint  vindictce  et  furoris  Dei). 
This  is  the  extreme  suprahipsarian  exposition.  But  other  Reformed  exegetes 
fully  acknowledge  the  difference  of  pliraseology.  It  was  pressed  by  those 
members  of  tiie  Westminster  Assembly  who  sympathized  with  the  hypothetical 
universalism  of  the  Sauniur  school  of  Cameron  and  Amyrauld.  "The  non- 
elect,"  said  Dr.  Arrowsmith,  "are  said  to  be  fitted  to  that  destruction  which 
their  sins  bring  upon  them,  but  not  by  God."  See  Mitchell,  Minutes  of  the 
Westminster  Assemhlij,  pp.  152  sqq. ;   Schaff,  Creeds,  I.  770  sq. 

2  "  Das  game  Summarium  und  der  herrliche  Schlussstein  des  ganzen  bisherigen 
Brieftheils."    Weiss  in  the  6th  ed.  of   Meyer  on  Romans  (p.  555).     Godet : 


578         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

And  this  is  in  harmony  with  the  whole  spirit  and  aim  of 
this  Epistle.  It  is  easier  to  make  it  prove  a  system  of  condi- 
tional universalism  than  a  system  of  dualistic  particularism. 
The  very  theme,  1 :  16,  declares  that  the  gospel  is  a  power 
of  God  for  the  salvation,  not  of  a  particular  class,  but  of 
"every  one"  that  believeth.  In  drawing  a  parallel  between 
the  first  and  the  second  Adam  (5 :  12-21),  he  represents  the 
effect  of  the  latter  as  equal  in  extent,  and  greater  in  intensity 
than  the  effect  of  the  former ;  while  in  the  Calvinistic  system 
it  would  be  less.  We  have  no  right  to  limit  "■  the  many  " 
(o(  TToWoi)  and  the  "all"  {'7rdvTe<;')  in  one  clause,  and  to 
take  it  literally  in  the  other.  "  If,  by  the  trespass  of  the 
one  [Adam],  death  reigned  through  the  one,  much  more 
shall  they  that  receive  the  abundance  of  grace  and  of  the 
gift  of  righteousness  reign  in  life  through  the  one,  even 
Jesus  Christ.  So,  then,  as  through  one  trespass  the  judg- 
ment came  unto  all  men  to  condemnation ;  even  so  through 
one  act  of  righteousness  the  free  gift  came  unto  all  men  th 
justification  of  life.  For  as  through  the  one  man's  disobedi- 
ence the  many  [i.e.  all]  were  made  sinners,  even  so  through 
the  obedience  of  the  one  shall  the  many  \^air\  be  made  right- 
eous "  (5 :  17-19).^  The  same  parallel,  without  any  restriction, 
is  more  briefly  expressed  in  the  passage  (1  Cor.  15  :  21)  :  "  As 
in  Adam  all  die,  so  also  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive  " ; 
and  in  a  different  form  in  Rom.  11 :  32  and  Gal.  3  :  22,  already 
quoted. 

"  C'est  ici  comme  le  point  Jinal  appose  a  tout  ce  qui  precede ;  ce  dernier  mot  rend 
compte  de  tout  le  plan  de  Dieu,  dont  les  phases  prinapales  viennent  d'etre 
esquissees.  The  'iva  tovs  ndvTas  (Jews  and  Gentiles)  teaches  not,  indeed,  the 
forced  acceptance  of  mercy  by  all,  but,  at  all  events,  the  universality  of  the 
divine  purpose  and  intention.  Meyer  sees  in  this  passage  a  conclusive  exe- 
getical  argument  against  a  decretum  reprobationis. 

1  Unfortunately  the  A.  V.  obliterates  the  force  of  the  parallel  in  the  fifth 
chapter  of  Romans  by  neglecting  the  definite  article  before  voWoi.  "The 
many"  of  the  original  is  opposed  to  "the  one,"  and  is  equivalent  to  "all"; 
while  "many"  would  be  opposed  to  "few."  The  Revised  Version  of  1881 
corrects  these  mistakes. 


§   114.    CALVINISM    EXAMINED.  579 

These  passages  contain,  as  in  a  nutshell,  the  theodicy  of 
Paul.  They  dispel  the  darkness  of  the  ninth  chapter  of 
Romans.  They  exclude  all  limitations  of  God's  plan  and 
intention  to  a  particular  class ;  they  teach  not,  indeed,  that 
all  men  will  be  actually  saved  —  for  many  reject  the  divine 
offer,  and  die  in  impenitence,  —  but  that  God  sincerely  desires 
and  actually  provides  salvation  for  all.  Whosoever  is  saved, 
is  saved  by  grace  ;  whosoever  is  lost,  is  lost  by  his  own  guilt 
of  unbelief. 

The  Offer  of  Salvation. 

There  remains,  it  is  true,  the  great  difficulty  that  the  offer 
of  salvation  is  limited  in  this  world,  as  far  as  we  know,  to 
a  part  of  the  human  race,  and  that  the  great  majority  pass 
into  the  other  world  without  any  knowledge  of  the  historical 
Christ. 

But  God  gave  to  every  man  the  light  of  reason  and  con- 
science (Rom.  1 :  19  ;  2  :  14,  15).  The  Divine  Logos  "light- 
eth  every  man "  that  cometh  into  the  world  (John  1 :  9). 
God  never  left  himself  "without  witness"  (Acts  14:17). 
He  deals  with  his  creatures  according  to  the  measure  of  their 
ability  and  opportunity,  whether  they  have  one  or  five  or  ten 
talents  (Matt.  25  :  15  sqq.).  He  is  "no  respecter  of  persons, 
but  in  every  nation  he  that  feareth  him  and  worketh  right- 
eousness, is  acceptable  to  him  "  (Acts  10  :  35). 

May  we  not  then  cherish  at  least  a  charitable  hope,  if  not 
a  certain  belief,  that  a  God  of  infinite  love  and  justice  will 
receive  into  his  heavenly  kingdom  all  those  who  die  inno- 
cently ignorant  of  the  Christian  revelation,  but  in  a  state  of 
preparedness  or  disposition  for  the  gospel,  so  that  they  would 
thankfully  accept  it  if  offered  to  them?  Cornelius  was  in 
such  a  condition  before  Peter  entered  his  house,  and  he  rep- 
resents a  multitude  which  no  man  can  number.  We  cannot 
know  and  measure  the  secret  operations  of  the  Spirit  of  God, 
who  works  "  when,  where,  and  how  he  pleases." 


580        THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

Surely,  here  is  a  point  where  the  rigor  of  the  old  ortho- 
doxy, whether  Roman  Catholic,  or  Lutheran,  or  Calvinistic, 
must  be  moderated.  And  the  Calvinistic  system  admits  more 
readily  of  an  expansion  than  the  churchly  and  sacramental 
type  of  orthodoxy. 

The  General  Love  of  God  to  all  Men. 

This  doctrine  of  a  divine  will  and  divine  provision  of  a 
universal  salvation,  on  the  sole  condition  of  faith,  is  taught 
in  many  passages  which  admit  of  no  other  interpretation, 
and  which  must,  therefore,  decide  this  whole  question.  For 
it  is  a  settled  rule  in  hermeneutics  that  dark  passages  must 
be  explained  by  clear  passages,  and  not  vice  versa.  Such 
passages  are  the  following :  — 

"I  have  no  pleasure  in  the  death  of  him  that  dieth,  saith 
the  Lord  our  God :  wherefore  turn  yourselves,  and  live " 
(Ezek.  18  :  32,  23  ;  33  :  11).  "  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from 
the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto  myself"  (John  12:32). 
"  God  so  loved  the  world "  (that  is,  all  mankind)  "  that  he 
gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  on  him 
should  not  perish,  but  have  eternal  life"  (John  3:16). 
"  God  our  Saviour  willeth  that  all  men  should  be  saved  and 
come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  "  (1  Tim.  2  :  4).i  "  The 
grace  of  God  hath  appeared,  bringing  salvation  to  all  men  " 
(Tit.  2  :  11).  "The  Lord  is  long-suffering  to  you-ward,  not 
wishing  that  an^  should  perish,  but  that  all  should  come  to 
repentance"  (2  Pet.  3  :  9).^  "Jesus  Christ  is  the  propitia- 
tion for  our  sins  ;  and  not  for  ours  only,  but  also  for  (the 

1  Calvin  explains  "all  men"  to  mean  men  of  all  classes  and  conditions 
("(/e  hominum  generibus,  non  singulis  personis").  See  his  Comm.  on  1  Tim. 
2 : 4,  and  his  sermon  on  the  passage.  But  the  Apostle  emphasizes  "  all 
men"  with  reference  to  prayer  "for  all  men,"  which  he  commands  in  ver.  1, 
and  which  cannot  be  limited. 

2  Calvin  arbitrarily  explains  this  passage  of  the  "  voluntas  Dei  guce  nobis 
in  evangelio  pate/it,"  but  not  "  de  arcano  Dei  consilio  quo  destinati  sunt  reprobi 
in  suum  exitium." 


§  114.   CALVINISM   EXAMINED.  581 

sins  of)  the  whole  world''  (1  John  2  :  2).  It  is  impossible  to 
state  the  doctrine  of  a  universal  atonement  more  clearly 
in  so  few  words. ^ 

To  these  passages  should  be  added  the  divine  exhortations 
to  repentance,  and  the  lament  of  Christ  over  the  inhabitants 
of  Jerusalem  who  "would  not"  come  to  him  (Matt.  23  :  37). 
These  exhortations  are  insincere  or  unmeaning,  if  God  does 
not  want  all  men  to  be  saved,  and  if  men  have  not  the  ability 
to  obey  or  disobey  the  voice.  The  same  is  implied  in  the 
command  of  Christ  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  whole  crea- 
tion (Mark  16  :  15),  and  to  disciple  all  nations  (Matt.  28  :  19). 

It  is  impossible  to  restrict  these  passages  to  a  particular 
class  without  doing  violence  to  the  grammar  and  the  context. 

The  only  way  of  escape  is  by  the  distinction  between  a 
revealed  will  of  God,  which  declares  his  willingness  to  save 
all  men,  and  a  secret  will  of  God  which  means  to  save  only 
some  men.^  Augustin  and  Luther  made  this  distinction. 
Calvin  uses  it  in  explaining  2  Pet.  3  :  9,  and  those  passages 
of  the  Old  Testament  which  ascribe  repentance  and  changes 
to  the  immutable  God. 

But  this  distinction  overthrows  the  system  which  it  is 
intended  to  support.  A  contradiction  between  intention  and 
expression  is  fatal  to  veracity,  which  is  the  foundation  of 
human  morality,  and  must  be  an  essential  attribute  of  the 
Deity.  A  man  who  says  the  reverse  of  what  he  means  is 
called,  in  plain  English,  a  hypocrite  and  a  liar.  It  does  not 
help  the  matter  when  Calvin  says,  repeatedly,  that  there  are 
not  two  wills  Lii  God,  but  only  two  ways  of  speaking  adapted 

1  Calvin  understands  "lotus  mu)idus"  in  this  passage  to  mean  "tola  eccle- 
sia  !  "  This  is  as  impossible  as  the  confinement  of  "  the  world,"  John  3  :  16, 
to  "  the  elect."  He  mentions,  however,  also  a  better  explanation,  that  Christ 
died  "  sujfficienter  pro  toto  mundo,  sed  pro  electis  tantum  efficaciter." 

^  Various  terras  for  the  distinction  :  voluntas  revelata  and  voluntas  arcana  ; 
voluntas  signi  and  voluntas  beneplaciti  (evSoKias)  ;  voluntas  universalis  and  volun- 
tas specialis ;  verbum  externum  et  verbum  internum..  The  oft-quoted  proof  text, 
Deut.  29 :  29,  teaches  a  distinction,  but  not  a  contradiction,  between  the  secret 
things  and  the  revealed  things  of  God. 


582         THE    REFORMATION   IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

to  our  weakness.  Nor  does  it  remove  the  difficulty  when  he 
warns  us  to  rely  on  the  revealed  will  of  God  rather  than 
brood  over  his  secret  will. 

The  greatest,  the  deepest,  the  most  comforting  word  in 
the  Bible  is  the  word,  "  God  is  love,"  and  the  greatest  fact 
in  the  world's  history  is  the  manifestation  of  that  love  in  the 
person  and  the  work  of  Christ.  That  word  and  this  fact  are 
the  sum  and  substance  of  the  gospel,  and  the  only  solid 
foundation  of  Christian  theology.  The  sovereignty  of  God 
is  acknowledged  by  Jews  and  Mohammedans  as  well  as  by 
Christians,  but  the  love  of  God  is  revealed  only  in  the  Chris- 
tian religion.  It  is  the  inmost  essence  of  God,  and  the  key 
to  all  his  ways  and  works.  It  is  the  central  truth  which 
sheds  light  upon  all  other  truths. 

§  115.    Calvhi's  Theory  of  the  Sacraments. 
Inst.  bk.  IV.  chs.  XIV.-XIX. 

Next  to  the  doctrine  of  predestination,  Calvin  paid  most 
attention  to  the  doctrine  of  the  sacraments.  And  here  he 
was  original,  and  occupied  a  mediating  position  between 
Luther  and  Zwingli.  His  sacramental  theory  passed  into  all 
the  Reformed  Confessions  more  than  his  view  of  predestina- 
tion. 

Calvin  accepts  Augustin's  definition  that  a  sacrament 
(corresponding  to  the  Greek  "  mystery  ")  is  "  a  visible  sign 
of  an  invisible  grace,"  but  he  improves  it  by  emphasizing  the 
sealing  character  of  the  sacrament,  according  to  Rom.  4 :  11, 
and  the  necessity  of  faith  as  the  condition  of  receiving  the 
benefit  of  the  ordinance.  "  It  is,"  he  says,  "  an  outward  sign 
by  which  the  Lord  seals  in  our  consciences  the  promises  of 
his  good-will  towards  us,  to  support  the  weakness  of  our 
faith,  or  a  testimony  of  his  grace  towards  us,  with  a  reciprocal 
attestation  of  our  piety  towards  him."  It  is  even  more 
expressive  than  the  word.     It  is  a  divine  seal  of  authentica- 


§  115.     CALVIN'S   THEORY   OF   THE    SACRAMENTS.  583 

tion,  which  sustams  and  strengthens  our  faith.  ^^  Lord,  1 
believe,  help  thou  mine  unbelief"  (Mark  9  :  24).  To  be  effi- 
cacious, the  sacraments  must  be  accompanied  by  the  Spirit, 
that  internal  Teacher,  by  whose  energy  alone  our  hearts  are 
penetrated,  and  our  affections  moved.  Without  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Spirit,  the  sacraments  can  produce  no  more 
effect  upon  our  minds,  than  the  splendor  of  the  sun  on  blind 
eyes,  or  the  sound  of  a  voice  upon  deaf  ears.  If  the  seed 
falls  on  a  desert  spot,  it  will  die ;  but  if  it  be  cast  upon  a 
cultivated  field,  it  will  bring  forth  abundant  increase. 

Calvin  vigorously  opposes,  as  superstitious  and  mischiev- 
ous, the  scholastic  opus  operatum  theory  that  the  sacraments 
justify  and  confer  grace  by  an  intrinsic  virtue,  provided  we 
do  not  obstruct  their  operation  by  a  mortal  sin.  A  sacra- 
ment without  faith  misleads  the  mind  to  rest  in  the  exhibi- 
tion of  a  sensuous  object  rather  than  in  God  himself,  and  is 
ruinous  to  true  piety. 

He  agrees  with  Augustin  in  the  opinion  that  the  sign  and 
the  matter  of  the  sacrament  are  not  inseparably  connected, 
and  that  it  produces  its  intended  effect  only  in  the  elect. 
He  quotes  from  him  the  sentence :  "  The  morsel  of  bread 
given  by  the  Lord  to  Judas  was  poison ;  not  because  Judas 
received  an  evil  thing,  but  because,  being  a  wicked  man,  he 
received  a  good  thing  in  a  sinful  manner."  But  this  must 
not  be  understood  to  mean  that  the  virtue  and  truth  of  the 
sacrament  depend  on  the  condition  or  choice  of  him  who 
receives  it.  The  symbol  consecrated  by  the  word  of  the 
Lord  is  in  reality  what  it  is  declared  to  be,  and  preserves  its 
virtue,  although  it  confers  no  benefit  on  a  wicked  and  impious 
person.  Augustin  happily  solves  this  question  in  a  few 
words :  "  If  thou  receive  it  carnally,  still  it  ceases  not  to  be 
spiritual ;  but  it  is  not  so  to  thee."  The  office  of  the  sacra- 
ment is  the  same  as  that  of  the  word  of  God ;  both  offer 
Christ  and  his  heavenly  grace  to  us,  but  they  confer  no 
benefit  without  the  medium  of  faith. 


584         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Calvin  discusses  at  length  the  seven  sacraments  of  the 
Roman  Church,  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation,  and  the 
mass.  But  it  is  sufficient  here  to  state  his  views  on  baptism 
and  the  Lord's  Supper,  the  only  sacraments  which  Christ 
directly  instituted  for  perpetual  observance  in  the  Church. 

§  116.    Baptism. 

Inst.  IV.  chs.  XV.  and  XVI.  Also  his  Briece  instruction,  pour  armer  tons  bons 
Jideles  contre  les  erreurs  de  la  secte  commune  des  Anabaptistes,  Geneva,  1544, 
2d  ed.  1545;  Latin  version  by  Nicolas  des  Gallars.  In  Opera,  VII.  45  sqq. 
This  tract  was  written  against  the  fanatical  wing  of  the  Anabaptists  at 
the  request  of  the  pastors  of  Neuchatel.  His  youthful  treatise  On  the 
Sleep  of  the  Soul  was  also  directed  against  the  Anabaptists.  See  above, 
§  77,  pp.  .325  sqq.  Calvin's  wife  was  the  widow  of  a  converted  Ana- 
baptist. 

Baptism,  Calvin  says,  is  the  sacrament  of  ablution  and 
regeneration ;  the  Eucharist  is  the  sacrament  of  redemption 
and  sanctification.  Christ  "  came  by  water  and  by  blood  " 
(1  John  5:6);  that  is,  to  purify  and  to  redeem.  The  Spirit, 
as  the  third  and  chief  witness,  confirms  and  secures  the  wit- 
ness of  water  and  blood  ;  that  is,  of  baptism  and  the  eucha- 
rist  (1  John  5  :  8).^  "  This  sublime  mystery  was  strikingly 
exhibited  on  the  cross,  when  blood  and  water  issued  from 
Christ's  side,  which  on  this  account  Augustin  justly  called 
'  the  fountain  of  our  sacraments.'  " 

I.  Calvin  defines  baptism  as  "  a  sign  of  initiation,  by  which 
we  are  admitted  into  the  society  of  the  Church,  in  order  that, 
being  incorporated  into  Christ,  we  may  be  numbered  among 
the  children  of  God." 

II.  Faith  derives  three  benefits  from  this  sacrament. 

1.  It  assures  us,  like  a  legal  instrument  properly  attested, 
that  all  our  sins  are  cancelled,  and  will  never  be  imputed 
unto  us  (Eph.  5:26;    Tit.   3:5;    1   Pet.  3:21).     It  is  far 

1  Calvin  confines  himself  (IV.  ch.  XIV.  §  22)  to  the  genuine  words  of 
the  three  witnesses  in  this  passage,  and  justly  ignores  the  interpolation  of  the 
tcrtus  receptus,  which  is  omitted  in  the  Revised  Version. 


§  116.   BAPTISM.  585 

more  than  a  mark  or  sign  by  which  we  profess  our  religion 
before  men,  as  soldiers  wear  the  insignia  of  their  sovereign. 
It  is  "  for  the  remission  of  sins,"  past  and  future.  No  new 
sacrament  is  necessary  for  sins  committed  after  baptism.  At 
whatever  time  we  are  baptized,  we  are  washed  and  puriiied 
for  the  whole  life.  "Whenever  we  have  fallen,  we  must 
recur  to  the  remembrance  of  baptism,  and  arm  our  minds 
with  the  consideration  of  it,  that  we  may  be  always  certified 
and  assured  of  the  remission  of  our  sins.'* 

2.  Baptism  shows  us  our  mortification  in  Christ,  and  our 
new  life  in  him.  All  who  receive  baptism  with  faith  expe- 
rience the  efficacy  of  Christ's  death  and  the  power  of  his 
resurrection,  and  should  therefore  walk  in  newness  of  life 
(Rom.  6  :  3,  4,  11). 

3.  Baptism  affords  us  "  the  certain  testimony  that  we  are 
not  only  engrafted  into  the  life  and  death  of  Christ,  but  are 
so  united  to  him  as  to  be  partakers  of  all  his  benefits  "  (Gal. 
3  :  26,  27). 

But  while  baptism  removes  the  guilt  and  punishment  of 
hereditary  and  actual  sin,  it  does  not  destroy  our  natural 
depravity,  which  is  perpetually  producing  works  of  the  flesh, 
and  will  not  be  wholly  abolished  till  the  close  of  this  mortal 
life.  In  the  mean  time  we  must  hold  fast  to  the  promise  of 
God  in  baptism,  fight  manfully  against  sin  and  temptation, 
and  press  forward  to  complete  victory. 

III.  On  the  question  of  the  validity  of  baptism  by  unworthy 
ministers,  Calvin  fully  agrees  with  Augustin  against  the  view 
of  the  Donatists,  who  measured  the  virtue  of  the  sacrament 
by  the  moral  character  of  the  minister.  He  applies  the  argu- 
ment to  the  Anabaptists  of  his  day,  who  denied  the  validity 
of  Catholic  baptism  on  account  of  the  idolatry  and  corruption 
of  the  papal  Church.  "Against  these  follies  we  shall  be 
sufficiently  fortified,  if  we  consider  that  we  are  baptized  not 
in  the  name  of  any  man,  but  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  the 
Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  consequently  that  it  is  not  the 


586  THE    ItEFOllMATION    IN   FRENCH    SWITZEKLAND. 

baptism  of  man,  but  of  God,  by  whomsoever  administered." 
The  papal  priests  "  did  not  baptize  us  into  the  fellowship  of 
their  own  ignorance  or  sacrilege,  but  into  the  faith  of  Jesus 
Christ,  because  they  invoked,  not  their  own  name,  but  the 
name  of  God,  and  baptized  in  no  name  but  ]iis.  As  it  was 
the  baptism  of  God,  it  certainly  contained  the  promise  of 
remission  of  sins,  mortification  of  the  flesh,  spiritual  vivifica- 
tion,  and  participation  of  Christ.  Thus  it  was  no  injury  to 
the  Jews  to  have  been  circumcised  by  impure  and  apostate 
priests ;  nor  Avas  the  sign  on  that  account  useless,  so  as  to 
render  it  necessary  to  be  repeated,  but  it  was  sufficient 
to  recur  to  the  genuine  orig^inal.  .  .  .  When  Hezekiah  and 
Josiah  assembled  together  out  of  all  Israel,  those  who  had 
revolted  from  God,  they  did  not  call  any  of  them  to  a  second 
circumcision." 

He  argues  against  the  Anabaptists  from  the  fact  also,  that 
the  apostles  who  had  received  the  baptism  of  John,  were  not 
rebaptized.  "  And  among  us,  what  rivers  would  be  sufficient 
for  the  repetition  of  ablutions  as  numerous  as  the  errors 
which  are  daily  corrected  among  us  by  the  mercy  of  the 
Lord."  1 

1  These  passages  (IV.  ch.  XV.  §§  16  and  17)  furnish  arguments  against  the 
decision  of  the  Old-School-Presbyterian  General  Assembly  held  at  Cincinnati, 
1845,  which,  with  an  overwhelming  majority,  declared  Roman  Catholic  bap- 
tism to  be  invalid,  and  thus  virtually  unchurched  and  unbaptized  the  greater 
part  of  Christendom,  including  the  founders  of  the  Protestant  churches,  who 
were  baptized  in  the  Roman  communion,  as  the  apostles  were  circumcised  in 
the  synagogue.  But  Drs.  Charles  Hodge  of  Princeton  and  Henry  B.  Smith 
of  New  York  —  the  two  leading  Presbyterian  divines  of  that  day  —  vigoronsl_y 
protested  against  that  anomalous  decision;  and  when,  in  the  United  Assembly, 
held  likewise  at  Cincinnati,  in  the  year  1885,  an  attempt  was  made  to 
re-enact  that  decision,  it  failed  by  a  very  large  majority.  Calvin  did  not 
unchurch  the  Church  of  Rome.  "  While  we  refuse,"  he  says  {Inst.  IV.  ch. 
II.  §  12),  "to  allow  to  the  papists  the  [exclusive]  title  of  the  Church,  without 
any  qualification  or  restriction,  we  do  not  deny  that  there  are  churches  among 
them.  ...  I  afiirm  that  there  are  churches,  in  as  much  as  God  has  wonder- 
fully preserved  among  them  a  remnant  of  his  people,  and  as  there  still 
remain  some  marks  of  the  Church,  especially  those,  the  efiicacy  of  which 
neither  the  craft  of  the  devil,  nor  the  malice  of  men  can  ever  destroy." 


§  IIG.    BAI'TiSM.  587 

IV.  He  pleads  for  the  simplicity  of  the  ordinance  against 
the  adventitious  medley  of  incantation,  wax-taper,  spittle,  salt, 
and  "  other  fooleries,"  which  from  an  early  age  were  publicly 
introduced.  "Such  theatrical  pomps  dazzle  the  eye  and 
stupify  the  minds  of  the  ignorant."  The  simple  ceremony 
as  instituted  by  Christ,  accompanied  by  a  confession  of  faith, 
prayers,  and  thanksgivings,  shines  with  the  greater  lustre, 
unencumbered  with  extraneous  corruptions.  He  disapproves 
the  ancient  custom  of  baptism  by  laymen  in  cases  of  danger 
of  death.     God  can  regenerate  a  child  without  baptism. 

V.  The  mode  of  baptism  Avas  not  a  subject  of  controversy 
at  that  time.  Calvin  recognized  the  force  of  the  philological 
and  historical  argument  in  favor  of  immersion,  but  regarded 
pouring  and  sprinkling  as  equall}^  valid,  and  left  room  for 
Christian  liberty  according  to  the  custom  in  different  coun- 
tries.i  Immersion  was  then  still  the  prevailing  mode  in 
England,  and  continued  till  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  who  was 
herself  baptized  by  immersion. 

VI.  But  while  meeting  the  Baptists  half-way  on  the  ques- 
tion of  the  mode,  he  strenuously  defends  psedobaptism,  and 
devotes  a  whole  chapter  to  it.'^  He  urges,  as  arguments, 
circumcision,  which  was  a  type  of  baptism ;  the  nature  of  the 
covenant,  which  comprehends  the  offspring  of  pious  parents ; 
Christ's  treatment  of  children,  as  belonging  to  the  kingdom 
of  heaven,  and  therefore  entitled  to  the  sign  and  seal  of 
membership ;  the  word  of  Peter  addressed  to  the  converts 
on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  who  were  accustomed  to  infant  cir- 
cumcision, that  "  the  promise  is  to  you  and  your  children  " 
(Acts  2  :  39)  ;  Paul's  declaration  that  the  children  are  sanc- 

1  IV.  ch.  XV.  19:  "  C<rterum  meryaturne  totus  qui  tingitur,  idque  ter  an  semel, 
an  infusa  tantum  aqua  asperr/atur,  minimum  refert :  sed  id  pro  regionum  diversitate 
ecclesiis  liberum  esse  debet.  Quanquam  et  ipsum  baptizandi  verbum  mergeke 
signijicat,  et  mergendi  ritum  veteri  ecclesioi  observatum  fuisse  constat."  See  above, 
p.  373,  note.  Luther  held  substantially  the  same  view,  v?ith  a  stronger  lean- 
ing to  immersion  or  dipping,  which  he  prescribes  in  his  Taufbiicklein,  1523. 
Hee  vol.  VI.  218  and  607  sq.  -  Ch.  XVI.  1-32. 


688  THE   EEFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

tified  by  their  parents  (1  Cor.  7  :  14),  etc.  He  refutes  at 
length  the  objections  of  the  Anabaptists,  with  special  refer- 
ence to  Servetus,  who  agreed  with  them  on  that  point. 

He  assigns  to  infant  baptism  a  double  benefit :  it  ratifies  to 
pious  parents  the  promise  of  God's  mercy  to  their  children, 
and  increases  their  sense  of  responsibility  as  to  their  educa- 
tion ;  it  engrafts  the  children  into  the  body  of  the  Church, 
and  afterwards  acts  as  a  powerful  stimulus  upon  them  to  be 
true  to  the  baptismal  vow. 

§  117.    The  Lord's  Supper.     The  Consensus  of  Zurich. 

I.  Inst.  IV.  chs.  XVII.  and  XVIII.     Comp.  the  first  ed.,  cap.  IV.,  in  Opera, 

I.  118  sqq.  —  Petit  traicte'  de  la  sainte  cene  de  nostre  Seigneur  Je'sus-Christ. 
Auquel  est  demontre  la  vraye  institution,  profit  et  utilite  d'icelle,  Geneve,  1541, 
1542,  1549.  Opera,  V.  429-460.  Latin  version  by  Nicholas  des  Gallars  : 
Libellus  de  Ccena  Domini,  a  loanne  Calvino  pridem  Gallica  lingua  scriptus, 
nunc  vera  in  Latinum  sermonem  conversus.  Gen.,  1545.  Also  translated  into 
English.  Remarkably  moderate.  —  The  two  catechisms  of  Calvin. — 
Consensio  mutua  in  re  sacramentaria  Tigurince  Ecclesia  et  D.  Calvini  minis- 
tri  Genevensis  Ecclesioe  jam  nunc  ab  ipsis  authoribiis  edita  (usually  called 
Consensus  Tigiirinus),  simultaneously  published  at  Geneva  and  Ziirich, 
1551 ;  French  ed.  L'accord  passe',  etc.,  Gen.,  1551.  In  Opera,  VII.  089-748. 
The  Latin  text  also  in  Niemeyer's  Collectio  Con/.,  pp.  191-217.  A  German 
translation  {Die  Ziiricher  Uebereinkunft')  in  Bickel's  Bekenntnissschriften 
der  evang.  reform.  Kirche,  pp.  173-181.  Comp.  the  correspondence  of 
Calvin  with  BuUinger,  Farel,  etc.,  concerning  the  Consensus. — Calvin's 
polemical  writings  against  Joachim  Westphal,  namely,  Defensio  sanoi  et 
orthodoxcE  doctrince  de  sacramentis,  Geneva,  1554,  Ziirich,  1555;  Secunda 
Defensio  .  .  .  contra  Westphali  calumnias.  Gen.,  1556;  and  Ultima  Admo- 
nitio  ad  Westphalum,  Gen.,  1557.  In  Opera,  IX.  1-120,  137-252.  Lastly, 
his  book  against  Tilemann  Hesshus  (Ilesshusen),  Dilucida  Explicatio  sancn 
doctrince  de  vera  participutione  carnis  et  sanguinis  Christi  in  sacra  Coena,  ad 
discutiendas  Heshusii  nebulas,  Gen.,  1561.  In  Oy^rra,  IX.  457-524.  (In  the 
Amsterdam  ed.,  Tom.  IX.  648-723.)  Klebiz  of  Heidelberg,  Beza,  and 
Pierre  Boquin  also  took  part  in  the  controversy  with  Hesshus. 

II.  For  a  comparative  statement  of  the  eucharistic  views  of  Luther,  Zwingli, 
and  Calvin,  see  this  History,  vol.  VI.  669-682 ;  and  Creeds  of  Christendom, 
I.  455  sqq. ;  471  sqq.  Calvin's  doctrine  has  been  fully  set  forth  by 
Ebrard  in  his  Dogma  v.  heil.  Abendmahl,  II.  402-525,  and  by  Nevin  in 
his  Mi/.stiral  Presrnre,  Philad.,  1846,  pp.  54-67 ;  and  in  the  "  Mercersburg 
Review"  for  September,  1850,  pp.  421-548  (against  Dr.  Hodge  in  the 
"Princeton  Review"  for  1848).  Comp.  also  §§  132-134  below;  Henry, 
P.  I.  ch.  XIII.;  and  Stahelin,  II.  189  sqq. 


§  117.  THE  lord's  supper.  589 

In  the  eucliaristic  controversy,  which  raged  with  such 
fury  in  the  age  of  the  Reformation,  and  was  the  chief  cause 
of  separation  in  its  ranks,  Calvin  consistently  occupied  from 
the  beginning  to  the  end  the  position  of  a  mediator  and 
peacemaker  between  the  Lutherans  and  Zwinglians,  between 
Wittenberg  and  Ziirich. 

The  way  for  a  middle  theory  was  prepared  by  the  Tetra- 
politan  or  Swabian  Confession,  drawn  up  by  Martin  Bucer, 
a  born  compromiser,  during  the  Diet  of  Augsburg,  1630,i  and 
by  the  Wittenberg  Concordia,  1536,  which  for  a  while  satis- 
fied the  Lutherans,  but  was  justly  rejected  by  the  Swiss. 

Calvin  published  his  theory  in  its  essential  features  in  the 
first  edition  of  the  Institutes  (1536),  more  fully  in  the  second 
edition  (1539),  then  in  a  special  tract  written  at  Strassburg. 
He  defended  it  in  various  publications,  and  adhered  to  it 
with  his  usual  firmness.  It  was  accepted  by  the  Reformed 
Churches,  and  never  rejected  by  Luther;  on  the  contrary, 
he  is  reported  to  have  spoken-  highly  of  Calvin's  tract,  De 
Coena  Domini.,  when  he  got  hold  of  a  Latin  copy  in  1545» 
a  year  before  his  death.^ 

Calvin  approached  the  subject  with  a  strong  sense  of  the 
myster}^  of  the  vital  union  of  Christ  with  the  believer,  which 
is  celebrated  in  the  eucharist.  "I  exhort  my  readers,"  he 
says,  in  the  last  edition  of  his  Institutes^  "  to  rise  much  higher 
than  I  am  able  to  conduct  them ;  for  as  to  myself,  whenever 
I  handle  this  subject,  after  having  endeavored  to  say  every- 
thing, I  am  conscious  of  having  said  but  very  little  in  com- 
parison with  its  excellence.  And  though  the  conceptions 
of  the  mind  can  far  exceed  the  expressions  of  the  tongue ; 
yet,  with  the  magnitude  of  the  subject,  the  mind   itself   is 

1  Ch.  XVIII.     See  vol.  VI.  720. 

2  See  vol.  VI.  660.  But  Luther  never  gave  up  his  dislike  of  Zwingli ;  and 
in  one  of  his  last  letters,  in  which  he  describes  himself  as  "  iii/elicissimus  om- 
nium hominum,"  he  wrote :  "  Blessed  is  the  man  that  walketh  not  in  the  counsel 
of  the  Sacramenlnrians,  nor  standeth  in  the  way  of  the  Zwinglians,  nor  sitteth 
in  the  seat  of  the  Zurichers."     De  Wette,  V.  778. 


590         THE   REFORMATION  IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

oppressed  and  overwhelmed.  Nothing  remains  for  me,  there- 
fore, but  to  break  forth  in  admiration  of  that  mystery,  which 
the  mind  is  unable  clearly  to  understand,  or  the  tongue  to 
express."  ^ 

He  aimed  to  combine  the  spiritualism  of  Zwingli  with  the 
realism  of  Luther,  and  to  avoid  the  errors  of  both.  And  he 
succeeded  as  well  as  the  case  will  admit.  He  agreed  with 
Zwingli  in  the  figurative  interpretation  of  the  words  of  insti- 
tution, which  is  now  approved  by  the  best  Protestant  exe- 
getes,  and  rejected  the  idea  of  a  corporal  presence  and  oral 
participation  in  the  way  of  transubstantiation  or  consubstan- 
tiation,  which  implies  either  a  miracle  or  an  omnipresence  of 
the  body  of  Christ.  But  he  was  not  satisfied  with  a  purely 
commemorative  or  symbolical  theor}^  and  laid  the  chief 
stress  on  the  positive  side  of  an  actual  communion  with  the 
ever-living  Christ.  He  expressed  in  private  letters  the  opin- 
ion that  Zwingli  had  been  so  much  absorbed  with  overturn- 
ing the  superstition  of  a  carnal  presence  that  he  denied  or 
obscured  the  true  efficacy  of  the  sacrament.^  He  acknowl- 
edged the  mystery  of  the  real  presence  and  real  participation, 

1  Inst.  IV.  ch.  XVII.  7. 

2  He  wrote  from  Strassburg,  May  19,  1539,  to  Andre  Zebe'dee,  a  minister 
at  Orbe :  "  Nihil  fuisse  asperitatis  in  Zwinglii  doctrina,  tibi  minime  concedo. 
Siquidem  videre  promptum  est,  ut  nimiu7n  occupatus  in  evertenda  carnalis  prasen- 
tice  superstitione,  veram  communicationis  vim  ut  simul  disjecerit,  ant  certe  obscura- 
rit."  Herininjard,  V.  318.  In  the  same  letter  he  characterizes  Zwingli's 
view  Sis  falsa  et  perniciosa.  In  a  letter  to  Farel,  Feb.  27,  1540,  he  disapproves 
Ze'be'de'e's  extravagant  eulogy  of  Zwingli,  and  expresses  his  preference  for 
Luther :  "  Nam  si  inter  se  comparantur,  scis  ipse,  quanta  intervallo  Lutherus 
excellat."  But  he  disowns  any  intention  to  dishonor  his  memory.  Hermin- 
jard,  V.  191.  In  a  letter  to  Richard  du  Bois,  from  Strassburg,  1540  {ibid. 
VI.  425),  he  says,  with  evident  allusion  to  Zwingli  and  CEcolampadius,  that  he 
never  liked  the  view  of  those  who  in  "evertenda  localis  prasenlice  superstitione 
nimis  occupati,  vera  prasentice  virtutem  vel  elevabant  extenuando,  vel  subticendo  ex 
hominum  memoria  quodammodo  delebant.  Sed  est  aliquid  medium,"  etc.  In  a 
letter  to  Viret  (Sept.  3,  1542,  in  Opera,  XI.  438)  he  remarks  that  he  never 
read  all  of  Zwingli's  works,  and  hoped  that  towards  the  end  of  his  life 
he  retracted  and  corrected  what  first  had  escaped  him  carelessly,  but  "  I 
remember,  in  his  earlier  writings  how  profane  his  doctrine  of  the  sacraments 
is  (ijuam  profana  sit  ejus  de  sacramentis  doctrina) ." 


§  117.  THE  lokd's  supper.  691 

but  understood  them  spiritually  and  dynamically.  He  con- 
fined the  participation  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  to 
believers,  since  faith  is  the  only  means  of  communion  with 
Christ ;  while  Luther  extended  it  to  all  communicants,  only 
with  opposite  effects. 

The  following  is  a  brief  summary  of  his  vieAV  from  the  last 
edition  of  the  Institutes  (1569)  :  — 

After  receiving  us  into  his  family  by  baptism,  God  under- 
takes to  sustain  and  to  nourish  us  as  long  as  we  live,  and 
gives  us  a  pledge  of  his  gracious  intention  in  the  sacrament 
of  the  holy  communion.  This  is  a  spiritual  banquet,  in 
which  Christ  testifies  himself  to  be  the  bread  of  life,  to  feed 
our  souls  for  a  true  and  blessed  immortality.  The  signs  of 
bread  and  wine  represent  to  us  the  invisible  nourishment 
which  we  receive  from  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ.  They 
are  exhibited  in  a  figure  and  image,  adapted  to  our  feeble 
capacity,  and  rendered  certain  by  visible  tokens  and  pledges, 
which  the  dullest  minds  can  understand.  This  mystical 
benediction,  then,  is  designed  to  assure  us  that  the  body  of 
the  Lord  was  once  offered  as  a  sacrifice  for  us  upon  whicli 
we  may  now  feed,  and  that  his  blood  was  once  shed  for  us 
and  is  our  perpetual  drink.  ''  His  flesh  is  true  meat,  and  his 
blood  is  true  drink"  (John  6:66).  "We  are  members  of 
his  body,  of  his  flesh,  and  of  his  bones  "  (Eph.  6  :  30).  "  This 
is  a  great  mystery  "  (ver.  32),  which  can  be  admired  rather 
than  expressed.  Our  souls  are  fed  by  the  flesh  and  blood  of 
Christ,  just  as  our  corporal  life  is  preserved  and  sustained 
by  bread  and  wine.  Otherwise  there  would  be  no  propriety 
in  the  analogy  of  the  sign.  The  breaking  of  the  bread  is 
indeed  symbolical,  yet  significant;  for  God  is  not  a  deceiver 
who  sets  before  us  an  empty  sign.  The  symbol  of  the  body 
assures  us  of  the  donation  of  the  invisible  substance,  so  that 
in  receiving  the  sign  we  receive  the  thing  itself.  The  thing 
signified  is  exhibited  and  offered  to  all  who  come  to  that 
spiritual  banquet,  but  it  is  advantageously  enjoyed  only  by. 
those  who  receive  it  with  true  faith  and  gratitude. 


592         THE   REFORMATION   IN  FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

Calvin  lays  great  stress  on  the  supernatural  agency  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  in  the  communion.  This  was  ignored  by  Luther 
and  Zwingli.  The  Spirit  raises  our  hearts  from  earth  to 
heaven,  as  he  does  in  every  act  of  devotion  {sursum  corda)^ 
and  he  brings  down  the  life-giving  power  of  the  exalted 
Redeemer  in  heaven,  and  thus  unites  what  is,  according  to 
our  imperfect  notions,  separated  by  local  distance.^  The 
medium  of  communication  is  faith.  Calvin  might  have  sus- 
tained his  view  by  the  old  liturgies  of  the  Oriental  Church, 
which  have  a  special  prayer  invoking  tlie  Holy  Spirit  at  the 
consecration  of  the  eucharistic  elements.^ 

He  quotes  several  passages  from  Augustin  in  favor  of  the 
spiritual  real  presence.  Ratramnus  in  the  ninth,  and  Berengar 
in  the  eleventh,  century  had  likewise  appealed  to  Augustin 
against  the  advocates  of  a  carnal  presence  and  participation.^ 

When  Luther  reopened  the  eucharistic  controversy  by  a 
fierce  attack  upon  the  Zvvinglians  (1545),  who  defended  their 
martyred  Reformer  in  a  sharp  reply,  Calvin  was  displeased 
with  both  parties,  and  labored  to  bring  about  a  reconcilia- 
tion.* He  corresponded  with  Bullinger  (the  Melanchthon 
of  the  Swiss  Church),  and,  on  his  invitation,  he  went  to 
Ziirich  with  Farel  (May,  1549).  The  delicate  negotiations 
were  carried  on  by  both  parties  with  admirable  frankness, 
moderation,  wisdom,  and  patience.  The  result  was  the 
"•  Consensus  Tigurinus,"  in  which  Calvin  states  his  doctrine 
as  nearly  as  possible  in  agreement  with  Zwingli.  This  docu- 
ment was  published  in  1551,  and  adopted  by  all  the  Reformed 
Cantons,  except  Bern,  which  cherished  a  strong  dislike  to 
Calvin's  rigorism.  It  was  also  favorably  received  in  France, 
England,  and  in  parts  of  Germany.     Melanchthon  declared 

1  See  the  passages  quoted  in  vol.  VI.  679,  note  1. 

-  The  ^TTi/cArjcris  irvev/xaTo^  ayiov.  The  Latin  liturgies  ascribe  the  power  of 
consecration  to  Christ's  words  of  institution.     See  vol.  III.  513. 

3  See  vol.  IV.  549  sqq.  and  564  sqq.  Calvin  refers  to  the  Berengar  con- 
troversy. 

*  See  his  letter  to  Bullinger,  quoted  in  vol.  VI.  661. 


§  117.  THE  lord's  supper.  693 

to  Lavater  (Bullinger's  son-in-law)  that  he  then  for  the  first 
time  understood  the  Swiss,  and  would  never  again  oppose 
them ;  but  he  struck  out  the  clause  of  the  "  Consensus " 
which  confined  the  efficacy  of  the  sacrament  to  the  elect. 

But  while  the  "■  Consensus  "  brought  peace  to  the  Swiss 
Churches,  and  satisfied  the  Melanchthonians,  it  was  assailed 
by  Westphal  and  Hesshus,  who  out-luthered  Luther  in  zeal 
and  violence,  and  disturbed  the  last  years  of  Melanchthon 
and  Calvin.  We  shall  discuss  this  controversy  in  the  next 
chapter. 

The  Calvinistic  theory  of  the  Eucharist  passed  into  all 
the  Reformed  Confessions,  and  is  very  strongly  stated  in  the 
Heidelberg  Catechism  (1563),  the  chief  symbol  of  the  Ger- 
man and  Dutch  Reformed  Churches.^  In  practice,  however, 
it  has,  among  Presbyterians,  Congregationalists,  and  Baptists, 
largely  given  way  to  the  Zwinglian  view,  which  is  more 
plain  and  intelligible,  but  ignores  the  mystical  element  in 
the  holy  communion. 

1  Questions  76,  78,  79.  Comp.  Westminster  Confession,  ch.  XXIX.  7,  and 
Westminster  Larger  Catechism,  qu.  170. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

THEOLOGICAL   CONTROVERSIES. 

§  118.    Calvin  as  a  Controversialist. 

Calvin  was  involved  in  several  controversies,  chiefly  on 
account  of  his  doctrine  of  predestination.  He  displayed  a 
decided  superiority  over  all  his  opponents,  as  a  scholar  and 
a  reasoner.  He  was  never  at  a  loss  for  an  argument.  He 
had  also  the  dangerous  gift  of  wit,  irony,  and  sarcasm, 
but  not  the  more  desirable  gift  of  harmless  humor,  which 
sweetens  the  bitterness  of  controversy,  and  lightens  the 
burden  of  daily  toil.  Like  David,  in  the  imprecatory  Psalms, 
he  looked  upon  the  enemies  of  his  doctrine  as  enemies  of 
God.  "Even  a  dog  barks,"  he  wrote  to  the  queen  of  Navarre, 
"  when  his  master  is  attacked ;  how  could  I  be  silent  when 
the  honor  of  my  Lord  is  assailed? "^  He  treated  his  oppo- 
nents—  Pighius,  Bolsec,  Castellio,  and  Servetus — with  sov- 
ereign contempt,  and  called  them  '•'•  nehulones^^  nugatores, 
canes,  porci,  bestioe.  Such  epithets  are  like  weeds  in  the 
garden  of  his  chaste  and  elegant  style.  But  they  were  freely 
used  b}--  the  ancient  fathers,  with  the  exception  of  Chrysos- 
tom  and  Augustin,  in  dealing  with  heretics,  and  occur  even 

1  This  characteristic  expression  he  uses  repeatedly ;  for  instance,  in  the 
work  on  the  Necessity  of  Reforming  the  Church,  in  Opera,  VI.  503 :  "  Cam's, 
si  (jnam  suo  domino  violentiam  inferri  viderit,  protinus  latrabit  :  nos  tot  sacrilegiis 
violari  sacrum  Dei  nomen  taciti  aspiceremus?  Et  xibi  esset  illud :  Opprobria  expro- 
bantium  tibi  ceciderittit  super  me  (Ps.  69:9)?"  And,  again  in  the  same  book 
(fol.  507),  with  the  addition,  that  a  dog  would  rather  risk  his  life  than  be  silent. 

■^  In  applying  the  epithet  nebulo  to  Castellio,  he  translates  it  by  the  French 
un  brouillon,  which   means   a   confused  and  turbulent  fellow   (not  a  scamp). 
Schweizer  renders  it  Wirrkopf  (I.  212). 
594 


§  119.    CALVIN    AND   PIGHIUS.  695 

in  the  Scriptures,  but  impersonally.^  His  age  saw  nothing 
improper  in  them.  Beza  says  that  "  no  expression  unwortliy 
of  a  good  man  ever  fell  from  the  lips  of  Calvin."  The  taste 
of  the  sixteenth  century  differed  widely  from  that  of  the 
nineteenth.  The  polemical  writings  of  Protestants  and 
Ilomanists  alike  abound  in  the  most  violent  personalities  and 
coarse  abuse.  Luther  wielded  the  club  of  Hercules  acrainst 
Tetzel,  Eck,  Emser,  Cochlffius,  Henry  VIH.,  Duke  Henry  of 
Brunswick,  and  the  Sacramentarians.  Yet  there  were  hon- 
orable exceptions  even  then,  as  Melanchthon  and  Bullinger. 
A  fiery  temper  is  a  propelling  force  in  history ;  nothing 
great  can  be  done  without  enthusiasm ;  moral  indignation 
against  wrong  is  inseparable  from  devotion  to  what  is  right ; 
hatred  is  the  negative  side  of  love.  But  temper  must  be 
controlled  by  reason,  and  truth  should  be  spoken  in  love, 
"  with  malice  to  none,  with  charity  for  all."  Opprobrious 
and  abusive  terms  always  hurt  a  good  cause ;  self-restraint 
and  moderation  strengthen  it.  Understatement  commands 
assent ;  overstatement  provokes  opposition. 

§  119.    Calvin  and  Pighius. 

I.  Albertus  PiGHiDS :  De  libera  hominis  arhitrio  et  divina  gratia  libri  decern. 

Colonias,  1542,  mense  Augusto.  Dedicated  to  Cardinal  Sadolet.  He 
wrote  also  Assertio  hierarchic  ecclesiasticce,  a  complete  defence  of  the 
Roman  Church,  dedicated  to  Pope  Paul  III.,  1538. 
Calviv  :  Defensio  sancn  et  orthodoxce  doctrime  de  servitute  et  liheratione  humani 
arbitrii  ndversus  calumnias  Alberti  Pighii  Campensis.  With  a  preface  to 
Melanchthon.  Geneva,  1543.  In  Opera,  VI.  225-404.  (Amsterdam  ed. 
t.  VIII.  116  sqq.)     The  same  in  French,  Geneva,  1560. 

II.  Bayle:  Art.  Pighius,  in  his  "Diet,  hist."  — Henry,  II.  285  sqq.  (English 
trans.  I.  492  sqq.).  —  Dyer  (1850),  pp.  158-165.  —  Schweizer:  Die  protest. 
Centraldogmen  (1854),  I.  180-200.  Very  satisfactory.  —  Werner  (R. 
Cath.)  :  Geschichte  der  apologetischen  und  polemischen  Liieratur  der  christl. 
Theologie  (1865),  IV.  272  sq.  and  298.  Superficial.  —  Stahelin,  II.  281- 
287.  —  Prolegomena  to  Calvin's  Opera,  VI.  pp.  XXIII.-XXV. 

As  Erasmus  had  attacked  Luther's  doctrine  on  the  slavery 
of  the  human  will,  and  provoked  Luther's  crushing  reply, 

1  Isa.  56  :  10 ;  Matt.  7:6;  Phil.  3:2;  Rev.  22  :  15. 


596         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Albert  Pigliius  attacked  Luther  and  chiefly  Calvin  on  the 
same  vulnerable  point. 

Pighius  (or  Pigghe)  of  Campen  in  Holland,  educated  at 
Louvain  and  Cologne,  and  a  pupil  of  Pope  Adrian  VI.,  v^^hom 
he  followed  to  Rome,  was  a  learned  and  eloquent  divine  and 
deputed  on  various  missions  by  Clement  VII.  and  Paul  III. 
He  may  have  seen  Calvin  at  the  Colloquies  in  Worms  and 
Ratisbon.  He  died  as  canon  and  archdeacon  of  Utrecht, 
Dec.  26,  1542,  a  few  months  after  the  publication  of  his 
book  against  Calvin  and  the  other  Reformers.  Beza  calls 
him  the  first  sophist  of  the  age,  who,  by  gaining  a  victory 
over  Calvin,  hoped  to  attain  to  a  cardinal's  hat.  But  it  is 
wrong  to  judge  of  motives  without  evidence.  His  retirement 
to  Utrecht  could  not  promote  such  ambition.^ 

Pighius  represents  the  dogma  of  the  slavery  of  the  human 
will,  and  of  the  absolute  necessity  of  all  that  happens,  as  the 
cardinal  error  of  the  Reformation,  and  charges  it  with  leading 
to  complete  moral  indifference.  He  wrote  ten  books  against 
it.  In  the  first  six  books,  he  defends  the  doctrine  of  free-will ; 
in  the  last  four  books,  he  discusses  divine  grace,  foreknowl- 
edge, predestination,  and  providence,  and,  last,  the  Scripture 
jjassages  on  these  subjects.  He  teaches  the  Semi-Pelagian 
theory  with  some  Pelagian  features,  and  declares  that  "  our 
works  are  meritorious  before  God."  After  the  Synod  of 
Trent  had  more  carefully  guarded  the  doctrine  of  justification 
against  Semi-Pelagianism,  the  Spanish  Inquisition  placed  his 
book,  De  libero  arbitrio,  and  his  tract,  De  peecato  originally 
on  the  Index,  and  Cardinal  Bona  recommended  caution  in 
reading  them,  since  he  did  not  always  present  the  reliable 

^  Henry  says  (II.  289)  that  Pighius  was  converted  by  Calvin's  argument, 
but  he  died  (December,  1542)  before  Calvin's  reply  was  published  (February, 
1543).  The  story  rests  on  the  authority  of  Crakanthorpe,  who  asserts,  in  his 
Defensio  Ecclesice  Anglicame,  that  Pighius  by  reading  Calvin's  Institutes  for  the 
purpose  of  refuting  them,  became  himself  a  Calvinist  in  one  of  the  chief 
articles  of  faith  (he  does  not  say  which).  The  story  has  been  long  ago 
rejected  by  Gerdesius,  Hist.  Evang.  Renovati,  III.  §  50.     Comp.  Dyer,  p.  160. 


§  119.    CALVIN   AND   PIGHIUS.  597 

orthodox  doctrine.  Pighius  was  not  ashamed  to  copy,  with- 
out acknowledgment,  whole  pages  from  Calvin's  Institutes, 
where  it  suited  his  purpose.  Calvin  calls  him  a  plagiarist, 
and  says,  "  With  what  right  he  publishes  such  sections  as  his 
own,  I  cannot  see,  unless  he  claims,  as  enemy,  the  privilege 
of  plunder." 

The  arguments  of  Pigliius  against  the  doctrine  of  the 
slavery  of  the  human  will  are  these :  It  contradicts  common 
sense;  it  is  inconsistent  with  the  admitted  freedom  of  will 
in  civil  and  secular  matters;  it  destroys  all  morality  and 
discipline,  turns  men  into  animals  and  monsters,  makes  God 
the  author  of  sin,  and  perverts  his  justice  into  cruelty,  and 
his  wisdom  into  foll3^  He  derives  these  heresies  from  the 
ancient  Gnostics  and  Simon  Magus,  except  that  Luther  sur- 
passed them  all  in  impiety. 

Calvin's  answer  was  written  in  about  two  months,  and 
amidst  many  interruptions.  He  felt  the  weight  of  the  objec- 
tions, but  he  always  marched  up  to  the  cannon's  mouth.  He 
admits,  incidentally,  that  Luther  often  used  hyperbolical  ex- 
pressions in  order  to  rouse  attention.  He  also  allows  the 
llherum  arhitrium  in  the  sense  that  man  acts  voluntarily  and 
of  his  inner  impulse.^  But  he  denies  that  man,  without  the 
assistance  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  has  the  power  to  choose  what  is 
spiritually  good,  and  quotes  Rom.  6  :  17  ;  7  :  14,  23.  "Man  has 
arhitrium  sp07itaneum,  so  that  he  willingly  and  by  choice  does 
evil,  without  compulsion  from  without,  and,  therefore,  he 
incurs  guilt.  But,  owing  to  native  depravity,  his  will  is  so 
given  to  sin  that  it  always  chooses  evil.  Hence  spontaneity 
and  enslavement  may  exist  together.  The  voluntas  is  sponta- 
nea, but  not  libera;  it  is  not  coacta,  yet  serva.^^  This  is  an 
anticipation  of  the  artificial  distinction  between  natural  ability 
and  moral  inability  —  a  distinction  which  is  practically  use- 
less. As  regards  the  teaching  of  the  early  Church,  he  could 
not  deny  that  the  Fathers,  especially  Origen,  exalt  the  free- 

1   Sponte  et  lihenter,  interiore  ehctionis  motu. 


698         THE   REFORMATION    IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

dom  of  the  will ;  but  he  could  claim  Augustin  in  his  later 
writiiifs,  in  which  he  retracted  his  earlier  advocacy  of  free- 
dom.  The  objection  that  the  slavery  of  the  will  nullifies 
the  exhortations  to  repent,  would  be  valid,  if  God  did  not 
make  them  effective  by  his  Spirit. 

The  reply  of  Calvin  to  Pighius  is  more  cautious  and 
guarded  than  Luther's  reply  to  Erasmus,  and  more  churchly 
than  Zwingli's  tract  on  Providence.  In  defending  himself, 
he  defended  what  was  then  the  common  Protestant  doctrine, 
in  opposition  to  the  then  prevailing  Pelagianism  in  the 
Roman  Church.  It  had  a  good  effect  upon  the  Council  of 
Trent,  which  distinctly  disowned  the  Pelagian  and  Semi- 
Pelagian  heresy.^ 

Calvin  dedicated  his  book  to  Melanchthon,  as  a  friend  wdio 
had  agreed  with  him  and  had  advised  him  to  write  against 
Pisfhius,  if  he  should  attack  the  Reformation.  But  Melanch- 
thon,  who  had  taught  the  same  doctrine,  was  at  that  time 
undergoing  a  change  in  his  views  on  the  freedom  of  the  will, 
chiefly  because  he  felt  that  the  denial  of  it  would  make  God 
the  author  of  sin,  and  destroy  man's  moral  accountability .^ 
He  was  as  competent  to  appreciate  the  logical  argument  in 
favor  of  necessity,  but  he  was  more  open  to  the  force  of 
ethical  and  practical  considerations.  In  his  reply  to  Calvin's 
dedication.  May  11,  1543,  he  acknowledged  the  compliment 
paid  to  him,  but  modestly  and  delicately  intimated  his  dis- 
sent and  his  desire  that  Protestants  should  unite  in  the 
defence  of  those  more  important  doctrines,  which  commended 
themselves  by  their  simplicity  and  practical  usefulness.  "  I 
wish,"  he  says,  "you  would  transfer  your  eloquence  to  the 
adorning  of  these  momentous  subjects,  by  which  our  friends 
would  be  strengthened,  our  enemies  terrified,  and  the  weak 
encouraged ;  for  who  in  these  days  possesses  a  more  forcible 

1  See  the  remarks  of  Schweizer  on  the  value  of  this  controversy,  I.e.,  1. 198. 

2  The  successive  changes  are  marked  in  the  editions  of  his  Loci  Theologici, 
1525,  1535,  1544,  1548.     See  above,  p.  548. 


§  120.    THE   ANTI-PAPAL   WRITINGS.  699 

or  splendid  style  of  disputation?  ...  I  do  not  write  this 
letter  to  dictate  to  you  who  are  so  learned  a  man,  and  so 
well  versed  in  all  the  exercises  of  piety.  I  am  persuaded, 
indeed,  that  it  agrees  with  your  sentiments,  though  less 
subtle  and  more  adapted  for  use."  ^ 

Calvin  intended  to  answer  the  second  part  of  the  work  of 
Pighius,  but  as  he  learned  that  he  had  died  shortly  before, 
he  did  not  wish  "to  insult  a  dead  dog"  (!),  and  applied 
himself  "  to  other  pursuits."  ^  But  nine  years  afterwards  he 
virtually  answered  it  in  the  Consetisus  Gienevensis  (1552), 
which  may  be  considered  as  the  second  part  of  his  refutation 
of  Pighius,  although  it  was  occasioned  by  the  controversy 
with  Bolsec. 

§  120.     The  Anti-Papal   Writings.     Criticisin  of  the  Council 
of  Trent.     1547. 

I.  Most  of  Calvin's  anti-papal  writings  are  printed  in  Opera,  Tom.  VI.     (In 

the  Amsterdam  ed.,  Tom.  IX.  37-90;  99-335  and  409-485.)  An  English 
translation  in  vols.  I.  and  III.  of  Tracts  relating  to  the  Reformation  by  John 
Calvin,  translated  from  the  original  Latin  by  Henry  Beveridge,  Esq.  Edin- 
burgh (Calvin  Translation  Society),  1844  and  1851. 

II.  Acta    Synodi    Tridentime  cum  antidoto.     In   Opera,  VII.  365-506.     Comp. 
Schweizer,  I.  239-249;  Dyer,  p.  229  sq. ;  Stiihelin,  II.  255  sqq. 

Calvin's  anti-papal  writings  are  numerous.  Among  them  his 
Answer  to  Cardinal  Sadolet  (1540),  and  his  Plea  for  the  Ne- 
cessity of  the  Reformation,  addressed  to  Emperor  Charles  V. 

1  "  Et  quidem  scio,  hwc  cum  tuis  congruere,  sed  sunt  irax'^T^pci,  et  ad  usum 
accommodata."  He  also  refers  to  Basil's  saying:  fiSfov  de\r}crou,  Kal  6ihs  -rrpoa- 
iravTa.  Calvin's  Opera,  XI.  539-542.  Melanchthon's  letters  are  usually  inter- 
spersed with  Greek  words  and  sentences. 

■■2  Cons.  Genev.  :  "  Paulo  post  librum  editum,  moritur  Pighius.  Ergo  ne  cani 
tnortito  insultarem,  ad  alias  lucuhrationes  me  converti."  He  characterizes  Pighius 
as  a  "homo  phrenettca  plane  audacia  prceditus,"  because  he  attempted  to  estab- 
lish the  freedom  of  man,  and  to  overthrow  the  secret  counsel  of  God,  by  wiiitli 
he  elects  some  to  salvation  and  others  to  eternal  ruin  {alios  a'terno  exitio 
destinat).  It  is  no  excuse  for  Calvin's  insulting  language  on  a  dead  enemy 
that  St.  Jerome  said  of  his  former  friend  Kufinus :  "The  scorpion  now  lies 
under  ground !  "     Among  polemic  theologians  charity  is  a  great  rarity. 


t)UO         THE   KEFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

(1544),  deserve  the  first  place.  They  are  superior  in  ability 
and  force  to  any  similar  works  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
They  have  been  sufficiently  noticed  in  previous  sections.^ 
I  will  only  add  the  manly  conclusion  of  the  Plea  to  the 
Emperor :  — 

"But  be  the  issue  what  it  may,  we  will  never  repent  of  liaving  begun,  and 
of  having  proceeded  thus  far.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  a  faithful  and  unerring 
witness  to  our  doctrine.  We  know,  I  say,  tiiat  it  is  the  eternal  truth  of  God 
that  we  preach.  We  are,  indeed,  desirous,  as  we  ought  to  be,  that  our  min- 
istry may  prove  salutary  to  the  world ;  but  to  give  it  tliis  effect  belongs  to 
God,  not  to  us.  If,  to  punish,  partly  the  ingratitude,  and  partly  the  stubborn- 
ness of  those  to  whom  we  desire  to  do  good,  success  must  prove  desperate, 
and  all  things  go  to  worse,  I  will  say  what  it  befits  a  Christian  man  to  say, 
and  wliat  all  who  are  true  to  this  holy  profession  will  subscribe :  We  will  die, 
but  in  death  even  be  conquerors,  not  only  because  through  it  we  shall  have 
a  sure  passage  to  a  better  life,  but  because  we  know  that  our  blood  will  be  as 
seed  to  propagate  the  Divine  truth  of  which  men  now  despise." 

Next  to  these  books  in  importance  is  his  criticism  of  the 
Council  of  Trent,  published  in  November,  1547. 

The  Council  of  Trent,  which  was  to  heal  the  divisions  of 
Western  Christendom,  convened  after  long  delay,  Dec.  13, 
1545 ;  then  adjourned,  convened  again,  and  finally  closed, 
Dec.  4,  1563,  a  few  months  before  Calvin's  death.  In  the 
fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth  sessions  (1546),  it  settled  the  burning 
questions  of  the  rule  of  faith,  original  sin,  and  justification, 
in  favor  of  the  present  Roman  system  and  against  the  views 
of  the  Reformers.  The  Council  avoided  the  ill-dissfuised 
Pelagianism  and  Semi-Pelagianism  of  Eck,  Pighius,  and  other 
earl}'^  champions  of  Rome,  and  worded  its  decrees  with  great 
caution  and  circumspection  ;  but  it  decidedly  condemned  the 
Protestant  doctrines  of  the  supremacy  of  the  Bible,  the 
slavery  of  the  natural  will,  and  justification  by  faith  alone. 

Calvin  was  the  first  to  take  up  the  pen  against  these  decis- 
ions. He  subjected  them  to  a  searching  criticism.  He 
admits,  in  the  introduction,  that  a  Council  might  be  of  great 
use  and  restore  the  peace  of  Christendom,  provided  it  be 
1  See  pp.  398-413 ;  452-466. 


§  120.    THE   ANTI-PAPAL   WRITINGS.  601 

truly  cecumenical,  impartial,  and  free.  But  he  denies  that 
the  Council  of  Trent  had  these  essential  characteristics. 
The  Greek  and  the  Evangelical  Churches  were  not  repre- 
sented at  all.  It  was  a  purely  Roman  Council,  and  under 
the  control  of  the  pope,  who  was  himself  the  chief  offender, 
and  far  more  disposed  to  perpetuate  abuses  than  to  abolish 
them.  The  members,  only  about  forty,  mostly  Italians,  were 
not  distinguished  for  learning  or  piety,  but  were  a  set  of  wran- 
gling monks  and  canonists  and  minions  of  the  pope.  They 
gave  merely  a  nod  of  assent  to  the  living  oracle  of  the 
Vatican,  and  then  issued  the  decrees  as  responses  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  "  As  soon  as  a  decree  is  framed,"  he  says,  "  couriers 
flee  off  to  Rome,  and  beg  pardon  and  peace  at  the  feet  of 
their  idol.  The  holy  father  hands  over  what  the  couriers 
have  brought  to  his  private  advisers  for  examination.  They 
curtail,  add,  and  change  as  they  please.  The  couriers  return, 
and  a  sederunt  is  appointed.  The  notary  reads  over  what 
no  one  dares  to  disapprove,  and  the  asses  shake  their  ears  in 
assent.  Behold  the  oracle  which  imj)oses  religious  obligations 
on  the  whole  world.  .  .  .  The  proclamation  of  the  Council 
is  entitled  to  no  more  weight  than  the  cry  of  an  auctioneer." 

Calvin  dissects  the  decrees  with  his  usual  polemic  skill. 
He  first  states  them  in  the  words  of  the  Council,  and  then 
gives  the  antidote.  He  exposes  the  errors  of  the  Vulgate, 
which  the  Council  put  on  a  par  with  the  original  Hebrew 
and  Greek  originals,  and  defends  the  supremacy  of  the  Scrip- 
tures and  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith. 

He  wrote  this  work  in  two  or  three  months,  under  constant 
interruption,  while  Chemnitz  took  ten  years  to  complete  his. 
He  submitted  the  manuscript  to  Farel,  who  was  delighted 
with  it.  He  published  also  a  French  edition  in  a  more  popu- 
lar form. 

Cochlfeus  prepared,  with  much  personal  bitterness,  a  refu- 
tation of  Calvin  (1548),  and  was  answered  by  Des  Gallars,i 

^  Apologia  Calvini  contra  Cochhvxiui. 


602         THE   EEFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

and    Beza,  who  numbers  Coclileeus  among  the  monsters  of 
the  animal  kingdom. ^ 

After  the  close  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  Martin  Chemnitz, 
the  leading  divine  of  the  Lutheran  Church  after  the  death 
of  Melanchthon,  wrote  his  more  elaborate  Examen  Concilii 
Ti'identini  (1565-1573;  second  ed.  1585),  which  was  for  a 
long  time  a  standard  work  in  the  Roman  controversy. 

§  121.    Against  the  G-erman  Interim.     1549. 

Interim  Adultero-Gerinanum  :  Cui  adjecta  est  vera  Christiana  pacificationis  et 
ecclesim  reformandie  ratio.,  per  Joannem  Calvinum.  Cavete  a  fermento 
Pharisceorum,  1549.  Opera,  VII.  541-674.  —  It  was  reprinted  in  Germany, 
and  translated  into  French  (1549)  and  Italian  (1561).  See  Henry,  II. 
369  sqq.;  III.  Beilage,  211  sq. ;  Dyer,  232  sq. 

On  the  Interim,  comp.  the  German  Histories  of  Ranke  (V.  25  sqq.)  and 
Janssen  (III.  625  sqq.),  and  the  monograph  of  Ludwig  Pastor  (Rom. 
Cath.)  :  Die  kirchlichen  Reunionsbestrebungen  wdhrend  der  Regierung  Karls 
V.     Freiburg,  1879,  pp.  357  sqq. 

Calvin's  tract  on  the  false  German  Interim  is  closely  con- 
nected with  his  criticism  of  the  Council  of  Trent.  After 
defeating  the  Smalkaldian  League,  the  Emperor  imposed  on 
the  Protestants  in  Germany  a  compromise  confession  of 
faith  to  be  used  till  the  final  decision  of  the  General  Council. 
It  was  drawn  up  by  two  Roman  Catholic  bishops,  Pflug  (an 
Erasmian)  and  Helding,  with  the  aid  of  John  Agricola,  the 
chaplain  of  Elector  Joachim  II.  of  Brandenburg.  Agricola 
was  a  vain,  ambitious,  and  unreliable  man,  who  had  once 
been  a  secretary  and  table  companion  of  Luther,  but  fell  out 
with  him  and  Melanchthon  in  the  Antinomian  controversy. 
He  was  suspected  of  having  been  bribed  by  the  Catholics.^ 

The  agreement  was  laid  before  the  Diet  of  Auo-sbursf,  and 

1  Brevis  et  utilis  zoographia  Joh.  Cochkei,  1549.  Reprinted  in  Banni's  Beza, 
I.  357-363. 

"  The  Emperor  presented  him  with  fifty  crowns  ;  King  Ferdinand,  with  five 
hundred  tlialer.  Janssen,  III.  625.  Comp.  G.  Kawerau  (a  specialist  in  the 
history  of  the  Lutheran  Reformation),  Johann  Agricola  von  Eisleben,  Berlin, 
1881. 


§  1'21.    AGAINST   THE   GERMAN  INTElilM.      1549.         603 

is  called  the  Augsbuhg  Interim.  It  was  pioclainied,  with 
ail  earnest  exhortation,  by  the  Emperor,  May  15,  1548.  It 
comprehended  the  whole  Roman  Catholic  system  of  doctrine 
and  discipline,  but  in  a  mild  and  conciliatory  form,  and 
without  an  express  condemnation  of  the  Protestant  views. 
The  doctrine  of  justification  was  stated  in  substantial  agree- 
ment with  that  of  the  Council  of  Trent.  The  seven  sacra- 
ments, transubstantiation,  the  mass,  the  invocation  of  the 
saints,  the  authority  of  the  pope,  and  all  the  important  cere- 
monies, were  to  be  retained.  The  only  concession  made  to 
the  Protestants  was  the  use  of  the  cup  by  the  laity  in  the  holy 
communion,  and  the  permission  for  married  priests  to  retain 
their  wives.  The  arrangement  suited  the  views  of  the 
Emperor,  who,  as  Ranke  remarks,  wished  to  uphold  the 
Catholic  hierarchy  as  the  basis  of  his  power,  and  yet  to  make 
it  possible  for  Protestants  to  be  reconciled  to  him.  It  is  very 
evident  that  the  adoption  of  such  a  confession  was  a  virtual 
surrender  of  the  cause  of  the  Reformation  and  would  have 
ended  in  a  triumph  of  the  papacy. 

The  Interim  was  received  with  great  indignation  by  the 
Protestants,  and  was  rejected  in  Hesse,  ducal  Saxony,  and 
the  Northern  cities,  especially  in  Madgeburg,  which  became 
the  headquarters  of  the  irreconcilable  Lutherans  under  the 
lead  of  Flacius.  In  Southern  Germany  it  was  enforced  with 
great  rigor  by  Spanish  soldiers.  More  than  four  hundred 
pastors  i*n  Swabia  and  on  the  Rhine  were  expelled  from  their 
benefices  for  refusing  the  Interim,  and  wandered  about  with 
their  families  in  poverty  and  misery.  Among  them  was 
Brenz,  the  Reformer  of  Wiirtemburg,  who  fled  to  Basel, 
where  he  received  a  consolitary  letter  from  Calvin  (Nov.  5, 
1548).  Martin  Bucer,  with  all  his  zeal  for  Christian  union, 
was  unwilling  to  make  a  compromise  at  the  expense  of  his 
conscience,  and  fled  from  Strassburg  to  England,  where  he 
was  appointed  professor  of  divinity  in  the  University  of 
Cambridge. 


604         THE    KEFOflMATlON    IN    EllENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

It  was  forbidden  under  pain  of  death  to  write  against  the 
Interim.  Nevertheless,  over  thirty  attacks  appeared  from 
the  "Chancellery  of  God"  at  Magdeburg.  Bullinger  and 
Calvin  wrote  against  it. 

Calvin  published  the  imperial  proclamation  and  the  text 
of  the  Interim  in  full,  and  then  gave  his  reasons  why  it  could 
never  bring  peace  to  the  Church.  He  begins  with  a  quota- 
tion from  Hilary  in  the  Arian  controversy :  "  Specious 
indeed  is  the  name  of  peace,  and  fair  the  idea  of  unity;  but 
who  doubts  that  the  only  peace  of  the  Church  is  that  which 
is  of,  Christ?"  This  is  the  key-note  of  his  own  exposition 
on  the  true  method  of  the  pacification  of  Christendom. 

Elector  Maurice  of  Saxony,  who  stood  between  two  fires, 
—  his  Lutheran  subjects  and  the  Emperor,  —  modified  the 
Augsburg  Interim,  with  the  aid  of  Melanchthon  and  the 
other  theologians  of  Wittenberg,  and  substituted  for  it 
the  Leipzig  Interim,  Dec.  22,  1548.  In  this  document  the 
chief  articles  of  faith  are  more  cautiously  worded  so  as  to 
admit  of  an  evangelical  interpretation,  but  the  Roman  cere- 
monies are  retained,  as  adiaphora^  or  things  indifferent,  which 
do  not  compromise  the  conscience  nor  endanger  salvation. 
It  gave  rise  to  the  Adiaphoristic  Controversy  between  the 
strict  and  the  moderate  Lutherans.  Melanchthon  was  placed 
in  a  most  trying  position  in  the  midst  of  the  contest.  In  the 
sincere  wish  to  save  Protestantism  from  utter  overthrow  and 
Saxony  from  invasion  and  desolation  by  imperial  troops,  he 
yielded  to  the  pressure  of  the  courtiers  and  accepted  the 
Leipzig  Interim  in  the  hope  of  better  times.  For  this  con- 
duct he  was  severely  attacked  by  Flacius,  his  former  pupil, 
and  denounced  as  a  traitor.  When  Calvin  heard  the  news, 
he  wrote  an  earnest  letter  of  fraternal  rebuke  to  Melanch- 
thon, and  reminded  him  of  Paul's  unyielding  firmness  at  the 
Synod  of  Jerusalem  on  the  question  of  circumcision.^ 

1  Letter  of  July  18,  1550,  quoted  in  §  90,  pp.  395  sq.  Dyer  decidedly 
defends  Melanchthon  in  this  adiaphoristic  controversy,  and  makes  the  follow- 


§  122.    AGAINST   THE   WORSHIP   OF   RELICS.      1543.         605 

Protestantism  in  Germany  was  brought  to  the  brink  of 
ruin,  but  was  delivered  from  it  by  the  treason  of  the  Elector 
Maurice.  This  shrewd,  selfish  politician  and  master  in  the 
art  of  dissimulation,  had  fust  betrayed  the  Protestants,  by 
aiding  the  Emperor  in  the  defeat  of  the  Smalkaldian  League, 
whereby  he  gained  the  electorate ;  and  then  he  rose  in  rebellion 
against  the  Emperor  and  drove  him  and  the  Fathers  of  Trent 
out  of  Tyrol  (1551).  He  died  in  1553  of  a  deadly  wound 
which  he  received  in  a  victorious  battle  against  his  old  friend 
Albrecht  of  Brandenburg.^ 

The  final  result  of  the  defeat  of  the  Emperor  was  the 
Augsburg  Treaty  of  Peace,  1555,  which  for  the  first  time 
gave  to  the  Lutherans  a  legal  status  in  the  empire,  though 
with  certain  restrictions.  This  closes  the  period  of  the 
Lutheran  Reformation. 

§  122.    Against  the  Worship  of  Relics.     1543. 

Advertissement  tres-utile  du  grand  proffit  qui  reviendroit  a  la  Glirestient€,  sHl  se 
faisoit  inventoive  de  tous  les  corps  sainctz  et  reliques,  qui  sont  tant  en  Italie 
qxi'en  France  Allemai(/ne,  Hespaigne,  et  autres  lioijaumes  et  Pai/s.  Gen., 
1543,  1544,  1551,  1563,  1579,  1599.  Reprinted  in  Opera,  VI.  405-452. 
A  Latin  edition  by  Nicolaus  Gallasius  (des  Gallars)  was  published  at 
Geneva,  1548.  It  appeared  also  in  Englisii  (^4  very  projitahle  treatise, 
etc.),  London,  1561,  and  in  two  German  translations  (by  Jakob  Eysen- 
berg  of  AVittenbcrg,  1557,  etc.,  and  by  J.  Fisciiart,  1584,  or  1583,  under 
the  title  Der  heilig  Brotkorb  der  h.  Iloniischen  Reliquien).  See  Henry,  II. 
3.33  and  III.,  Appendix,  204-206.  A  new  English  translation  by  Beve- 
ridge  in  Calvin's  Tracts  relating  to  the  Reformation,  Edinb.,  1844,  pp.  289- 
.341. 

In  the  same  year  in  which  Calvin  answered  Pighius,  he 
published  a  French  tract  on  Relics,  which  was  repeatedly 

ing  remark  (p.  240)  :  "  What  a  prospect  do  these  squabbles  hohl  out  for  the 
future  union  of  the  Protestant  Ciiurch!  A  silly  and  scandalous,  we  had 
almost  said,  a  childish,  quarrel  about  a  surplice  and  a  few  minor  ceremonies 
divides  the  Protestants  into  hostile  factions  at  the  moment  of  their  most  emi- 
nent peril !  With  such  feelings,  how  should  they  liope  in  quieter  times  to 
arrange  those  more  serious  questious,  which  turned  on  really  important  points 
of  doctrine  1 " 

1  For  a  description  of  the  character  of  Moritz,  sec  Ranke,  Deutsche  Ge- 
schichte  im  Zeitalter  der  Reformation,  vol.  V.  160  sqq.  (6th  ed.  1881). 


IjOG         the    reformation    in   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

printed  and  translated.  It  was  the  most  popular  and  effective 
of  his  anti-papal  writings.  He  indulged  here  veiy  freely  in 
his  power  of  ridicule  and  sarcasm,  which  reminds  one  almost 
of  Voltaire,  but  the  spirit  is  altogether  different.  He  begins 
with  the  following  judicious  remarks,  which  best  characterize 
the  book :  — 

"  Augustin,  in  his  work,  entitled  On  the  Labor  of  Monks,  complaining  of  cer- 
tain itinerant  impostors,  who,  as  early  as  his  day,  plied  a  vile  and  sordid 
traffic,  by  carrying  the  relics  of  martyrs  about  from  place  to  place,  adds,  •  If, 
indeed,  they  are  relics  of  martyrs.'  By  this  expression  he  intimates  the  prev- 
alence, even  in  his  day,  of  abuses  and  impostures,  by  which  the  ignorant 
populace  were  cheated  into  the  belief  that  bones  gathered  here  and  there 
were  those  of  saints.  Wliile  the  origin  of  tlie  imposture  is  thus  ancient, 
there  cannot  be  a  doubt  that  in  the  long  period  which  has  since  elapsed,  it 
has  exceedingly  increased,  considering,  especially,  tliat  the  world  has  since 
been  strangely  corrupted,  and  has  never  ceased  to  become  worse,  till  it  has 
reached  the  extreme  wherein  we  now  behold  it. 

"But  the  first  abuse  and,  as  it  were,  beginning  of  the  evil  was,  that  when 
Christ  ought  to  have  been  sought  in  his  Word,  sacraments,  and  spiritual 
influences,  the  world,  after  its  wont,  clung  to  his  garments,  vests,  and  swad- 
dling-clothes; and  thus  overlooking  the  principal  matter,  followed  only  its 
accessory.  The  same  course  was  pursued  in  regard  to  apostles,  martyrs,  and 
other  saints.  For  when  the  duty  was  to  meditate  diligently  on  their  lives, 
and  engage  in  imitating  them,  men  made  it  their  whole  study  to  contemplate 
and  lay  up,  as  it  were  in  a  treasury,  their  bones,  shirts,  girdles,  caps,  and 
similar  trifles. 

"  I  am  not  unaware  that  in  this  there  is  a  semblance  of  pious  zeal,  the 
allegation  being,  that  tiie  relics  of  Christ  are  kept  on  account  of  the  rever- 
ence which  is  felt  for  himself,  and  in  order  that  the  remembrance  of  him  may 
take  a  firmer  hold  of  tiie  mind.  And  the  same  thing  is  alleged  with  regard 
to  the  saints.  But  attention  should  be  paid  to  what  Paul  says,  viz.,  that  all 
divine  worship  of  man's  devising,  having  no  better  and  surer  foundation  than 
his  own  opinion,  be  its  semblance  of  wisdom  what  it  may,  is  mere  vanity  and 
folly. 

"  Besides,  any  advantage,  supposed  to  be  derived  from  it,  ought  to  be 
contrasted  with  the  danger.  In  this  way  it  would  be  discovered  that  the  pos- 
session of  such  relics  was  of  little  use,  or  was  altogether  superfluous  and 
frivolous,  whereas,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  most  difficult,  or  rather  impossi- 
ble, that  men  should  not  thereby  degenerate  into  idolatry.  For  they  cannot 
look  upon  them,  or  handle  them,  without  veneration ;  and  there  being  no 
limit  to  this,  the  honor  due  to  Christ  is  forthwith  paid  to  them.  In  short, 
a  longing  for  relics  is  never  free  from  superstition,  nay,  what  is  worse,  it  is 
the  parent  of  idolatry,  with  which  it  is  very  generally  conjoined. 

"All  admit,  without  dispute,  that  God  carried  away  the  body  of  Moses 
from  human  sight,  lest  the  Jewish  nation  should  fall  into  the  abuse  of  wor- 


§  122.    AGAINST   THE   WOKSHIl'   OF    RELICS.      1543.        607 

sliipping  it.  What  was  done  in  the  case  of  one  ought  to  be  extended  to  all, 
since  the  reason  equally  applies.  But  not  to  speak  of  saints,  let  us  see  what 
Paul  says  of  Christ  himself.  He  declares,  that  after  the  resurrection  of 
Christ  he  knew  him  no  more  after  the  flesh,  intimating  by  these  words  that 
everything  carnal  which  belonged  to  Christ  should  be  consigned  to  oblivion 
and  be  discarded,  in  order  that  we  may  make  it  our  whole  study  and  endeavor 
to  seek  and  possess  him  in  spirit.  Now,  therefore,  when  men  talk  of  it  as  a 
grand  thing  to  possess  some  memorial  of  Christ  and  his  saints,  what  else  is 
it  than  to  seek  an  empty  cloak  with  which  to  hide  some  foolish  desire  that 
has  no  foundation  in  reason  ?  But  even  should  there  seem  to  be  a  sufficient 
reason  for  it,  yet,  seeing  it  is  so  clearly  repugnant  to  the  mind  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  as  declared  by  the  mouth  of  Paul,  what  more  do  we  require  ?  " 

The  following  is  a  summary  of  this  tract :  — 
What  was  at  first  a  foolish  curiosity  for  preserving  relics 
has  degenerated  into  abominable  idolatry.  The  great  ma- 
jority of  the  relics  are  spurious.  It  could  be  shown  by  com- 
parison that  every  apostle  has  more  than  four  bodies  and 
every  saint  two  or  three.  The  arm  of  St.  Anthony,  which 
was  worshipped  in  Geneva,  when  brought  out  from  the  case, 
turned  out  to  be  a  part  of  a  stag.  The  body  of  Christ  could 
not  be  obtained,  but  the  monks  of  Charroux  pretend  to  liave, 
besides  teeth  and  hair,  the  prepuce  or  pellicle  cut  off  in  his 
circumcision.  But  it  is  shown  also  in  the  Lateran  church 
at  Rome.  The  blood  of  Christ  which  Nicodemus  is  said  to 
have  received  in  a  handkerchief  or  a  bowl,  is  exhibited  in 
Rochelle,  in  Mantua,  in  Rome,  and  many  other  places.  The 
manger  in  which  he  laid  at  his  birth,  his  cradle,  together 
with  the  shirt  which  his  mother  made,  the  pillar  on  which 
he  leaned  when  disputing  in  the  Temple,  the  water-pots  in 
which  he  turned  water  into  wine,  the  nails,  and  pieces  of  the 
cross,  are  shown  in  Rome,  Ravenna,  Pisa,  Cluny,  Angers,  and 
elsewhere. 

The  table  of  the  last  Supper  is  at  Rome,  in  the  church  of 
St.  John  in  the  Lateran ;  some  of  the  bread  at  St.  Salvador 
in  Spain ;  the  knife  with  which  the  Paschal,  Lamb  was  cut 
up,  is  at  Treves.!    What  semblance  of  possibility  is  there  that 

^  The  holy  coat  is  still  at  Treves,  and  was  worshipped  by  many  thousands 
of  devout  pilgrims  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1891 ! 


608  THE    KEFOKMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

that  table  was  found  seven  or  eight  hundred  years  after? 
Besides,  tables  were  in  those  days  different  in  shape  from 
ours,  for  people  used  to  recline  at  meals.  Fragments  of  the 
cross  found  by  St.  Helena  are  scattered  over  many  churches 
in  Italy,  France,  Spain,  etc.,  and  would  form  a  good  ship- 
load, which  it  would  take  three  hundred  men  to  carry  instead 
of  one.  But  they  say  that  this  wood  never  grows  less  !  Some 
affirm  that  their  fragments  were  carried  by  angels,  others 
that  they  dropped  down  from  heaven.  Those  of  Poitiers  say 
that  their  piece  was  stolen  by  a  maid-servant  of  Helena  and 
carried  off  to  France.  There  is  still  a  greater  controversy 
as  to  the  three  nails  of  the  cross :  one  of  them  was  fixed  in 
the  crown  of  Constantine,  the  other  two  were  fitted  to  his 
horse's  bridle,  according  to  Theodoret,  or  one  was  kept  by 
Helena  herself,  according  to  Ambrose.  But  now  there  are 
two  nails  at  Rome,  one  at  Siena,  one  at  Milan,  one  at  Car- 
pentras,  one  at  Venice,  one  at  Cologne,  one  at  Treves,  two 
at  Paris,  one  at  Bourges,  etc.  All  the  claims  are  equally 
good,  for  the  nails  are  all  spurious.  There  is  also  more  than 
one  soldier's  spear,  crown  of  thorns,  purple  robe,  the  seam- 
less coat,  and  Veronica's  napkin  (which  at  least  six  cities 
boast  of  having).  A  piece  of  broiled  fish,  which  Peter  offered 
to  the  risen  Saviour  on  the  seashore,  must  have  been  won- 
drously  well  salted  if  it  has  kept  for  these  fifteen  centuries  I 
But,  jesting  apart,  is  it  supposable  that  the  apostles  made 
relics  of  w^hat  they  had  actually  prepared  for  dinner  ? 

Calvin  exposes  with  equal  effect  the  absurdities  and  impie- 
ties of  the  wonder-working  pictures  of  Christ ;  the  relics  of 
the  hair  and  milk  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  preserved  in  so  many 
places,  her  combs,  her  wardrobe  and  baggage,  and  her  house 
carried  by  angels  across  the  sea  to  Loreto;  the  shoes  of 
St.  Joseph  ;  the  slippers  of  St.  James ;  the  head  of  John  the 
Baptist,  of  which  Rhodes,  Malta,  Lucca,  Nevers,  Amiens, 
Besan^on,  and  Noyon  claim  to  have  portions ;  and  his  fingers, 
one  of  which  is  shown  at  Besan^on,  another  at  Toulouse, 


§  123.    THE   ARTICLES   OF   THE   SORBONNE.      1544.         009 

another  at  Lyons,  another  at  Bourges,  another  at  Florence. 
At  Avignon  they  have  the  sword  with  which  John  was  be- 
headed, at  Aix-la-Chapelle  the  linen  cloth  placed  under  him 
by  the  kindness  of  the  executioner,  in  Rome  his  girdle  and 
the  altar  at  which  he  said  prayers  in  the  desert.  It  is  strange, 
adds  Calvin,  that  they  do  not  also  make  him  perform  mass. 

The  tract  concludes  with  this  remark  :  "  So  complete!}'  are 
the  relics  mixed  up  and  huddled  together,  that  it  is  impos- 
sible to  have  the  bones  of  any  martyr  without  running  the 
risk  of  worshipping  the  bones  of  some  thief  or  robber,  or,  it 
may  be,  the  bones  of  a  dog,  or  a  horse,  or  an  ass,  or  —  Let 
every  one,  therefore,  guard  against  this  risk.  Henceforth  no 
man  will  be  able  to  excuse  himself  by  pretending  ignorance." 

§  123.    Tlie  Articles  of  the  Sorhonne  with  an  Antidote.     1544. 

Arliculi  a  facilitate  s.  theol.  Parisiensi  detcnninati  super  materiis  Jidei  nostrai  hodie 
controrersis.  Cum  Antkloto  {\iA-i) ,  1544.  Opera,  VII.  1-44.  A  French, 
edition  appeared  in  the  same  year.  English  translation  by  Beveridge,  in 
Calvin's  Tracts,  I.  72-122. 

The  theological  faculty  of  the  University  of  Paris  pub- 
lished, March  10,  1542,  a  summary  of  the  most  obnoxious 
doctrines  of  the  Roman  Church,  in  twenty-five  articles,  which 
were  sanctioned  by  an  edict  of  the  king  of  France,  and  were 
to  be  subscribed  by  all  candidates  of  the  priesthood.^ 

Calvin  republished  these  articles,  and  accompanied  each, 
first  with  an  ironical  defence,  and  then  with  a  scriptural 
antidote.  This  reductio  ad  absurdum  had  probably  moi-e 
effect  in  Paris  than  a  serious  and  sober  mode  of  refutation. 
The  following  is  a  specimen  :  — 

"Article  VI.     Or  the  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass. 

"  The  sacrijice  of  the   Mass  is,  accordiiKj  to  the  institution  of  Christ,  available  for 
the  livinfi  and  the  dead." 
"Proof, —  Because    Christ    says,    'This    do.'     But   to    do    is    to    sacrifice, 
according  to  the  passage  in  Vergil:  '  AVhen  I  will  do  (make  an  offering)  witli 

1  Bula?us,  Historia  Unir.  Paris.,  VI.  384,  and  the  French  text  in  Opera,  vol. 
VII.,  Prolog.,  pp.  i.x-xii. 


610         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

a  calf  in  jilace  of  produce,  do  you  yourself  come.'  i  As  to  which  signification, 
see  Macrobius.  But  when  the  Lutherans  deride  that  subtlety,  because  Clirist 
spoke  with  the  Apostles  in  the  common  Hebrew  or  Syriac  tongue,  and  the 
Evangelists  wrote  in  Greek,  answer  that  tlie  common  Latin  translation  out- 
■weio-hs  them.  And  it  is  well  known  that  tiie  sense  of  Scripture  must  be 
sought  from  the  determination  of  the  Church.  But  of  tiie  value  of  sacrifice 
for  the  living  and  the  dead  we  have  proof  from  experience.  For  many  visions 
have  appeared  to  certain  holy  monks  when  asleep,  telling  them  that  by  means 
of  masses  souls  had  been  delivered  from  Purgatory.  Nay,  St.  Gregory 
redeemed  the  soul  of  Trajan  from  the  infernal  regions." - 

"  Antidote  to  Article  VI. 

"The  institution  of  Christ  is,  '  Take  and  eat'  (Matt.  26  :  26  ;  Mark  14  :  22; 
1  Cor.  11  :  24),  but  not,  offer.  Therefore,  sacrifice  is  not  conformable  to  the 
institution  of  Christ,  but  is  plainly  repugnant  to  it.  Besides,  it  is  evident 
from  Scripture  that  it  is  the  peculiar  and  proper  office  of  Christ  to  offer  him- 
self ;  as  an  apostle  says,  that  by  one  offering  he  has  forever  perfected  those 
that  are  sanctified  (Heb.  10:  14).  Also,  that  'once,  in  the  end  of  the  world, 
hath  he  appeared  to  put  away  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  himself  (9  :  26).  Also, 
that  after  this  sanctification,  '  there  remains  no  more  a  sacrifice  for  sins  ' 
(10:26).  For  to  this  end  also  was  he  consecrated  a  priest  after  the  order 
of  Melchisdec,  without  successor  or  colleague  (Heb.  5:6;  7  :  21). 

"  Christ,  therefore,  is  robbed  of  the  honor  of  the  priesthood,  when  the  right 
of  offering  is  transferred  to  others.  Lastly,  no  man  ought  to  assume  this  honor 
unless  called  by  God,  as  an  apostle  testifies.  But  we  read  of  none  having 
been  called  but  Christ.  On  the  other  hand,  since  the  promise  is  destined  for 
those  only  who  communicate  in  the  sacrament,  by  what  right  can  it  belong 
to  the  dead  ?  " 

§  124.    Calvin  and  the  Nicodemites.     1544. 

Calvin  :  Petit  traicte  monstj-ant  que  c'est  que  doit  faire  un  homine  Jidele,  coynois- 
sant  la  verite'  de  I'Evangile  quand  il  est  entre  les  papistes,  1543.  Excuse  de 
Iehan  Calvin  a  Messieurs  les  Nicodemites,  sur  la  complaincte  qu'ilfont  de  sa 
trop  grand  rigueur.  (^Excusatio  ad  Pseudo-Nicodemitas.')  1544.  Embodied 
in  the  tracts  De  vitandis  superstitionibus  qucp  ctim  sincera  Jidei  confessione 
pugnant.     Genevae,  1549,  1550,  and  1551.     This  collection  contains  also 

^  "'Hocjacite.'  Facere  autem  est  sacrijicare,  justa  illud  Vergilii :  '  Quum 
faciam  vitula  pro frugibus,  ipse  venito.'"     (Verg.  E.  III.  77.) 

2  This  refers  to  the  mediaeval  legend  which  has  found  its  way  into  Dante's 
Divina  Comedia  (Purg.  X.  75;  Par.  XX.  109-111),  that  the  Emperor  Trajan, 
nearly  five  hundred  years  after  his  death,  was  disinterred,  and  his  soul  trans- 
lated from  hell  to  heaven  by  the  prayers  of  Pope  Gregory  I.,  who  had  learned 
that  he  was  a  just  emperor,  although  he  persecuted  the  Christians.  But  the 
pope  was  punished  for  his  interest  in  a  heathen,  and  warned  by  an  angel  never 
to  make  a  similar  request.     Trajan  is  the  only  pagan  in  Dante's  Paradise. 


§  124.    CALVIN   AND   THE   NICODEMITES.      154:4.  till 

the  opinions  of  Melanohtlion,  Bucer,  and  Peter  Martyr  on  the  question 
raised  by  the  Nicodeniites.  Keprinted  in  Opera,  VI.  5;J7-644.  A  German 
transhition  appeared  at  Herborn,  1588;  an  Engiisli  translation  by  R. 
Gelding,  London,  1548.  See  the  bibliographical  notes  in  Henry,  IIL  ; 
Beilage,  208  sq. ;  Proleg.  to  Opera,  VI.  pp.  x.\x-xx.\iv;  and  La  France 
Protest.,  IIL  584  sq.     Dyeu,  187  sqq.     Stahehn,  I.  542  sqq. 

A  great  practical  difficulty  presented  itself  to  the  Protes- 
tants in  France,  where  they  were  in  constant  danger  of  perse- 
cution. They  could  not  emigrate  en  masse,  nor  live  in  peace 
at  home,  without  concealing  or  denying  their  convictions. 
A  large  number  were  Protestants  at  heart,  but  outwardly 
conformed  to  the  Roman  Church.  They  excused  their  con- 
duct by  the  example  of  Nicodemus,  the  Jewish  Rabbi,  who 
came  to  Jesus  by  night. 

Calvin,  therefore,  called  them  "  Nicodemites,"  but  with 
this  difference,  that  Nicodemus  only  buried  the  body  of 
Christ,  after  anointing  it  with  precious  aromatics ;  while  they 
bury  both  his  soul  and  body,  his  divinity  and  humanity,  and 
that,  too,  without  honor.  Nicodemus  interred  Christ  when 
dead,  but  the  Nicodemites  thrust  him  into  the  earth  after  he 
has  risen.  Nicodemus  displayed  a  hundred  times  more  cour- 
age at  the  death  of  Christ  than  all  the  Nicodemites  after  his 
resurrection.  Calvin  confronted  them  with  the  alternative  of 
Elijah:  "  How  long  halt  ye  between  two  opinions?  If  the 
Lord  be  God,  follow  him:  if  Baal,  then  follow  him"  (1  Kings 
18  :  21).  He  advised  them  either  to  leave  their  country  for 
some  place  of  liberty,  or  to  absent  themselves  from  idolatrous 
worship,  even  at  the  risk  of  their  lives.  The  glory  of  God 
should  be  much  dearer  to  us  than  this  transitory  life,  which 
is  only  a  shadow. 

He  distinguished  several  classes  of  Nicodemites  :  first,  false 
preachers  of  the  gospel,  who  adopt  some  evangelical  doc- 
trines (meaning  probably  Gerard  le  Roux  or  Roussel,  for 
whom  Margaret  of  Navarre  had  procured  the  bishopric  of 
Ol^ron)  ;  next,  worldly  peoj^le,  courtiers,  and  refined  ladies, 
who  are  used  to  flatterv  and  hate  austerity ;  then,  scholars 


612         THE   EEFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

and  literary  men,  who  love  their  ease  and  hope  for  gradual 
improvement  with  the  spread  of  education  and  intelligence ; 
lastly,  merchants  and  citizens,  who  do  not  wish  to  be  inter- 
rupted in  their  avocations.  Yet  he  was  far  from  disowning 
them  as  brethren  because  of  their  weakness.  Owing  to  their 
o-reat  danger  thej^  could  better  expect  pardon  if  they  should 
fall,  than  he  himself  who  lived  in  comparative  security. 

The  Nicodemites  charged  Calvin  with  immoderate  aus- 
terity. "  Away  with  this  Calvin !  he  is  too  impolite.  He 
would  reduce  us  to  beggary,  and  lead  us*  directly  to  the 
stake.  Let  him  content  himself  with  his  own  lot,  and  leave 
us  in  peace ;  or,  let  him  come  to  us  and  show  us  how  to 
behave.  He  resembles  the  leader  of  an  army  who  incites  the 
common  soldiers  to  the  attack,  but  himself  keeps  out  of  the 
reach  of  danger."  To  this  charge  he  replied  (in  substance)  : 
^  If  you  compare  me  with  a  captain,  you  should  not  l)lame 
me  for  doing  my  duty.  The  question  is  not,  what  I  would 
do  in  your  condition,  but  what  is  our  present  dut}'  —  yours 
and  mine.  If  my  life  differs  from  my  teaching,  then  woe 
to  me.  God  is  my  witness  that  my  heart  1)leeds  when  I 
think  of  your  temptations  and  dangers,  and  that  I  cease  not 
to  pray  with  tears  that  you  may  be  delivered.  Nor  do  I 
condemn  always  the  persons  when  I  condemn  the  thing. 
I  will  not  boast  of  superior  courage,  but  it  is  not  my  fault, 
if  I  am  not  more  frequently  in  danger.  I  am  not  far  from 
the  shot  of  the  enemy.  Secure  to-day,  I  do  not  know  what 
shall  be  to-morrow.  I  am  prepared  for  everj^  event,  and 
I  hope  that  God  will  give  me  grace  to  glorify  him  with  my 
blood  as  Avell  as  with  my  tongue  and  pen.  I  shall  lay  down 
my  life  with  no  more  sadness  than  I  now  write  down  these 
words." 

The  French  Protestants  were  under  the  impression  that 
Luther  and  Melanchthon  had  milder  and  more  practicable 
views  on  this  subject,  and  requested  Calvin  to  proceed  to 
Saxony  for  a  personal  conference.     This  he  declined  from 


§  124.    CALVIN    AND   THE   NICODEMITES.      1544.  613 

want  of  time,  since  it  would  take  at  least  forty  days  for  the 
journey  from  Geneva  to  Wittenberg  and  back.  Nor  had  he 
the  means.  ''  Even  in  favorable  seasons,"  he  wrote  to  an 
unknown  friend  in  France,^  "my  income  barely  suffices 
to  meet  expenses,  and  from  the  scarcity  with  which  we  had 
to  struggle  during  the  last  two  years,  I  was  compelled  to  run 
into  debt."  He  added  that  "  the  season  was  unfavorable  for 
consulting  Luther,  who  has  hardl}^  had  time  to  cool  from  the 
heat  of  controversy."  He  thus  missed  the  only  opportunity 
of  a  personal  interview  with  Luther,  who  died  a  year  later. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  it  would  have  been  satisfactory.  The 
old  hero  was  then  discontented  with  the  state  of  the  world 
and  the  Church,  and  longing  for  departure. 

But  Calvin  prevailed  on  a  young  gentleman  of  tolerable 
learning  to  undertake  the  journey  for  him.  He  gave  him 
a  literal  Latin  translation  of  his  tracts  against  the  Nicode- 
mites,  together  with  letters  to  Luther  and  Melanchthon  (Jan. 
20,  1545).  He  asked  the  latter  to  act  as  mediator  according 
to  his  best  judgment.  The  letter  to  Luther  is  very  respect- 
ful and  modest.  After  explaining  the  case,  and  requesting 
him  to  give  it  a  cursory  examination  and  to  return  his  opin- 
ion in  a  few  words,  Calvin  thus  concludes  this,  his  only, 
letter  to  the  great  German  Reformer :  — 

"  I  am  unwilling  to  give  you  this  trouble  in  the  midst  of  so  many  weighty 
and  various  employments;  but  such  is  your  sense  of  justice  that  you  cannot 
suppose  me  to  have  done  this  unless  compelled  by  the  necessity  of  the  case  ; 
I  therefore  trust  that  you  will  pardon  me.  Would  that  I  could  fly  to  you, 
that  I  might  even  for  a  few  hours  enjoy  the  happiness  of  your  society;  for 
I  would  prefer,  and  it  would  be  far  better,  not  only  upon  this  question,  but 
also  about  others,  to  converse  personally  with  yourself ;  but  seeing  that  it 
is  not  granted  to  us  on  earth,  I  hope  that  shortly  it  will  come  to  pass  in  the 
kingdom  of  God.  Adieu,  most  renowned  sir,  most  distinguished  minister 
of  Christ,  and  my  ever-honored  father.  The  Lord  himself  rule  and  direct 
you  by  His  own  Spirit,  that  you  may  persevere  even  unto  the  end,  for  the 
common  benefit  and  good  of  His  own  Church." 

1  Bonnet  (I.  418,  note)  conjectures  that  it  was  Louis  du  Chemin,  or  Fran9ois 
Daniel. 


614    THE  REFORMATION  IN  FRENCH  SWITZERLAND. 

Luther  was  still  so  excited  by  his  last  eucharistic  contro- 
versy with  the  Swiss,  and  so  suspicious,  that  Melanchthon 
deemed  it  inexpedient  to  lay   the   documents    before    him.^ 

"  I  have  not  shown  your  letter  to  Dr.  Martin,"  he  replied  to  Calvin,  April 
17,  1545,  "for  he  takes  many  things  suspiciously,  and  does  not  like  his  an- 
swers to  questions  of  the  kind  you  have  proposed  to  him,  to  be  carried  round 
and  handed  from  one  to  another.  ...  At  present  I  am  looking  forward  to 
exile  and  other  sorrows.  Farewell!  On  the  day  on  which,  thirty-eight  hun- 
dred and  forty-six  years  ago,  Noah  entered  into  the  ark,  by  which  God  gave 
testimony  of  his  purpose  never  to  forsake  his  Church,  even  when  she  quivers 
under  the  shock  of  the  billows  of  the  great  sea." 

He  gave,  however,  his  own  opinion ;  and  this,  as  well  as  the 
opinions  of  Bucer  and  Peter  Martyr,  and  Calvin's  conclusion, 
were  published,  as  an  appendix  to  the  tracts  on  avoiding 
superstition,  at  Geneva  in  1549.^  Melanchthon  substantially 
agreed  with  Calvin ;  he  asserts  the  duty  of  the  Christian  to 
worship  God  alone  (Matt.  4  :  10),  to  flee  from  idols  (1  John 
5  :  21),  and  to  profess  Christ  openly  before  men  (Matt.  10 : 
33)  ;  but  he  took  a  somewhat  milder  view  as  regards  compli- 
ance with  mere  ceremonies  and  non-essentials.  Bucer  and 
Peter  Martyr  agreed  with  this  opinion.  The  latter  refers  to 
the  conduct  of  the  early  disciples,  who,  while  holding  worship 
in  private  houses,  still  continued  to  visit  the  temple  until 
they  were  driven  out. 

We  now  proceed  to  Calvin's  controversies  with  Protestant 
opponents. 

§  125.    Calvin  and  Bolsec. 

I.  Actes  du  proces  intente  par  Calvin  et  les  autres  ministres  de  Geneve  a  Jerome 
Bolsec  de  Paris  (1551).  Printed  from  the  Register  of  the  Venerable 
Company  and  the  Archives  of  Geneva,  in  Opera,  VIII.  141-248.  —  Cal- 
vin :  De  ceterna  Dei  Prmdestinatione,  etc.,  usually  called  Consensus  Gene- 
vensis  (1552)  —  chiefly  an  extract  from  the  respective  sections  of  his 
Institutes;  reprinted  in  Opera,  VIII.  249-366.  It  is  the  second  part  of 
his  answer  to  Pighius  ("the  dead  dog,"  as  he  calls  him),  but  occasioned 
by  the  process  of  Bolsec,  whose  name  he  ignores  in  contempt.  —  Calvin's 
letter  to  Libertetus  (Fabri  of  Neuchatel),  January,  1552,  in  Opera,  XIV. 
278  sq.  —  The  Letters  of  the  Swiss  Churches  on  the  Bolsec  affair, 
reprinted  in  vol.  VIII.  229  sqq.—  Beza  :    Vita  Calv.  ad  ann.  1551. 

1  Opera,  XII.  61.  2  Opera,  VI.  617-644. 


§  125.    CALVIN   AND   BOLSEC.  615 

II.  HiEROSME  Hermes  Bolsec,  docteur  Mederin  a  Li/on  :  Histoire  de  la  vie, 
mmirs,  acies,  doctrine,  Constance  et  mart  de  Jean  Calvin,  jadis  ministre  de 
Geneve,  Lyon,  1577;  ReVdite'e  avec  une  introduction,  des  extraits  de  la  vie 
de  Th.  de  Beze,  par  le  meme,  et  des  notes  it  I'appuipar  M.  Louis-Francois 
Chastel,  magistrat.  Lyon,  1875  (xxxi  and  ;328).  On  the  character  and 
different  editions  of  this  book,  see  La  France  Protest.,  IL  755  sqq. 

III.  Bayle:  "Bolsec"in  his  "Diction,  historique  et  critique."  — F.  Trech- 
SEL:  Die  Protest.  Antitrinitarier  (Heidelberg,  1844),  Bd.  I.  185-189  and 
276-284.  — Henry,  IIL  44  sqq.,  and  tlie  second  BeiUige  to  vol.  III.,  which 
gives  the  documents  (namely,  the  charges  of  the  ministers  of  Geneva, 
Bolsec's  defence,  his  poem  written  in  prison,  the  judgments  of  the 
Churches  of  Bern  and  Zurich  — all  of  which  are  omitted  in  the  English 
version,  IL  130  sqq.).— Audin  (favorable  to  Bolsec),  ch.  XXXIX. — 
Dy-er,  265-283. — *Schweizer:  Gentraldogmen,  I.  205-238.  —  Stahelin, 
I.  411-414;  II.  287-292.— *Za  France  Frot.,  sub  "Bolsec,"  torn.  II.  745- 
776  (second  ed.).  Against  this  article:  Lettre  d'un  protestant  Genevois 
aux  lecteurs  de  la  France  Protestante,  Geneve,  1880.  In  defence  of  that 
article,  Henri  L.  Bordier  :  L'e'cole  historique  de  Jerome  Bolsec,  pour  servir 
de  supplement  a  V article  Bolsec  de  la  France  Protestante,  Paris  (Fisch- 
bacher),  1880. 

Hieronymus  (Hierosme)  Hermes  Bolsec,  a  native  of  Paris, 
was  a  Carmelite  monk,  but  left  the  Roman  Church,  about 
1545,  and  fled  for  protection  to  the  Duchess  of  Ferrara,  who 
admitted  him  to  her  house  under  the  title  of  an  almoner. 
There  he  married,  and  adopted  the  medical  profession  as 
a  means  of  livelihood.  Ever  afterwards  he  called  himself 
"  Doctor  of  Medicine."  He  made  himself  odious  by  his 
turbulent  character  and  conduct,  and  was  expelled  by  the 
Duchess  for  some  deception  (as  Beza  reports). 

In  1550  he  settled  at  Geneva  with  his  wife  and  a  servant, 
and  practised  his  profession.  But  he  meddled  in  theology, 
and  began  to  question  Calvin's  doctrine  of  predestination. 
He  denounced  Calvin's  God  as  a  hypocrite  and  liar,  as  a 
patron  of  criminals,  and  as  worse  than  Satan.  He  was 
admonished,  March  8,  1551,  by  the  Venerable  Company,  and 
privately  instructed  by  Calvin  in  that  mystery,  but  without 
success.  On  a  second  offence  he  was  summoned  before  the 
Consistory,  and  openly  reprehended  in  the  presence  of  fifteen 
ministers  and  other  competent  persons.     He  acknowledged 


616         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

that  a  certain  number  were  elected  by  God  to  salvation,  but 
he  denied  predestination  to  destruction;  and,  on  closer  exam- 
ination, he  extended  election  to  all  mankind,  maintaining 
that  grace  efficacious  to  salvation  is  equally  offered  to  all, 
and  that  the  cause,  why  some  receive  and  others  reject  it,  lies 
in  the  free-will,  with  which  all  men  were  endowed.  At  the 
same  time  he  abhorred  the  name  of  merits.  This,  in  the 
eyes  of  Calvin,  was  a  logical  contradiction  and  an  absurdity ; 
for,  he  says,  "if  some  were  elected,  it  surely  follows  that 
others  are  not  elected  and  left  to  perish.  Unless  we  confess 
that  those  who  come  to  Christ  are  drawn  by  the  Father 
through  the  peculiar  operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit  on  the 
elect,  it  follows  either  that  all  must  be  promiscuously  elected, 
or  that  the  cause  of  election  lies  in  each  man's  merit." 

On  the  16th  of  October,  1551,  Bolsec  attended  the  religious 
conference,  which  was  held  every  Friday  at  St.  Peter's.  John 
de  St.  Andr^  preached  from  John  8 :  47  on  predestination, 
and  inferred  from  the  text  that  those  who  are  not  of  God, 
oppose  him  to  the  last,  because  God  grants  the  grace  of 
obedience  only  to  the  elect.  Bolsec  suddenly  interrupted 
the  speaker,  and  argued  that  men  are  not  saved  because  they 
are  elected,  but  that  they  are  elected  because  they  have  faith. 
He  denounced,  as  false  and  godless,  the  notion  that  God 
decides  the  fate  of  man  before  his  birth,  consigning  some  to 
sin  and  punishment,  others  to  virtue  and  eternal  happiness. 
He  loaded  the  clergy  with  abuse,  and  warned  the  congrega- 
tion not  to  be  led  astray. 

After  he  had  finished  this  harangue,  Calvin,  who  had 
entered  the  church  unobserved,  stepped  up  to  him  and  so 
overwhelmed  him,  as  Beza  says,  with  arguments  and  with 
quotations  from  Scripture  and  Augustin,  that  "  all  felt  exceed- 
ingly ashamed  for  the  brazen-faced  monk,  except  the  monk' 
himself."  Farel  also,  Avho  happened  to  be  present,  addressed 
the  assembly.  The  lieutenant  of  police  apprehended  Bolsec 
for  abusing  the  ministers  and  disturbing  the  public  peace. 


§  125.    CALVIN   AND   BOLSEC.  617 

On  the  same  afternoon  tlie  ministers  drew  up  seventeen 
articles  against  Bolsec  and  presented  them  to  the  Council, 
with  the  request  to  call  him  to  account.  Bolsec,  in  his  turn, 
proposed  several  questions  to  Calvin  and  asked  a  categori- 
cal answer  (October  25).  He  asserted  that  Melanchthon, 
Bullinger,  and  Brenz  shared  his  opinion. 

The  Consistory  asked  the  Council  to  consult  the  Swiss 
Churches  before  passing  judgment.  Accordingly,  the  Coun- 
cil sent  a  list  of  Bolsec's  errors  to  Ziirich,  Bern,  and  Basel. 
They  were  five,  as  follows :  — 

1.  That  faith  depends  not  on  election,  but  election  on 
faith. 

2.  That  it  is  an  insult  to  God  to  say  that  he  abandons 
some  to  blindness,  because  it  is  his  pleasure  to  do  so. 

3.  That  God  leads  to  himself  all  rational  creatures,  and 
abandons  only  those  who  have  often  resisted  him. 

4.  That  God's  grace  is  universal,  and  some  are  not  more 
predestinated  to  salvation  than  others. 

5.  That  when  St.  Paul  says  (Eph.  1 :  5),  that  God  has 
elected  us  through  Christ,  he  does  not  mean  election  to 
salvation,  but  election  to  discipleship  and  apostleship. 

At  the  same  time  Calvin  and  his  colleagues  addressed  a 
circular  letter  to  the  Swiss  Churches,  which  speaks  in  offen- 
sive and  contemptuous  terms  of  Bolsec,  and  charges  him  with 
cheating,  deception,  and  impudence.  Beza  also  wrote  from 
Lausanne  to  Bullinger. 

The  replies  of  the  Swiss  Churches  were  very  unsatisfac- 
tory to  Calvin,  although  the  verdict  was,  on  the  whole,  in 
his  favor.  They  reveal  the  difference  between  the  German 
and  the  French  Swiss  on  the  subject  of  divine  decrees  and 
free-will.  They  assent  to  the  doctrine  of  free  election  to 
salvation,  but  evade  the  impenetrable  mystery  of  absolute 
and  eternal  reprobation,  which  was  the  most  material  point 
in  the  controversy. 

The  ministers  of  Ziirich  defended  Zwingli  against  Bolsec's 


618         THE   REFORMATION    IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

charge,  tliat  in  his  work  on  Providence  he  made  God  the 
author  of  sin,  and  they  referred  to  other  works  in  which 
Zwingli  traced  sin  to  the  corruption  of  the  human  will. 
Bullinger,  in  a  private  letter  to  Calvin,  impressed  upon  him 
the  necessity  of  moderation  and  mildness.  "  Believe  me," 
he  said,  "many  are  displeased  with  what  you  say  in  your 
Institutes  about  predestination,  and  draw  the  same  conclusions 
from  it  as  Bolsec  has  drawn  from  Zwingli's  book  on  Provi- 
dence." This  affair  caused  a  temporary  alienation  between 
Calvin  and  Bullinger.  It  was  not  till  ten  years  afterwards 
that  Bullinger  decidedly  embraced  the  Calvinistic  dogma, 
and  even  then  he  laid  no  stress  on  reprobation.^ 

Myconius,  in  the  name  of  the  Church  of  Basel,  answered 
evasively,  and  dwelt  on  what  Calvin  and  Bolsec  believed  in 
common. 

The  reply  of  the  ministers  of  Bern  anticipates  the  modern 
spirit  of  toleration.  They  applaud  the  zeal  for  truth  and 
unity,  but  emphasize  the  equally  important  duty  of  charit}^ 
and  forbearance.  The  good  Shepherd,  they  say,  cares  for  the 
sheep  that  has  gone  astray.  It  is  much  easier  to  win  a  man 
back  by  gentleness  than  to  compel  him  by  severity.  As  to 
the  awful  mystery  of  divine  predestination,  they  remind  Calvin 
of  the  perplexity  felt  by  many  good  men  who  cling  to  the 
Scripture  texts  of  God's  universal  grace  and  goodness. 

The  effect  of  these  letters  was  a  milder  judgment  on 
Bolsec.  He  was  banished  for  life  from  the  territory  of 
Geneva  for  exciting  sedition  and  for  Pelagianism,  under  pain 
of  being  whipped  if  he  should  ever  return.  The  judgment 
was  announced  Dec.  23, 1551,  Avith  the  sound  of  the  trumpet.^ 

Bolsec  retired  to  Thonon,  in  Bern,  but  as  he  created  new 
disturbances  he  was  banished  (1555).     He  left  for  France, 

1  On  BuUinger's  views  see  above,  pp.  210  sq. ,  and  Schvveizer,  I.  225,  255  sqq. 

2  Beza :  "  Senatus  .  .  .  ilium  turn  ut  seditiosum,  turn  ut  mere  Pelaqianunx 
XXIII.  Dec.  puhlice  damnatum  urbe  expulit,  fustuariam  poenam  minatus,  si  rel 
in  urbe  vel  in  urhis  territorio  esset  deprehensus."  Reg.  of  the  Ven.  Comp.  in 
Annal.  498:   "  M^Ierosme  fat  hanni  a  son  de  trompe  des  terres  de  Geneve." 


§  125.    CALVIN    AND    BOLSEC.  619 

and  sought  admission  into  the  niinistiy  of  the  Reformed 
Church,  but  returned  at  last  to  the  Roman  communion.^ 
He  was  cLassed  by  the  national  synod  of  Lyon  among 
deposed  ministers,  and  characterized  as  "an  infamous  liar" 
and  "apostate"  (1563),  He  lived  near  Lyon  and  at  Autun, 
and  died  at  Annecy  about  1584.  Thirteen  years  after 
Calvin's  death  he  took  mean  and  cowardly  revenge  by  the 
publication  of  a  libellous  "  Life  of  Calvin,"  which  injured  him 
much  more  than  Calvin  ;  and  this  was  followed  by  a  slanderous 
"  Life  of  Beza,"  1582.  These  books  would  long  since  have 
been  forgotten,  had  not  partisan  zeal  kept  them  alive.^ 

The  dispute  with  Bolsec  occasioned  Calvin's  tract,  "  On 
the  Eternal  Predestination  of  God,"  which  he  dedicated  to 
the  Syndics  and  Council  of  Geneva,  under  the  name  of  Con- 
sensus Grenevensis,  or  Agreement  of  the  Genevese  Pastors, 
Jan.  1,  1552.  But  it  was  not  approved  by  the  other  Swiss 
Churches. 

Beza  remarks  of  the  result  of  this  controvers}^ :  "  All  that 
Satan  gained  by  these  discussions  was,  that  this  article  of  the 
Christian  religion,  which  was  formerly  most  obscure,  became 
clear  and  transparent  to  all  not  disposed  to  be  contentious." 

The  quarrel  with  Bolsec  caused  the  dissolution  of  the 
friendship  between  Calvin  and  Jacques  de  Bourgogne,  Sieur 
de  Falais  et  Bredam,  a  descendant  of  the  dukes  of  Burgundy, 
who  with  his  wife,  Jolunde  de  Brederode,  a  descendant  of 
the  old  counts  of  Holland,  settled  in  Geneva,  1548,  and  lived 
for  some  time  in  Calvin's  house  at  his  invitation,  when  the 

^  According  to  Beza,  Bolsec  forsook  his  wife  and  allowed  her  to  become  a 
prostitute  to  the  canons  of  Autun. 

2  Bayle  said  in  his  day :  "  Bolsec  seroit  un  homme  tout-a-fait  plonge  dans  les 
te'nebres  de  I'oubli,  s'il  ne  s'etait  rendu  fameux  par  certains  ouvrages  satiriques 
[meaning  his  attacks  on  Calvin  and  Beza],  que  les  moines  et  les  missionnaires 
citent  encore."  In  recent  times  Galiffe  and  Audin  have  come  up  to  the  defence 
of  Bolsec,  but  have  been  refuted  by  Henri  L.  Bordier  in  Lu  France  Protestante, 
II.  766  sqq.,  and  in  L'ecnie  historique  de  Jerome  Bolsec,  Paris,  1880.  Schweizer 
(I.  207)  calls  those  libels  "ersonnene  Verlemnduncfen,  wie  rechtschaffene  Katho- 
Itken  Idngst  zugeben,  anderen  aber  gut  genug  zum  Wiederabdrucken." 


620         THE   REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

wife  of  the  latter  was  still  living.  His  cook,  Nicolas,  served 
Calvin  as  clerk.  Calvin  took  the  greatest  interest  in  De 
Falais,  comforted  him  over  the  confiscation  of  his  goods  by 
Charles  V.,  at  whose  court  he  had  been  educated,  and  wrote 
a  defence  for  him  against  the  calumnies  befoi-e  the  emperor.^ 
He  also  dedicated  to  him  his  Commentary  on  the  First  Epis- 
tle to  the  Corinthians.  His  friendl}-  correspondence  from 
1543  to  lSf52  is  still  extant,  and  does  great  credit  to  him.^ 
But  De  Falais  could  not  penetrate  the  mysteries  of  theology, 
nor  sympathize  with  the  severity  of  discipline  in  Geneva. 
He  was  shocked  at  the  treatment  of  Bolsec  ;  he  felt  indebted 
to  him  as  a  physician  who  had  cured  one  of  his  maid-servants 
of  a  cancer.  He  interceded  for  him  with  the  magistrates  of 
Geneva  and  of  Bern.  He  wrote  to  Bullinger:  ''Not  without 
tears  am  I  forced  to  see  and  hear  this  tragedy  of  Calvin.'' 
He  begged  him  to  unite  with  Calvin  for  the  restoration  of 
peace  in  the  Church. 

He  left  Geneva  after  the  banishment  of  Bolsec  and  moved 
to  Bern,  where  he  lost  his  wife  (1557)  and  married  again. 
Bayle  asserts,  witliout  authority,  that  in  disgust  at  the 
Protestant  dissensions  he  returned  to  the  Roman  Church.^ 

Even  Melanchthon  was  displeased  with  Calvin's  conduct 
in  this  unfortunate  affair  ;  but  tlie  alienation  was  only  super- 
ficial and  temporary.  Judging  from  the  imperfect  informa- 
tion of  Lct'lius  Socinus,  he  was  disposed  to  censure  the 
Genevese  for  an  excess  of  zeal  in  behalf  of  the  "  Stoic  doc- 
trine of  necessity,"  as  he  called  it,  while  he  applauded  the 
Ziirichers  for  greater  moderation.     He  expressed  himself  to 

1  Apologia  illustris  D.  Jacobi  a  Burgundia  Fallesii  Bredanique  domini,  qua 
apud  Imperatoriam  Majestatein  inustas  sibi  criminationes  diluit  jideique  sue  con- 
fessionem  edit.     In  Opera.,  X.  Pt.  I.  269-294. 

2  It  was  published  at  Amsterdam  in  a  separate  volume,  1774,  and  is 
reprinted  in  the  Opera  and  in  the  collection  of  Boimet.  Comp.  on  Calvin's 
friendship  with  De  Falais,  Henry,  III.  64-69 ;  Stiihelin,  II.  293-302. 

<*  Bolsec,  in  his  life  of  Calvin,  invented,  among  other  slanders,  the  story 
that  the  real  cause  of  De  Falais'  leaving  Geneva  was  an  attempt  of  Calvin  on 
the  chastity  of  his  wife  ! 


§  126.    CALVIN   AND   CASTELLIO.  621 

this  effect  in  private  letters.^  Socinus  appealed  to  the  judg- 
ment of  MeLanchthon  in  a  letter  to  Calvin,  and  Calvin,  in 
his  reply,  could  not  entirely  deny  it.  Yet,  upon  the  whole, 
Melanchthon,  like  Bullinger,  was  more  on  the  side  of  Calvin, 
and  in  the  more  important  affair  of  Servetus,  both  unequivo- 
cally justified  his  conduct,  which  is  now  generally  condemned 
by  Protestants. 

§  126.    Calvin  and  CastelUo. 

I.  Castellio's  chief  work  is  his  Biblia  sacra  lathia  (Basil.,  1551,  1554,  1555^ 
1556,  1572;  the  N.  T.  also  at  Amst.,  1683,  Leipz.,  1760,  Halle,  1776). 
His  French  version  is  less  important.  He  defended  both  against  the 
attacks  of  Beza  {Defensio  suarum  translationum  Bibliormn,  Basil.,  1562). 
After  the  execution  of  Servetus,  1553,  CastelUo  wrote  several  anonymous 
or  pseudonymous  booklets  against  Calvin,  and  against  the  persecution  of 
heretics,  which  provoked  the  replies  of  Calvin  and  Beza  (see  below). 
His  views  against  predestination  and  the  slavery  of  the  will  are  best  set 
forth  in  his  four  Dialog i  de  pmdestinatione,  de  elect ione,  de  libera  arbitrio, 
de  ^fide,  which  were  published  after  his  death  at  Basel,  1578,  1613,  1610, 
and  in  English,  1679.  See  a  chronological  list  of  his  numerous  works  in 
La  France  Protesta/ite,  vol.  IV.  126-141.  I  have  before  me  (from  the 
Union  Seminary  Library)  a  rare  volume :  Sebastiani  Castellionis  Diahgi 
IV.,  printed  at  Gouda  in  Holland  anno  1613,  which  contains  the  four 
Dialogues  above  mentioned  (pp.  1-225)",  Castellio's  Defence  against 
Calvin's  Adr.  Nebulonem,  his  Annotations  on  the  ninth  ch.  of  Romans, 
and  several  other  tracts. 

Calvin  :  Brevis  Responsio  ad  diluendas  riebulonis  ruiusdnm  calumnias  quibiis  doc- 
trinam  de  rcterna  Dei  pra'destinatione  ffedare  conatus  est,  Gen.  (1554),  1557. 
In  Opera,  IX.  253-266.  The  unnamed  nebnlo  (in  the  French  ed.  le  broul- 
lion)  is  Castellio.  Cahimnio'  nebulonis  cujnsdam  adversus  doctrinam  Joh. 
Ccdvini  de  occulta  Dei  providentia.  Johannis  Calvini  ad  easdem  responsio, 
Gen.,  1558.  In  Opera,  IX.  269-318.  In  this  book  Castellio's  objections 
to  Calvin's  predestinarian  system  are  set  forth  in  twenty -four  theses,  with 

1  He  wrote  to  Caspar  Peucer,  his  son-in-law,  Feb.  1,  1552:  " Lelius  mihi 
scribit,  tanta  esse  Genevce  certamina  de  Stoica  necessitate,  ut  carceri  incl.usits  sit 
qxiidam  \_Bolsec'\  a  Zenone  [Co/(»'wo]  dissentient.  0  rem  miseram !  Doctrina 
salutaris  obscuratur  peregrinis  disputationibus."  Mel.'s  Opera  (^Corp.  Re/.),  vol. 
VII.  932.  To  his  friend  Camerarius  he  wrote,  under  the  same  date,  Feb.  1, 
1552  (VII.  930)  :  "  Hie  Polonus  a  Lelio  accepit  literas.  .  .  .  Ac  vide  seculi 
furores,  certamina  Allobrogica  [Genevensia]  de  Stoica  necessitate  tanta  .sunt,  ut 
carceri  inclusus  sit  quidam,  qui  a  Zenone,  dissentit.  Lelius  narrat,  se  Kopv<pai(f 
cuidam  [Ca/i7Ho]  scripsisse,  ne  tarn  vehementer  jmgnet.    Et  mitiores  sunt  Tigurini." 


622         THE   IIEFOKIMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

a  defence,  and  then  answered  by  Calvin.  The  first  thesis  charges  Calvin 
with  teaching  :  "  Deus  maximam  mundi  partem  nudo  puroque  voluntatis  sua. 
arbitric  creacit  ud  perditionem."  Thes.  V.:  "Nullum  adulterium,  furtum,. 
homicidium  cominittitur,  quin  Dei  voluntas  intercedat." 

Beza:  Ad  Seb.  Castellionis  calmnnias,  quibus  unicum  salutis  nostra:  fundamentum, 
I.e.  aternam  Dei  prwdestinutionem  evertere  nititur,  resporisio,  Gen.,  1558.  In 
his  Traciat.  theoL  I.  337-423  (second  ed.  Geneva,  1582). 

II.  Bayle  :  Castalion  in  his  "  Diet.  hist,  et  crit."  —  Joh.  C.  Fusslin  :  Lebensge- 
schichte  Seb.  Castellio's.  Frankf.  and  Leipzig,  1776.  — F.  Trechsel:  Die 
protest.  Antitrinitarier,  vol.  I.  (1839),  pp.  208-2U.— C.  Rich.  Brenner- 
Essai  sur  la  vie  et  les  Merits  de  Seb.  Chatillon,  1853.  — Henry  :  II.  383  sqq. ; 
III.  88  sqq.;  and  Beilage,  28-42.  — *  Alex.  Schweizer:  Centraldogmen, 
I.  310-356 ;  and  Sebastian  Castellio  als  Bekdmpfer  der  Calvinischen  Priides- 
tinationslehre,  in  Baur's  "  Theol.  Jahrbiicher"  for  1851.  — Stahelin,  I. 
377-381;  II.  302-308.  —  Jacob  Maehly:  Seb.  Castellio,  ein  biographischer 
Versuch,  Basel,  1862.  —  Jules  Bonnet:  Se'b.  Chatillion  ou  la  tolerance  an 
XVP  siecle,  in  the  "Bulletin  de  la  Socie'te'  de  I'hist.  du  protest,  fran^ais," 
Nos.  XVI.  and  XVII.,  1867  and  1868.  —Em.  Brossoitx  :  Se'b.  Chasteillon, 
Strasbourg,  1867.  — B.  Riggenbach,  in  Herzog^,  III.  160  sqq.— Lutte- 
ROTH  :  Castallion  in  Lichtenberger,  II.  672-677.  —*  La  France  Protes- 
TANTE  (2d  ed.)  :  Chateillon,  torn.  IV.  122-142.  —  *  Ferd.  Buisson  :  Se'bas- 
tien  Castellion,  Paris,  1892,  2  vols. 

Castellio  was  far  superior  to  Bolsec  as  a  scholar  and  a  man, 
and  lived  in  peace  with  Calvin  until  differences  of  opinion 
on  predestination,  free-will,  the  Canticles,  the  descent  into 
Hades,  and  religious  toleration  made  them  bitter  enemies. 
In  the  heat  of  the  controversy  both  forgot  the  dignity  and 
moderation  of  a  Christian  scholar. 

Sebastian  Castellio  or  Castalio  was  born  at  Chatillon  in 
Savoy,  in  1515,  six  years  after  Calvin,  of  poor  and  bigoted 
parents.^  He  acquired  a  classical  and  biblical  education  by 
hard  study.  He  had  a  rare  genius  for  languages,  and  mas- 
tered Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew.  In  1540  he  taught  Greek 
at  Lyons,  and  conducted  the  studies  of  three  noblemen. 
He  published  there  a  manual  of  biblical  history  under  the 

1  His  French  name  is  Bastien  de  Chatillon  or  Chateillon.  He  assumed,  not 
without  vanity,  tlie  classical  name  Castalio  with  allusion  to  the  Castalian 
fountain  at  the  foot  of  Parnassus..  The  usual  spelling  is  Castellio.  His  pre- 
cise origin  is  uncertain.  He  was  either  a  Frenchman  or  a  Savoyard.  He  was 
numbered  with  the  liberal  anti-calvinistic  Italians,  and  charged  with  using  a 
corrupt  French  dialect.     See  Bayle,  I.e.,  and  Schweizer,  I.  311. 


§  126.    CALVIN    AND    CASTELLIO.  623 

title  Dialogi  sacri,  which  passed  througli  several  editions 
in  Latin  and  French  from  1540  to  1731.  He  wrote  a  Latin 
epic  on  the  prophecies  of  Jonah ;  a  Greek  epic  on  John  the 
Baptist,  which  greatly  delighted  Melanchthon ;  two  versions 
of  the  Pentateuch,  with  a  view  to  exhibit  Moses  as  a  master 
in  all  the  arts  and  sciences ;  a  translation  of  the  Psalms,  and 
other  poetic  portions  of  the  Old  Testament. 

These  works  were  preparator}^  to  a  complete  Latin  transla- 
tion of  the  Bible,  which  he  begun  at  Geneva,  1542,  and  fin- 
ished at  Basel,  1551.  It  was  dedicated  to  King  Edward  VI. 
of  England,  and  often  republished  with  various  improve- 
ments. He  showed  some  specimens  in  manuscript  to  Calvin, 
who  disapproved  of  the  style.  His  object  was  to  present 
the  Bible  in  classical  Latinity  according  to  the  taste  of  the 
later  humanists  and  the  pedantic  Ciceronianism  of  Cardinal 
Bembo.  He  substituted  classical  for  biblical  terms ;  as  lotio 
for  baj^tisnuis,  genius  for  angelus^  respublica  for  ecclesia,  colle- 
gium for  synagoge^  senatus  iov  j^reshyterium,  furiosi  for  dcemo- 
niaci.  He  sacrificed  the  contents  to  style,  obliterated  the 
Hebraisms,  and  weakened  the  realistic  force,  the  simplicity 
and  grandeur  of  the  biblical  writers.  His  translation  was 
severely  criticised  by  Calvin  and  Beza  as  tending  to  secu- 
larize and  profane  the  sacred  book,  but  it  was  commended  as 
a  meritorious  work  by  such  competent  judges  as  Melanch- 
thon and  Richard  Simon.  Castellio  published  also  a  French 
version  of  the  Bible  with  notes  (1555),  but  his  French  was 
not  nearly  as  pure  and  elegant  as  his  Latin,  and  was  severely 
criticised  by  Beza.  He  translated  portions  of  Homer,  Xeno- 
phon,  the  Dialogues  of  Ochino,  and  also  two  mystical  books, 
the  Theologia  Grermmiiea  (1557),  and,  in  the  last  year  of 
his  life,  the  Imitatio  Christi  of  Thomas  a  Kempis,  —  "e  latino 
in  latinum,''  that  is,  from  monkish  into  classical  Latin, — 
omitting,  however,  the  fourth  book. 

Castellio  was  a  philologist  and  critic,  an  orator  and  poet, 
but  not  a  theologian,  and  unable  to  rise  to  the  lofty  height 


624         THE    REFORMATION    IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

of  Calvin's  views  and  mission.  His  controversial  tracts  are  full 
of  bitterness.  He  combined  a  mystical  with  a  sceptical  ten- 
dency-^ He  was  an  anachronism  ;  a  rationalist  before  Rational- 
ism, an  advocate  of  religious  toleration  in  an  age  of  intolerance. 

Castellio  became  acquainted  with  Calvin  at  Strassburg,  and 
lived  with  him  in  the  same  house  (1540).  Calvin  appre- 
ciated his  genius,  scholarship,  and  literary  industry,  and,  on 
his  return  to  Geneva,  he  secured  for  him  a  call  as  rector  of 
the  Latin  school  at  a  salary  of  four  hundred  and  fifty  florins 
(November,  1541),  in  the  place  of  his  old  teacher,  Maturin 
Cordier.  He  treated  him  at  first  with  marked  kindness  and 
forbearance.  In  1542,  when  the  pestilence  raged,  Castellio 
offered  to  go  to  the  hospital,  but  he  was  either  rejected  as 
not  qualihed,  not  being  a  minister,  or  he  changed  his  mind 
Avhen  the  lot  fell  on  him.^ 

Early  in  the  year  1544,  Castellio  took  offence  at  some  of 
Calvin's  theological  opinions,  especially  his  doctrine  of  pre- 
destination. He  disliked  his  severe  discipline  and  the  one- 
man-power.  He  anticipated  the  rationalistic  opinion  on  the 
Song  of  Solomon,  and  described  it  as  an  obscene,  erotic  poem, 
which  should  be  stricken  out  of  the  canon.^  He  also  objected 
to  the  clause  of  Christ's  descent  into  Hades  in  the  Apostles' 
Creed,  or  rather  to  Calvin's  figurative  explanation  of  it,  as 
being  a  vicarious  foretaste  of  eternal  pain  by  Christ  on  the 
cross.*     For  these    reasons    Calvin    opposed   his    ordination, 

^  Stiihelin  (II.  303)  calls  him  "  ein  rationalistischer  Gefiihlstheologe  mit  ausge- 
prdc/t  (Esthetischem  AnstricJi." 

2  The  latter  is  Beza's  explanation,  Vita  Calv.  in  Annal.,  Opera,  XXI.  134. 

3  "  Carmen  obscoenum  et  lascivuin,  quo  Salomo  impudicos  siws  amoves  descrlp- 
serit."     Comp.  Reg.  du  Conseil,  Jan.  28,  1544,  in  Annal.  329. 

*  Calvin,  in  his  catechism,  explains  the  descensus  ad  inferos  to  mean  the 
suffering  of  the  "  dolores  mortis"  (Acts  2:24)  or  "  horribiles  angustias"  on  the 
cross  in  behalf  of  the  elect.  This  unhistorical  exposition  passed  into  the  Hei- 
delberg Catechism,  Quasst.  44:  "Christ,  my  Lord,  by  his  inexpressible  anguish, 
pains,  and  terrors,  which  he  suffered  in  liis  soul  on  the  cross  and  before,  has 
redeemed  me  from  the  anguish  and  torment  of  hell."  The  true  meaning  of 
the  clause  is,  that  the  descent  was  an  event  which  took  place  between  the 
death  and  the  resurrection  of  Clirist.     Comp.  1  Pet.  3 :  19  ;  4:6;  Eph.  4 : 9. 


§  126.    CALVIN   AND   CASTELLIO.  626 

but  recommended  an  increase  of  his  salary,  which  the  Coun- 
cil refused,  with  the  direction  that  he  should  keep  better 
discipline  in  the  school. ^  He  also  gave  him  an  honorable 
public  testimony  when  he  wished  to  leave  Geneva,  and 
added  private  letters  of  recommendation  to  friends.  Cas- 
tellio  went  to  Lausanne,  but  soon  returned  to  Geneva.  In 
April,  1544,  he  asked  the  Council  to  continue  him  in  his 
position  for  April,  May,  and  June,  which  was  agreed  to.^ 

In  a  public  discussion  on  some  Scripture  text  in  the  weekly 
congregation  at  which  about  sixty  persons  were  present, 
May  30,  1544,  he  eulogized  St.  Paul  and  drew  an  unfavorable 
contrast  between  him  and  the  ministers  of  Geneva,  charging 
them  with  drunkenness,  impurity,  and  intolerance.  Calvin 
listened  in  silence,  but  complained  to  the  Syndics  of  this  con- 
duct.^ Castellio  was  summoned  before  the  Council,  which, 
after  a  patient  hearing,  found  him  guilty  of  calumny,  and 
banished  him  from  the  city.* 

He  went  to  Basel,  where  the  liberal  spirit  of  Erasmus  had 
not  yet  died  out.  He  lived  there  several  years  in  great 
poverty  till  1553,  when  he  obtained  a  Greek  professorship 
in  the  University.  That  University  was  the  headquarters 
of  opposition  to  Calvinism.  Several  sceptical  Italians  gath- 
ered there.  Fr.  Hotoman  wrote  to  Bullinger :  "  Calvin  is  no 
better  spoken  of  here  than  in  Paris.  If  one  Avishes  to  scold 
another,  he  calls  him  a  Calvinist.  He  is  most  unjustly  and 
immoderately  assailed  from  all  quarters."  ^ 

In  the  summer  of  1554,  an  anonymous  letter  was  addressed 
to  the  Genevese  with  atrocious  charges  against  Calvin,  who 
suspected  that  it  was  written  by  Castellio,  and  complained 

1  See  Reg.  du  Conseil,  Jan.  14,  1544,  quoted  in  Annul.  328. 

2  E.xtriict  from  Reg.  du  Conseil,  April  12,  1544,  in  Annul.  333. 

3  May  31,  Annal.  336. 

*  Tliis  is  tlie  report  of  Beza:  "ear  nrhe  excedere  jussus  est " ;  but  Castellio 
seems  to  have  remained  in  Geneva  till  July  14.  See  Reg.  du  Conseil,  in  Annal. 
340. 

s  Trechsel,  Antitrinitarier,  I.  219;  Stiihelin,  II.  304. 


626         THE   REFORMATION    IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

of  it  to  Antistes  Sulzer  of  Basel ;  but  Castellio  denied  the 
authorship  before  the  Council  of  Basel.  About  the  same 
time  appeai-ed  from  the  same  anonymous  source  a  malignant 
tract  against  Calvin,  which  collected  his  most  obnoxious 
utterances  on  predestination,  and  was  sent  to  Paris  for 
publication  to  fill  the  French  Protestants,  then  struggling 
for  existence,  with  distrust  of  the  Reformer  (1555).  Calvin 
and  Beza  replied  with  much  indignation  and  bitterness,  and 
heaped  upon  the  author  such  epithets  as  dog,  slanderer,  cor- 
rupter of  Scripture,  vagabond,  blasphemer.  Calvin,  upon 
insufficient  information,  even  charged  him  with  theft.  Cas- 
tellio, in  self-defence,  informs  us  that,  with  a  large  family- 
dependent  on  him,  he  was  in  the  habit  of  gathering  drift- 
wood on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine  to  keep  himself  warm,  and 
to  cook  his  food,  while  Avorking  at  the  completion  of  his  trans- 
lation of  the  Scriptures  till  midnight.  He  effectively  replied 
to  Calvin's  reproachful  epithets :  "  It  ill  becomes  so  learned 
a  man  as  yourself,  the  teacher  of  so  many  others,  to  degrade 
so  excellent  an  intellect  by  such  foul  and  sordid  abuse." 

Castellio  incurred  the  suspicion  of  the  Council  of  Basel  by 
las  translation  of  Ochino's  Dialogues^  which  contained  opin- 
ions favorable  to  Unitarianism  and  polygamy  (1663).  He 
defended  himself  by  alleging  that  he  acted  not  as  judge, 
but  only  as  translator,  for  the  support  of  liis  family.  He 
was  warned  to  cease  meddling  with  theology  and  to  stick 
to  philology. 

He  died  in  poverty,  Dec.  29,  1563,  only  forty-eight  years 
old,  leaving  four  sons  and  four  daughters  from  two  wives. 
Calvin  saw  in  his  death  a  judgment  of  God,  but  a  few  months 
afterwards  he  died  himself.  Even  the  mild  Bullinger  ex- 
pressed satisfaction  that  the  translator  of  Ochino's  dangerous 
books  had  left  this  world.^     Three    Polish   Socinians,  who 

1  He  wrote  to  Zanchi  at  Chiavenna,  March  17,  15(i4 :  "  Opt.ime  factuiyi,  quod 
BdsllecE  mortuus  est  Castellio."  Quoted  by  Trechsel,  I.  214,  from  the  Siinler 
Collection  in  Ziirich. 


§  126.    CALV'IN    AND    CASTELLIO.  627 

happened  to  pass  through  Basel,  were  more  merciful  than 
the  orthodox,  and  erected  to  Castellio  a  monument  in  tlie 
cloister  adjoining  the  minster.  Faustus  Socinus  edited  his 
posthumous  works.  The  youngest  of  his  children,  Frederic 
Castellio,  acquired  some  distinction  as  a  philologist,  orator, 
musician,  and  poet,  and  was  appointed  professor  of  Greek, 
and  afterwards  of  rhetoric,  in  Basel. 

Castellio  left  no  school  behind  him,  but  his  writings  exerted 
considerable  influence  on  the  development  of  Sociniaii  and 
Arminian  opinions.  He  opposed  Calvinism  with  the  same 
arguments  as  Pighius  and  Bolsec,  and  charged  it  with 
destroying  the  foundations  of  morality  and  turning  (jod 
into  a  tyrant  and  hypocrite.  He  essentially  agreed  with 
Pelagianism,  and  prepared  the  way  for  Socinianism. 

He  differed  also  from  Calvin  on  the  subject  of  persecution. 
Being  himself  persecuted,  he  was  one  of  the  very  few  advo- 
cates of  religious  toleration  in  opposition  to  the  prevailing 
doctrine  and  practice  of  his  age.  In  this  point  also  he  sym- 
pathized with  the  Unitarians.  After  the  execution  of  Serve- 
tus  and  Calvin's  defence  of  the  same,  there  appeared,  under 
the  false  name  of  IMartinus  Bellius,  a  book  against  the  theory 
of  reMgious  persecution,  which  was  ascribed  to  Castellio.^  He 
denied  the  authorship.  He  had,  however,  contributed  to  it 
a  part  under  the  name  of  Basilius  (Sebastian)  Montfortius 
(Castellio).  The  pseudo-name  of  Martinus  Bellius,  the 
editor  who  wrote  the  dedicatory  preface  to  Duke  Christopher 
of  Wiirttemberg  (the  protector  of  Vergerius),  has  never  been 
unmasked.  The  book  is  a  collection  of  judgments  of  differ- 
ent   writers    against    the    capital    punishment    of    heretics. 

1  De  hareticis  an  sint  persequendi,  el  omnino  quomodo  sit  cum  eis  agendum, 
doctorum  virorum  turn  veterum  turn  recentiorum  sententia.  Liber  hoc  tarn  turbulento 
tempore  pernecessarius.  Magdeburgi,  per  Georg.  Bausch,  1554,  mense  martio, 
173  pp.  8°.  I  copy  the  title  of  the  book  (which  I  have  not  seen)  from  La 
In-ance  Prot.,  IV.  130.  The  writer  of  this  article  and  Baum  attribute  tlie 
book  to  Castellio,  but  Schweizer,  I.  315  sq.,  shows  that  he  wrote  only  a  part 
of  it.     Comp.  Buisson,  I.e.,  I.  358  sqq.,  and  II.  1  sqq. 


628         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Calvin  and  Beza  were  indignant,  and  correctly  ascribed  the 
book  to  a  secret  company  of  Italian  "  Academici,"  —  Leelius 
Socinus,  Curio,  and  Castellio.  They  also  suspected  that 
Mao-deburg,  the  alleged  place  of  publication,  was  Basel,  and 
the  printer  an  Italian  refugee,  Pietro  Perna. 

Castellio  wrote  also  a  tract,  during  the  Huguenot  wars  in 
France,  1562,  in  which  he  defended  religious  liberty  as  the 
only  remedy  against  religious  wars.^ 

§  127.    Oalvinism  and  Unitarianis^n.     The  Italian  Refugees. 

Comp.  §§  38-40  (pp.  144-163). 

I.  Calvin  :  Ad  questiones  Georgii  Blandatrce  responsum  (1558)  ;  Responsum  ad 
Fratres  Polonos  quomodo  mediator  sit  Christits  ad  refutandum  Stancari  erro- 
rem  (1560)  ;  Inipietas  Valentini  Gentilis  detecta  et  palam  traducta  qui  Chris- 
tum non  sine  sacrilega  blaspliemia  Deum  essentiatum  esse  Jingit  (1561) ; 
Brevis  admonitio  ad  Fratres  Polonos  ne  tripUcem  in  Deo  essentiam  pro  tribus 
personis  imaginando  ires  sihi  Deos  fabricent  (1563);  Epistola  Jo.  Calv.  quo 
fidem  Admonitionis  ab  eo  nuper  editce  apiid  Polonos  confirmat  (1563).  All 
in  Opera,  Tom.  IX.  321  sqq.  The  correspondence  of  Calvin  with  Lelio 
Sozini  and  other  Italians,  see  below.  On  the  controversy  with  Servetus, 
see  next  chapter. 
The  Socinian  writings  are  collected  in  the  Bibliotheca  fratrum  Polonoruni  quos 

Unitarios  vacant,  Irenopoli  (Amsterdam),  1656  sqq.,  8  vols  in  11  tomes  fol. 

it  contains  the  writings  of  the  younger  Socinus  and  his  successors  (Schlich- 

ting,  Crell,  etc.). 

JI.  Tkechsel  :  Die  Protestantischen  Antitrinitarler,  Heidelberg,  1839  and  1844, 
2  vols.  The  first  volume  treats  chiefly  of  Servetus;  the  second,  of  the 
Italian  Antitrinitarians. — Otto  Fock:  Der  Socinianismus,  Kiel,  1847. 
(The  first  part  contains  the  historj',  the  second  and  more  valuable  part 
the  system,  of  Socinianism.)  —  Schweizer:  Die  Protest.  Centraldogmen 
(Zurich,  1854),  vol.  I.  293  sqq.  —  Henry,  III.  270  sqq.  —Dyer,  446  sqq. 
—  Stahelin,  II.  319  sqq.  —  L.  Coligny  :  L'Antitrinitarianism  a  Geneve  au 
temps  de  Calvin.  Geneve,  1873.  —  Harnack  :  Dogmengeschichte,  III. 
(1890)  653-691.     Comp.  Sand  :  Bibliotheca  Antitrinitariorum,  1684. 

The  Italian  Protestants  who  were  compelled  to  flee  from 
the  Inquisition,  sought  refuge  in  Switzerland,  and  organized 
congregations  under  native  pastors  in  the  Grisons,  in  Ziirich, 

1  "  Conseil  a  la  France  d€sole'e,  auquel  est  montree  la  cause  de  la  guerre  pre'sente 
et  le  remede  qui  y  pourroit  etre  mis,  et  principalement  est  arise'  si  on  doit  forcer  les 
consciences."  The  writer  in  La  France  Prot.,  IV.  135-138,  gives  large  extracts 
from  tliis  exceedingly  rare  tract.     See  also  Buisson,  II.  225  sqq. 


§  127.    CALVINISM    AND    UNITARIANISM.  629 

and  Geneva.  A  few  of  them  gathered  also  in  Basel,  and 
associated  there  with  Castellio  and  the  admirers  of  Erasmus.^ 

An  Italian  Chnrch  was  organized  at  Geneva  in  1542, 
and  reorganized  in  1551,  under  Galeazzo  Caraccioli,  Marquis 
of  Vico.  Its  chief  pastors  were  Ragnione,  Count  Martinengo 
(who  died  1557),  and  Balbani. 

Among  the  279  fugitives  who  received  the  rights  of  citi- 
zenship in  that  city  on  one  day  of  the  year  1558,  there  were 
200  Frenchmen,  50  Englishmen,  25  Italians,  and  4  Spaniards. 

The  descendants  of  the  refugees  gradually  merged  into 
the  native  population.  Some  of  the  best  families  in  Geneva, 
Ziirich,  and  Basel  still  bear  the  names  and  cherish  the  mem- 
ories of  their  foreign  ancestors.  In  the  valleys  of  Poschiavo 
and  Bregaglia  of  the  Grisons,  several  Protestant  Italian  con- 
gregations survive  to  this  day.^ 

The  Italian  Protestants  were  mostly  educated  men,  who 
had  passed  through  the  door  of  the  Renaissance  to  the 
Reformation,  or  who  had  received  the  first  impulse  from  the 
writings  of  Luther,  Zwingli,  and  Calvin.  We  must  distin- 
guish among  them  two  classes,  as  they  were  chiefly  influenced 
either  by  religious  or  intellectual  motives.  Those  who  had 
experienced  a  severe  moral  struggle  for  peace  of  conscience, 
became  strict  Calvinists  ;  those  who  were  moved  by  a  desire 
for  freedom  of  thought  from  the  bondage  of  an  exclusive 
creed,  sympathized  more  with  Erasmus  than  with  Luther  and 
Calvin,  and  had  a  tendency  to  Unitarianism  and  Pelagianism. 
Zanchi  warned  BuUinger  against  recommending  Italians  for 
sound  doctrine  until  he  had  ascertained  their  views  on  God 
and  on  original  sin.  The  same  national  characteristics  con- 
tinue to  this  day  among  the  Romanic  races.  If  Italians, 
Frenchmen,  or  Spaniards  cease  to  be  Romanists,  they  are  apt 
to  become  sceptics  and  agnostics.     They  rarely  stop  midway. 

1  Henry,  II.  422 ;  Schweizer,  I.  293. 

'^  On  the  Italian  refugees  in  the  Grisons,  and  in  Zurich,  see  above,  §§  38, 
39,  and  40 ;  and  Trechsel,  I.e.,  II.  64  sqq. 


630         THE   REFORMATION    Df   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

The  ablest,  most  learned,  and  most  worthy  representatives 
of  orthodox  Calvinism  among  the  converted  Italians  were 
Peter  Martvr  Vermigli  of  Florence  (1500-1562),  who  became, 
successivelv,  professor  at  Strassburg  (1543).  at  Oxford 
(1547),  and  last  at  Ziirich  (1555),  and  his  younger  friend, 
Jerome  Zanchi  (1516-1590),  who  labored  first  in  the  Grisons, 
and  then  as  professor  at  Strassburg  (1553)  and  at  Heidelberg 
(1568).  Calvin  made  several  ineffectual  attempts  to  secure 
both  for  the  Italian  congregation  in  Geneva.^ 

The  sceptical  and  antitrinitarian  Italians  were  more  numer- 
ous among  the  scholars.  Calvin  aptly  called  them  "  sceptical 
Academicians."  They  assembled  chiefly  at  Basel,  where 
they  breathed  the  atmosphere  of  Erasmian  humanism. 
They  gave  the  Swiss  Churches  a  great  deal  of  trouble.  They 
took  offence  at  the  Catholic  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  which 
they  misconstrued  into  tritheism,  or  Sabellianism.  at  the 
orthodox  Christology  of  two  natures  in  one  person,  and  at 
the  Calvinistic  doctrines  of  total  depravity  and  diAine  pre- 
destination, which  they  charged  with  tending  to  immorality*. 
They  doubted  the  right  of  infant  baptism,  and  denied  the 
real  presence  in  the  Eucharist.  They  hated  ecclesiastical 
discipline.  They  admired  Servetus,  and  disapproved  of  his 
burning.  They  advocated  religious  toleration,  which  threat- 
ened to  throw  everything  into  confusion. 

To  this  class  belong  the  two  Sozini,  —  uncle  and  nephew, 
—  Curio,  Ochino  (in  his  latter  years').  Renato.  Gribaldo, 
Biandrata,  Alciati,  and  Gentile.  Castellio  is  also  counted 
with  these  Italian  sceptics.  He  thoroughly  sided  with  their 
anti-Calvinism,  and  translated  from  the  Italian  manuscripts 
into  Latin  the  last  books  of  Ochino. 

1  See  above,  pp.  156  and  162,  and  C.  Schmidt,  Peter  Martyr  Vermigli.  Leben 
und  auspeirahlte  ScJ^irifien,  Elberfeld.  1858  (p.  296).  Vergerio,  the  former 
bishop  of  Capo  d'Istria  and  papal  nuncio,  is  also  numbered  among  the  ortho- 
dox Italians,  but  he  had  no  settled  opinions,  and  was  no  theologian  in  the 
proper  sense.  See  above,  §  38,  pp.  144  sqq.  E.  Tremellio,  a  converted  Jew 
of  Ferrara  (1510-1580),  one  of  the  most  learned  Orientalists,  was  a  Calvinist. 


§  127.    C-\LVESISM    AND    UNITARIAN IS.M.  Gol 

Thus  the  seeds  for  a  new  and  heretical  type  of  Protestant- 
ism were  abundantly  sown  by  these  Italian  refugees  in  the 
soil  of  the  Swiss  Churches,  which  had  received  them  with 
open-hearted  hospitality. 

Fausto  Sozini  (1539-1604)  formulated  the  loose  heterodox 
opinions  of  this  school  of  sceptics  into  a  theological  system, 
and  organized  an  ecclesiastical  society  in  Poland,  where  thev 
enjoyed  toleration  till  the  Jesuitical  reaction  drove  them 
away.  Poland  was  the  Xorthern  home  of  the  Italian  Renais- 
sance. Italian  architects  bmlt  the  great  churches  and  palaces 
in  Cracow.  Warsaw,  and  other  cities,  and  gave  them  an  Italian 
aspect.  Fausto  Sozini  spent  some  time  in  Lyons.  Ziirich 
(where  he  collected  the  papers  of  his  uncle),  and  Basel,  but 
labored  chiefly  in  Poland,  and  acquired  great  influence  with 
the  upper  classes  by  his  polished  manners,  amiability,  and 
marriage  with  the  daughter  of  a  nobleman.  Yet  he  was  once 
mobbed  by  fanatical  students  and  priests  at  Cracow,  who 
dragged  him  through  the  stieets  and  destroyed  his  library. 
He  bore  the  persecution  like  a  philosopher.  His  ^nitings 
were  published  by  his  nephew.  Wiszowaty.  in  the  fii'st  two 
volumes  of  the  BibUothecafratrum  J'ol&norunu  1656. 

This  is  not  the  place  for  a  full  history  of  Socinianism. 
We  have  only  to  do  with  its  initiatory  movements  in  Switz- 
erland, and  its  connection  with  Calvin.  But  a  few  general 
remarks  wUl  facilitate  an  understanding. 

Socinianism,  as  a  system  of  theology,  has  largely  affected 
the  theology  of  orthodox  Protestantism  on  the  Continent 
during  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  and  was 
succeeded  by  modern  Unitarianism.  which  has  exerted  con- 
siden\ble  influence  on  the  thought  and  literature  of  England 
and  America  in  the  nineteenth  centiuy.  It  forms  the  extreme 
left  wing  of  Protestantism,  and  the  antipode  to  Calvinism. 
The  Socinians  admitted  that  Calvinism  is  the  only  logical 
system  on  the  basis  of  universal  depravity-  and  absolute  fore- 
knowledge and  foreordination :   but  they  denied  these  pre- 


632         THE  KEFOKMATION   IN   FilENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

mises,  and  taught  moral  ability,  free-will,  and,  strange  to  say, 
a  limitation  of  divine  foreknowledge.  God  foreknows  and 
foreordains  only  the  necessary  future,  but  not  the  contingent 
future,  which  depends  on  the  free-will  of  man.  The  two 
systems  are  therefore  directly  opposed  in  their  theology  and 
anthropology. 

And  yet  there  is  a  certain  intellectual  and  moral  affinity 
between  them ;  as  there  is  between  Lutheranism  and  Ration- 
alism. It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  modern  Unitarianisra  has 
grown  up  in  the  Calvinistic  (Presbyterian  and  Independent) 
Churches  of  Geneva,  France,  Holland,  England,  and  New 
England,  while  Kationalism  has  been  chiefly  developed  in 
Lutheran  Germany.  But  the  reaction  is  also  found  in  those 
countries. 

The  Italian  and  Polish  Socinians  took  substantially  the 
same  ground  as  the  English  and  American  Unitarians.  They 
were  opposed  alike  to  Romanism  and  Calvinism ;  they 
claimed  intellectual  freedom  of  dissent  and  investigation  as  a 
right ;  they  elevated  the  ethical  spirit  of  Christianity  above  the 
dogmas,  and  they  had  much  zeal  for  higher  liberal  education. 
But  they  differ  on  an  important  point.  The  Socinians  had  a 
theological  system,  and  a  catechism;  the  modern  Unitarians 
refuse  to  be  bound  by  a  fixed  creed,  and  are  independent  in 
church  polity.  Tliey  allow  more  liberty  for  new  departures, 
either  in  the  direction  of  rationalism  and  humanitarianism,  or 
in  the  opposite  direction  of  supernaturalism  and  trinitarianism. 

Calvin  was  in  his  early  ministry  charged  with  Arianism 
by  a  theological  quack  (Caroli),  because  he  objected  to  the 
damnatory  clauses  of  the  pseudo-Athanasian  creed,  and 
expressed  once  an  unfavorable  opinion  on  the  Nicene  Creed.^ 
But  his  difficulty  was  only  with  the  scholastic  or  metaphysi- 
cal terminology,^  not  with  the  doctrine  itself ;  and  as  to  the 

^  As  a,  "  carmen  cantillando  magis  aptmn,  quam  confessionis  formula."  In  his 
tract  De  vera  Ecclesice  reformatione.     Comp.  §  82,  pp.  351  sq. 

-  ovaia,  vn6(Traffis,  trpoaanrop,  essentia,  substantia,  persona,  etc.,  and  other 
terms  of  the  Nicene  age. 


§  128.    CALVIN   AND   L^LIUS    SOCINUS.  633 

divinity    of   Christ   and   of   the    Holy    Spirit,  he  was    most 
emphatic. 

It  is  chiefly  due  to  Calvin's  and  Bullinger's  influence  that 
Unitarianism,  which  began  to  undermine  orthodoxy,  and  to 
unsettle  the  Churches,  was  banished  from  Switzerland.  It 
received  its  death-blow  in  the  execution  of  Servetus,  who 
was  a  Spaniard,  but  the  ablest  and  most  dangerous  antitrini- 
tarian.     His  case  will  be  discussed  in  a  special  chapter. 

§  128.    Calvin  and  La^lius  Socinus. 

F.  Trechsel  (pastor  at  Vechingen,  near  Bern)  :  Die  protest.  Antitrinitarier 
vor  Faustus  Socinus  nach  den  Qiiellen  und  Urkunden  geschicktiich  dargestellt. 
Heidelberg,  1839,  1844.  The  first  part  of  this  learned  work,  drawn  in 
part  from  manuscript  sources,  is  devoted  to  Michael  Servetus  and  his 
predecessors ;  the  second  part  to  Lelio  Sozini  and  his  sympatliizing  con- 
temporaries. The  third  section  of  vol.  II.  187-201,  with  documents  in 
the  Appendix,  pp.  431-459,  treats  of  Lelio  Sozini.  — Henry,  II.  484  sqq. ; 
III.  440,  Beilage,  128.— Dver,  251  (very  brief). 

Lselius  Socinus,  or  Lelio  Sozini,  of  Siena  (1525-1562),  son 
of  an  eminent  professor  of  law,  was  well  educated,  and 
carried  away  by  the  reform  movement  in  his  early  youth. 
He  voluntarily  separated  from  the  Roman  Church,  in  1546, 
at  the  sacrifice  of  home  and  fortune.  He  removed  to  Chia- 
venna  in  1547,  travelled  in  Switzerland,  France,  England, 
Germany,  and  Poland,  leading  an  independent  life  as  a  stu- 
dent, without  public  office,  supported  by  the  ample  means 
of  his  father.  He  studied  Greek,  Hebrew,  and  Arabic  with 
Pellican  and  Bibliander  at  Ziirich  and  with  Foster  at  Witten- 
berg, that  he  might  reach  "  the  fountain  of  the  divine  law  " 
in  the  Bible.  He  made  Ziirich  his  second  home,  and  died 
there  in  the  prime  of  early  manhood,  leaving  his  unripe 
doubts  and  crude  opinions  as  a  legacy  to  his  more  gifted 
and  famous  nephew,  who  gave  them  definite  shape  and  form. 

Lselius  was  learned,  arcute,  polite,  amiable,  and  prepossess- 
ing. He  was  a  man  of  affairs,  better  fitted  for  law  or  diplo- 
macy than  for  theology.     He  was  constitutionally  a  sceptic, 


634         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

of  the  type  of  Thomas :  an  honest  seeker  after  truth ;  too 
independent  to  submit  blindly  to  authority,  and  yet  too 
relio-ious  to  run  into  infidelity.  His  scepticism  stumbled 
first  at  the  Roman  Catholic,  than  at  the  Protestant  ortho- 
doxy, and  gradually  spread  over  the  doctrines  of  the  resurrec- 
tion, predestination,  original  sin,  the  trinity,  the  atonement, 
and  the  sacraments.  Yet  he  remained  in  respectful  connec- 
tion with  the  Reformers,  and  communed  with  the  congre- 
gation at  Ziirich,  although  he  thought  that  the  Consensus 
Tigurinus  attributed  too  much  power  to  the  sacrament.  He 
enjoyed  the  confidence  of  Bullinger  and  jNIelanchthon,  who 
treated  him  with  fatherly  kindness,  but  regarded  him  better 
fitted  for  a  secular  calling  than  for  the  service  of  the  Church. 
Calvin  also  was  favorably  impressed  with  his  talents  and 
personal  character,  but  displeased  with  his  excessive  "  inquis- 
itiveness."  ^ 

L.  Socinus  came  to  Geneva  in  1548  or  1549,  seeking 
instruction  from  the  greatest  divine  of  the  age.  He  opened 
his  doubts  to  Calvin  with  the  modesty  of  a  disciple.  Soon 
afterwards  he  addressed  to  him  a  letter  from  Ziirich,  asking 
for  advice  on  the  questions,  whether  it  was  lawful  for  a 
Protestant  to  marry  a  Roman  Catholic ;  whether  popish 
baptism  was  efficacious ;  and  how  the  doctrine  of  the  resur- 
rection of  the  body  could  be  explained. 

Calvin  answered  in  an  elaborate  letter  (June  26,  1549),^ 
to  the  effect  that  marriage  with  Romanists  was  to  be  con- 
demned ;  that  popish  baptism  was  valid  and  efficacious,  and 
should  be  resorted  to  when  no  other  can  be  had,  since  the 
Roman  communion,  though  corrupt,  still  retained  marks  of 
the  true  Church  as  well  as  a  scattered  number  of  elect  indi- 
viduals, and  since  baptism  was  not  a  popish  invention  but 

^  "  Inexplicabilis  curiositas,"  as  he  called  it,  adding:  "  Uthiuin  non  simul 
accederet  phrenetira  qucedam  protervia."  Letter  to  Bullinger,  Aug.  7,  1554 
{Opera,  XV.  208). 

2  Ep.  1212  in  Opera,  VIII.  307-311.  We  have  in  all  four  letters  of  Calvin 
to  the  elder  Socinus,  and  one  from  Socinus  to  Calvin. 


§  128.    CALVIN    AND    L^LIUS    SOCINUS.  635 

a  divine  institution  and  gift  of  God  who  fulfils  his  promises  ; 
that  the  question  on  the  mode  of  the  resurrection,  and  its 
relation  to  the  changing  states  of  our  mortal  body,  was  one 
of  curiosity  rather  than  utility. 

Before  receiving  this  answer,  Socinus  wrote  to  Calvin 
again  from  Basel  (July  25,  1549)  on  the  same  subjects,  espe- 
cially the  resurrection,  which  troubled  his  mind  very  much.' 
To  this  Calvin  returned  another  answer  (December,  1549), 
and  warned  him  against  the  dangers  of  his  sceptical  bent  of 
mind.^ 

Socinus  Avas  not  discouraged  by  the  earnest  rebuke,  nor 
shaken  in  his  veneration  for  Calvin.  During  the  Bolsec 
troubles,  when  at  A¥ittenberg,  he  laid  before  him  his  scruples 
about  predestination  and  free-will,  and  appealed  to  the  testi- 
mony of  Melanchthon,  whom  he  had  informed  about  the 
harsh  treatment  of  Bolsec.  Calvin  answered  briefly  and  not 
without  some  degree  of  bitterness.^ 

Socinus  visited  Geneva  a  second  time  in  1554,  after  his 
return  from  a  journey  to  Italy,  and  before  making  Ziirich 
his  final  home.  He  was  then,  apparently,  still  in  friendly 
relations  to  Calvin  and  Caraccioli.^  Soon  afterwards  he 
opened  to  Calvin,  in  four  questions,  his  objections  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  vicarious  atonement.  Calvin  went  to  the 
trouble  to  answer  them  at  length,  with  solid  arguments, 
June,  1555.^ 

But  Socinus  was  not  satisfied.  His  scepticism  extended 
further  to  the  doctrine  of  the  sacraments  and  of  the  Trinit3\ 

1  Opera,  XIII.  337  sq. 

2  Ep.  1323  in  Opera,  XIII.  484-487. 

3  Opera,  XIV.  228.  The  answer  of  Calvin  in  the  Geneva  library  is  with- 
out date.  Bonnet,  who  first  published  it  (II.  315),  puts  it  at  the  end  of  1551 ; 
but  it  probably  belongs  to  the  beginning  of  1552.  See  Melanchthon's  letters 
of  Feb.  1,  1552,  in  which  he  mentions  Laelio's  reports  about  Bolseo's  treat- 
ment, quoted  p.  621,  note. 

*  As  may  be  inferred  from  a  postscript  to  his  letter  to  BuUinger,  dated 
Geneva,  April  19,  1554,  in  Trechsel,  II.  437. 

^  Responsio  ad  aliquot  LcJIi  Socini  Senensis  qmestionex,  printed  among  the 
Consilia  tkeolofjica,  in  O/iera,  vol.  X.  160-165.     Comp.  vol.  XV.  642. 


636         THE    EEFOEMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

He  doubted  first  the  personality  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  then 
the  eternal  divinity  of  Christ.  He  disapproved  the  execution 
of  Servetus,  and  advocated  toleration. 

Various  complaints  against  Socinus  readied  Bullinger. 
Calvin  requested  him  to  restrain  the  restless  curiosity  of 
the  sceptic.  Vergerio,  then  at  Tiibingen,  Saluz  of  Coire, 
and  other  ministers,  sent  warnings.  Bullinger  instituted 
a  private  inquiry  in  a  kindly  spirit,  and  was  satisfied  with 
a  verbal  and  written  declaration  of  Socinus  (July  15,  1555) 
to  the  effect  that  he  fully  agreed  with  the  Scriptures  and 
the  Apostles'  Creed,  that  he  disapproved  the  doctrines  of 
the  Anabaptists  and  Servetus,  and  that  he  would  not  teach 
any  errors,  but  live  in  quiet  retirement.  Bullinger  protected 
him  asfainst  further  attacks. 

Socinus  ceased  to  trouble  the  Reformers  with  questions. 
He  devoted  himself  to  the  congregation  of  refugees  from 
Locarno,  and  secured  for  them  Oehino  as  pastor,  but  exerted 
a  bad  influence  upon  him.  Fortified  with  letters  of  recom- 
mendation he  made  another  journey  to  Italy,  via  Germany 
and  Poland,  to  recover  his  property  from  the  Inquisition. 
Calvin  gave  him  a  letter  to  Prince  Radziwill  of  Poland, 
dated  June,  1558,  to  further  his  object.^  But  Socinus  was 
bitterly  disappointed  in  his  wishes,  and  returned  to  Ziirich 
in  August,  1559.  The  last  few  years  of  his  short  life  he 
spent  in  quiet  retirement.  His  nephew  visited  him  several 
times,  and  revered  him  as  a  divinely  illuminated  man  to 
whom  he  owed  his  most  fruitful  ideas. 

The  personal  relation  of  Calvin  and  the  elder  Socinus  is 
one  of  curious  mutual  attraction  and  repulsion,  like  the  two 
systems  which  they  represent.^ 

1  Ep.  2876  in  Opera,  XVII.  181  sq.  Henry,  III.  Beilage,  128  sq.,  first 
published  tliis  letter  of  recommendation,  hut  misdated  it,  June,  1553.  LeeHus 
did  not  start  on  his  last  journey  to  Italy  before  1558. 

2  Trechsel,  II.  16(j,  thus  describes  the  personal  relationsliip :  "So  vianche 
Erf(ihriin(]  von  Calvin's  Schroffheit  Lelio  sowohl  an  sich  selhst  ah  an  ondern 
gemnrht  hntte^  so  war  doch  nichts  im  Stande,  sein  ac.htungsvolles  Zutrauen  zu  dem 


§  129.   BERNARDINO  OCHINO.      1487-1565.  637 

The  younger  Socinus,  the  real  founder  of  the  system 
called  after  him,  did  not  come  into  personal  contact  with 
Calvin,  and  labored  among  the  scattered  Unitarians  and 
Anabaptists  in  Poland. 

Calvin  took  a  deep  interest  in  the  progress  of  the  Refor- 
mation in  Poland,  and  wrote  several  letters  to  the  king,  to 
Prince  Radziwill,  and  some  of  the  Polish  nobility.  But 
when  the  writings  of  Servetus  and  antitrinitarian  opinions 
spread  in  that  kingdom,  he  warned  the  Polish  brethren,  in 
one  of  his  last  writings,  against  the  danger  of  this  heresy. 


§  129.    Bernardino  OcMno.     1487-1565. 

Comp.  §  40,  p.  1G2,  Ochino's  Sermons,  Tragedij,  Catechism,  Labijrinths,  and 
Dialu(jues.  His  works  are  very  rare;  one  of  the  best  cuUeclions  is  in  tiie 
library  of  Wolfenbuttel;  copious  extracts  in  Sclielhorn,  Treclisel, 
Schweizer,  and  Benratli.  A  full  list  in  Benrath's  monograph,  Appendix 
II.  374-382.  His  letters  (Italian  and  Latin),  ibid.  Appendix  I.  337-373. 
Ochino  is  often  mentioned  in  Calvin's  and  Bullinger's  correspondence. 

Zaccakia  Bovbkio  (Rom.  Catli.)  in  the  Chronicle  of  the  Order  of  the  Capu- 
chins, 1G30  (inaccurate  and  hostile),  Bayle's  "Diet."  —  Schkhiokn  : 
Ergotzlichheiten  aus  der  Kirchenhislorie,  Ulm  and  Leipzig,  17(54,  vol.  IIL 
(with  several  documents  in  Latin  and  Italian).  —  Trechsel:  Antitrinita- 
rier,  U.  202-270.  —  Schweizeu:  Centialdogmen,  I.  2!)7-300.  —  Cesark 
Cantu  (Hon).  Catli.)  :  GU  Eretici  d'  Italia,  Turin,  1560-1567,  3  vols. — 
BucHSENSciiUTz  :  Vie  et  Merits  de  B.  0.,  Strasbourg,  1872.  —  *  Kakl 
Bexratii  :  Bernardino  Ochino  von  Siena,  Ein  Beitrag  zur  Geschichte  der 
Reformation,  Leipzig,  1875  (384  pp. ;  English  translation  by  Helen  Zim- 
MER\,  with  preface  by  William  Arthur,  London,  1876, .304  pp.;  the  letters 
of  Ochino  are  omitted).  —  Comp.  C.  Schmidt  in  his  Peter  Martyr  Ver- 
migli  (1858),  pp.  21  sqq.,  and  art.  in  Herzog^  X.  680-683.  (This  article 
is  unsatisfactory  and  shows  no  knowledge  of  Benrath,  although  he  is 
mentioned  in  the  lit.) 

ansserordentlicJien  Maiine  zn  schwiicheit.  Gerade  ivie  ein  Pol  den  entgegenselzleu 
anzieht,  so  wurde  Lelio's  negative  Natur  von  der  positiven  Calvin's  unuii/liurlich 
angezogen,so  konnte  der  Mann  des  Ztceifels  nus  einer  Art  von  Instinkt  nicht  ttmhin 
bei  dem  Felsenmann  des  Glaubens,  der  mit  beispielloser  Kilhnheit  iind  Conserjiienz 
die  Tie/en  der  Gottheit  erforschte,  gleichsam  seine  Ergiimimg  zu  surhen,  ohne  doss 
die  totale  Divergenz  beider  Naturen  eine  Uebereinstimmung  des  Denkens  und  der 
Ansichlen  jemals  envarten  Hess." 


638         THE   REFORMATION    IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 


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yril    /eV/y 


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n    y      / 


Ml    SARA    FACILE    TUTTO    IN    ChRISTO   PER  EL  QUAL  VIVO  ET  SPERO    DI  MORIRE. 

(From  Ochino's  letter  to  the  Council  of  Siena,  Sept.  5,  1540 ;  reproduced 
from  Benrath's  monograph.) 

The  Capuchin  Monk. 

Bernardino  Ochino  ^  is  one  of  the  most  striking  and  pictur- 
esque characters  among  the  Italian  Protestants  of  the  Refor- 
mation period.  He  was  an  oratorical  genius  and  monkish 
saint  who  shone  with  meteoric  brilliancy  on  the  sky  of  Italy, 

1  Also  spelled  Occhino,  in  Latin  Ocellus. 


§  129.  BEiiNARDmo  OCHINO.     1487-1565.  639 

but  disappeared  at  last  under  a  cloud  of  scepticism  in  the 
far  North. 

He  reminds  one  of  three  other  eloquent  monks :  Savonarola, 
who  was  burnt  in  Florence  at  the  stake ;  Father  Gavazzi,  who 
became  a  Calvinist  and  died  peacefidl}-  in  Rome ;  and  Pere 
Hyacinthe,  who  left  the  Carmelite  order  and  the  pulpit  of 
Notre  Dame  in  Paris  without  joining  any  Protestant  Church. 

Ochino  was  born  in  the  fair  Tuscan  city  of  Siena,  which  is 
adorned  by  a  Gothic  marble  dome  and  gave  birth  to  six 
popes,  fifty  cardinals,  and  a  number  of  canonized  saints, 
among  them  the  famous  Caterina  of  Siena ;  but  also  to  Prot- 
estant heretics,  like  Lelio  and  Fausto  Sozini.  He  joined  the 
Franciscans,  and  afterwards  the  severe  order  of  the  Capu- 
chins, which  had  recently  been  founded  by  Fra  Matteo  Bassi 
in  1525.  He  hoped  to  gain  heaven  by  self-denial  and  good 
works.  He  far  surpassed  his  brethren  in  ability  and  learning,^ 
although  his  education  was  defective  (he  did  not  know  the 
original  languages  of  the  Bible).  He  was  twice  elected 
Vicar-General  of  the  Order.  He  was  revered  by  many  as 
a  saint  for  his  severe  asceticism  and  mortification  of  the 
flesh.  Vittoria  Colonna,  the  most  gifted  woman  of  Italy, 
and  the  Duchess  Renata  of  Ferrara  were  among  his  ardent 
admirers.     Pope  Paul  III.  intended  to  create  him  a  cardinal.^ 

Ochino  as  an  Orator. 

Ochino  was  the  most  popular  preacher  of  Italy  in  his  time. 
No  such  orator  had  appeared  since  the  death  of  Savonarola 
in  1498.  He  was  in  general  demand  for  the  course  of  ser- 
mons during  Lent,  and  everywhere  —  in  Siena,  Naples,  Rome, 
Florence,  Venice — he  attracted  crowds  of  people  who  listened 
to  him  as  to  a  prophet  sent  from  God. 

1  Boverius  (ad  ann.  1535):  "  Bemardinus  divinis  et  humanis  Uteris  non 
mediocriter  imbutus." 

2  Sand,  Seckendorf,  C.  Schmidt  (in  Herzog),  and  others,  state  that  the 
pope  made  Ochino  his  confessor;  but  this  is  without  support,  and  intrinsically 
improbable.     See  Benrath,  33  sq.  (German  ed.). 


640         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

We  can  hardly  understand  from  his  printed  sermons  the 
extravagant  laudations  of  his  contemporaries.  But  good 
preachers  were  rare  in  Italy,  and  the  effect  of  popular  oratory 
depends  upon  action  as  much  as  on  diction.  We  must 
take  into  account  the  magnetism  of  his  personality,  the  force 
of  dramatic  delivery,  the  lively  gestures,  the  fame  of  his 
monastic  sanctity,  his  emaciated  face,  his  gleaming  eyes, 
his  tall  stature  and  imposing  figure.  The  portrait  prefixed 
to  his  "Nine  Sermons,"  published  at  Venice,  1539,  shows 
him  to  us  as  he  was  at  the  time :  a  typical  Capuchin  monk, 
with  the  head  bent,  the  gaze  upturned,  the  eyes  deeply  sunk 
under  the  brows,  the  nose  aquiline,  the  mouth  half  open,  the 
head  shaved  on  top,  the  beard  reaching  down  to  his  breast. 

Cardinal  Sadolet  compared  him  to  the  orators  of  antiquity. 
One  of  his  hearers  in  Naples  said.  This  man  could  make  the 
very  stones  weep.^ 

Cardinal  Bembo  ^  secured  him  for  Lent  at  Venice  through 
Vittoria  Colonna,  and  wrote  to  her  (Feb.  23,  1539) :  "  I  have 
heard  him  all  through  Lent  with  such  pleasure  that  I  cannot 
praise  him  enough.  I  have  never  heard  more  useful  and 
edifying  sermons  than  his,  and  I  no  longer  wonder  that  you 
esteem  him  so  highly.  He  preaches  in  a  far  more  Christian 
manner  than  other  preachers,  with  more  real  sympathy  and 
love,  and  utters  more  soothing  and  elevating  thoughts. 
Every  one  is  delighted  with  him."  A  few  months  later 
(April  4,  1539)  he  wrote  to  the  same  lady :  "  Our  Fra  Ber- 
nardino is  literally  adored  here.  There  is  no  one  who  does 
not  praise  him  to  the  skies.  How  deeply  his  words  penetrate, 
how  elevating  and  comforting  his  discourses  !  "  He  begged 
him  to  eat  meat  and  to  restrain  from  excessive  abstinence 
lest  he  should  break  down. 

1  "  Predicava  con  ispirito  grande  che  faceva  piagnere  i  sassi."  Some  wrongly 
iittribute  this  saying  of  Rosso  to  the  Emperor  Charles  V.,  who  heard  Ochino 
at  Naples.     Benrath,  24,  note. 

^  He  was  then  the  historiographer  of  Venice,  but  was  soon  afterwards 
created  cardinal  by  Paul  III.,  March  24,  1539. 


§  129.    BERNARDINO   OCHINO.      1487-1565.  G41 

Even  Pietro  Aretino,  the  most  frivolous  and  immoral  poet 
of  that  time,  was  superficially  converted  for  a  brief  season  by 
Ochino's  preaching,  and  wrote  to  Paul  III.  (April  21,  1539)  : 
"  Bembo  has  won  a  thousand  souls  for  Paradise  by  brino-ino- 
to  Venice  Fra  Bernardino,  whose  modesty  is  equal  to  his 
virtue.  I  have  myself  begun  to  believe  in  the  exhortations 
trumpeted  forth  from  the  mouth  of  this  apostolic  monk." 

Cardinal  Commendone,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Amelia,  an 
enemy  of  Ochino,  gives  this  description  of  him  :  ''Eveiy  thing 
about  Ochino  contributed  to  make  the  admiration  of  the 
multitude  almost  overstep  all  human  bounds,  —  the  fame  of 
his  eloquence ;  his  prepossessing,  ingratiating  manner ;  his 
advancing  years;  his  mode  of  life;  the  rough  Capuchin 
garb ;  the  long  beard  reaching  to  his  breast ;  the  gray  hair ; 
the  pale,  thin  face ;  the  artificial  aspect  of  bodily  weakness ; 
finally,  the  reputation  of  a  holy  life.  Wherever  he  was  to 
speak  the  citizens  might  be  seen  in  crowds ;  no  church  was 
large  enough  to  contain  the  multitude  of  listeners.  Men 
flocked  as  numerously  as  women.  When  he  went  elsewhere 
the  crowd  followed  after  to  hear  him.  He  was  honored  not 
only  by  the  common  people,  but  also  by  princes  and  kings. 
Wherever  he  came  he  was  offered  hospitality ;  he  was  met 
at  his  arrival,  and  escoited  at  his  departure,  by  the  dignita- 
ries of  the  place.  He  himself  knew  how  to  increase  the 
desire  to  hear  him,  and  the  reverence  shown  him.  Obedient 
to  the  rule  of  his  order,  he  only  travelled  on  foot;  he  was 
never  seen  to  ride,  although  his  health  was  delicate  and  his 
age  advanced.  Even  when  Ochino  was  the  guest  of  nobles 
—  an  honor  he  could  not  always  refuse  —  he  could  never  be 
induced,  by  the  splendor  of  palaces,  dress,  and  ornament, 
to  forsake  his  mode  of  life.  When  invited  to  table,  he  ate 
of  only  one  very  simple  dish,  and  he  drank  little  wine ;  if 
a  soft  bed  had  been  prepared  for  him,  he  begged  permission 
to  rest  on  a  more  comfortable  pallet,  spread  his  cloak  on  the 
ground,  and  laid  down  to  rest.  These  practices  gain  him 
incredible  honor  throughout  all  Italy." 


642         THE   EEFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZEIILAND. 

CoNVEKSiox  TO  Protestantism. 

Ochino  was  already  past  fifty  when  he  began  to  lose  faith 
in  the  Roman  Church.  The  first  traces  of  the  change  are 
found  in  his  "Nine  Sermons"  and  ''Seven  Dialogues,"  which 
were  published  at  Venice  in  1539  and  1541.  He  seems  to 
have  passed  through  an  experience  similar  to  that  of  Luther 
in  the  convent  at  Erfurt,  only  less  deep  and  lasting.  The 
vain  monastic  struggle  after  righteousness  led  him  to  despair 
of  himself,  and  to  find  peace  in  the  assurance  of  justification 
by  faith  in  the  merits  of  Christ.  As  long  as  he  was  a  monk, 
so  he  informs  us,  he  went  even  beyond  the  requirements  of 
his  order  in  reading  masses,  praying  the  Pater  Noster  and 
Ave  Maria,  reciting  Psalms  and  prayers,  confessing  trifling 
sins  once  or  twice  a  day,  fasting  and  mortifying  his  body. 
But  he  came  gradually  to  the  conviction  that  Christ  has  fully 
satisfied  for  his  elect,  and  conquered  Paradise  for  them ;  that 
monastic  vows  were  not  obligatory,  and  were  even  immoral ; 
and  that  the  Roman  Church,  though  brilliant  in  outward 
appearance,  was  thoroughly  corrupt  and  an  abomination  in 
the  eyes  of  God. 

In  this  transition  state  he  was  much  influenced  by  his  per- 
sonal intercourse  with  Jean  de  Valdes  and  Peter  Martyr. 
Vald^s,  a  Spanish  nobleman  who  lived  at  Rome  and  Naples, 
was  an  evangelical  mystic,  and  the  real  author  of  that 
remarkable  book,  "  On  the  Benefit  of  Christ's  Death "  (pub- 
lished at  Venice,  1540).  It  was  formerly  attributed  to 
Aonio  Paleario  (a  friend  of  Ochino),  and  had  a  wide  circu- 
lation in  Italy  till  it  was  suppressed  and  publicly  burnt  at 
Naples  in  1553. 

During  the  Lent  season  of  1542,  Ochino  preached  his  last 
course  of  sermons  at  Venice.  The  papal  agents  watched 
him  closely  and  reported  some  expressions  as  heretical.  He 
was  forbidden  to  preach,  and  cited  to  Rome. 

Caraffa  had  persuaded  Pope  Paul  HI.  to  use  violent  meas- 
ures for  the  suppression  of  the  Protestant  heresy.     In  Rome, 


§  12'J.  iiEuxAUDi>;o  ocHiNO.     1487-1565.  643 

Peter  had  conquered  Simon  Magus,  the  patriarch  of  all 
heretics;  in  Rome,  the  successor  of  Peter  must  conquer 
all  successors  of  the  arch-heretic.  The  Roman  Inquisition 
was  established  by  the  bull  Licet  ah  initio^  July  21,  1542, 
under  the  diiection  of  six  cardinals,  with  plenary  power  to 
arrest  and  imprison  persons  suspected  of  heresy,  and  to  con- 
fiscate their  property.  The  famous  General  of  the  Capuchins 
was  to  be  the  first  victim  of  the  "•  Holy  Office." 

Ochino  departed  for  Rome  in  August.  Passing  through 
Bologna,  he  called  on  the  noble  Cardinal  Contarini,  who  in 
the  previous  year  had  met  Melanchthon  and  Calvin  at  the 
Colloquy  of  Ratisbon,  and  was  suspected  of  having  a  leaning 
to  the  Lutheran  doctrine  of  justification,  and  to  a  moderate 
reformation.  The  cardinal  was  sick,  and  died  soon  after 
(August  24).  The  interview  was  brief,  but  left  upon  Ochino 
the  impression  that  there  was  no  chance  for  him  in  Rome. 
He  continued  his  journey  to  Florence,  met  Peter  Martyr  in 
a  similar  condition,  and  was  warned  of  the  danger  awaiting 
both.  He  felt  that  he  must  choose  between  Rome  or  Christ, 
between  silence  or  death,  and  that  flight  was  the  onl}-  escape 
from  this  alternative.  He  resolved  to  save  his  life  for  future 
usefulness,  though  he  was  already  fifty-six  years  old,  gray- 
haired,  and  enfeebled  by  his  ascetic  life.  If  I  remain  in 
Italy,  he  said,  my  mouth  is  sealed ;  if  I  leave,  I  may  by  my 
writings  continue  to  labor  for  the  truth  with  some  prospect 
of  success. 

He  proved  by  his  conduct  the  sincerity  of  his  conversion 
to  Protestantism.  He  risked  every  thing  by  secession  from 
the  papacy.  An  orator  has  no  chance  in  a  foreign  land  with 
a  foreign  tongue.^ 


1  Caraffa,  the  restorer  of  the  Inquisition,  ascribed  his  conversion  to  impure 
motives,  but  without  evidence.  On  these  calumnies  see  Benrath,  pp.  170  sq. 
Audin  (ch.  XLV.),  drawing  on  his  imagination,  says  that  Ochino,  tempted  by 
the  demon  of  doubt  and  pride,  fled  to  Geneva  with  a  young  girl  whom  he  had 
seduced ! 


644         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

OcHiNO  IN  Switzerland. 

In  August,  1542,  he  left  Florence ;  Peter  Martyr  followed 
two  days  later.  He  was  provided  with  a  servant  and  a 
horse  by  Ascanio  Colonna,  a  brother  of  Vittoria,  his  friend.^ 
At  Ferrara,  the  Duchess  Renata  furnished  him  with  clothing 
and  other  necessaries,  and  probably  also  with  a  letter  to  her 
friend  Calvin.  According  to  Boverius,  the  annalist  of  the 
Capuchins,  who  deplores  his  apostasy  as  a  great  calamity  for 
the  order,  he  was  accompanied  by  three  lay  brethren  from 
Florence. 

He  proceeded  through  the  Grisons  to  Ziirich,  and  stopped 
there  two  days.  He  was  kindly  received  by  BuUinger,  who 
speaks  of  him  in  a  letter  to  Vadian  (Dec.  19,  1542)  as  a 
venerable  man,  famous  for  sanctity  of  life  and  eloquence. 

He  arrived  at  Geneva  about  September,  1542,  and  remained 
there  three  years.  He  preached  to  the  small  Italian  congre- 
gation, but  devoted  himself  chiefly  to  literary  work  by  which 
he  hoped  to  reach  a  larger  public  in  his  native  land.  He 
was  deeply  impressed  with  the  moral  and  religious  prosperity 
of  Geneva,  the  like  of  which  he  had  never  seen  before,  and 
gave  a  favorable  description  of  it  in  one  of  his  Italian 
sermons.2 

"  In  Geneva,  where  I  am  now  residing,"  he  wrote  in  Octo- 
ber, 1542,  "  excellent  Christians  are  daily  preaching  the  pure 
word  of  God.  The  Holy  Scriptures  are  constantly  read  and 
openly  discussed,  and  every  one  is  at  liberty  to  propound  what 
the  Holy  Spirit  suggests  to  him,  just  as,  according  to  the  tes- 
timony of  Paul,  was  the  case  in  the  primitive  Church.  Every 
day  there  is  a  public  service  of  devotion.  Every  Sunday 
there  is  catechetical  instruction  of  the  young,  the  simple,  and 
the  ignorant.  Cursing  and  swearing,  unchastity,  sacrilege, 
adultery,  and  impure  living,  such  as  prevail  in  many  places 

1  Colonna  sent  him  afterwards  through  a  messenger  some  means  of  sup- 
port to  Switzerland,  as  we  learn  from  a  letter  of  Bullinger. 

^  Quoted  in  Italian  by  Trechsel,  II.  203,  in  German  by  Benrath,  p.  169. 


§  129.  BERNARDINO  OCHINO.      1487-1565.  645 

where  I  have  lived,  are  unknown  here.  There  are  no  pimps 
and  harlots.  The  people  do  not  know  what  rouge  is,  and 
they  are  all  clad  in  a  seemly  fashion.  Games  of  chance  are 
not  customary.  Benevolence  is  so  great  that  the  poor  need 
not  beg.  The  people  admonish  each  other  in  brotherly  fash- 
ion, as  Christ  prescribes.  Lawsuits  are  banished  from  the 
city;  nor  is  there  any  simony,  murder,  or  party  spirit,  but 
only  peace  and  charity.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  no 
organs  here,  no  noise  of  bells,  no  showy  songs,  no  burning 
candles  and  lamps,  no  relics,  pictures,  statues,  canopies,  or 
splendid  robes,  no  farces,  or  cold  ceremonies.  The  churches 
are  quite  free  from  all  idolatry."  ^ 

Ochino  wrote  at  Geneva  a  justification  of  his  flight,  in  a 
letter  to  Girolamo  Muzio  (April  7,  1543).  In  a  letter  to  the 
magistrates  of  Siena,  he  gave  a  full  confession  of  his  faith 
based  chiefly  on  the  eighth  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans  (Nov.  3,  1543).  He  published,  in  rapid  succession, 
seven  volumes  of  Italian  sermons  or  theological  essays.^ 

He  says  in  the  Preface  to  these  sermons :  "  Now,  my  dear 
Italy,  I  can  no  more  speak  to  you  from  mouth  to  mouth ,-  but 
I  will  Avrite  to  you  in  thine  own  language,  that  everybody 
may  understand  me.  My  comfort  is  that  Christ  so  willed  it, 
that,  laying  aside  all  earthly  considerations,  I  may  regard 
only  the  truth.  And  as  the  justification  of  the  sinner  by 
Christ  is  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  life,  let  us  begin 
with  it  in  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Cluist."  His  sermons 
are  evangelical,  and  show  a  mystical  tendency,  as  we  might 
expect  from  a  disciple  of  Valdes.  He  lays  much  stress  on 
the  vital  union  of  the  soul  with  Christ  by  faith  and  love. 
He  teaches  a  free  salvation  by  the  sole  merits  of  Christ, 
and  the  Calvinistic  doctrine  of  sovereign  election,  but  with- 

1  "Le  chiese  sono  purgutissime  da  ogni  idolatria."  This  testimony  is  con- 
firmed by  Vergerio,  Farel,  Knox,  and  others.     See  §  110,  pp.  516  sqq. 

2  Prediche,  Geneva,  1542-1544,  several  editions,  also  in  Latin,  French, 
German,  and  English.  See  Benrath,  pp.  374  sq.,  and  his  summary  of  the 
contents,  pp.  175  sqq. 


646         THE   EEFOEMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

out  the  negative  inference  of  reprobation.  He  wrote  also 
a  popular,  paraphrastic  commentary  on  his  favorite  Epistle 
to  the  Romans  (1545),  which  was  translated  into  Latin  and 
German.  Afterwards,  he  published  sermons  on  the  Epistle 
to  the  Galatians,  which  were  printed  at  Augsburg,  1546. 

He  lived  on  good  terms  with  Calvin,  who  distrusted  the 
Italians,  but  after  careful  inquiry  was  favorably  impressed 
with  Ochino's  "  eminent  learning  and  exemplary  life."  ^  He 
mentions  him  first  in  a  letter  to  Viret  (September,  1542)  as 
a  venerable  refugee,  who  lived  in  Geneva  at  his  own  expense, 
and  promised  to  be  of  great  service  if  he  could  learn  French.^ 
In  a  letter  to  Melanchthon  (Feb.  14,  1543),  he  calls  him  an 
"eminent  and  excellent  man,  who  has  occasioned  no  little 
stir  in  Italy  by  his  departure."  ^  Two  years  ^afterwards 
(Aug.  15,  1545),  he  recommended  him  to  Myconius  of 
Basel  as  "  deserving  of  high  esteem  everywhere."  * 

Ochino  associated  at  Basel  with  Castellio,  and  employed 
him  in  the  translation  of  his  works  from  the  Italian.  This 
connection  may  have  shaken  his  confidence  in  the  Calvinistic 
doctrine  of  predestination  and  free-will. 

OcHiNO  IN  Germany. 

He  labored  for  some  time  as  preacher  and  author  in  Strass- 
burg,  where  he  met  his  old  friend  Peter  Martyr,  and  in  Augs- 
burg, where   he   received   from   the  city  council  a  regular 

1  He  wrote  to  Pellican,  April  19, 1543  :  "  Quoniam  Italicis  plerisque  ingeniis 
non  multum  Jido  .  .  .  ,  contuli  cum  eo  diligenter.  .  .  .  Hoc  testimonium  pio  et 
sancto  viro  visum  est.  .  .  .  Est  enim  prastanti  et  ingenio  et  doctrina  et  sanctitate." 
Opera,  XI.  528. 

2  Opera,  XI.  447  sq.  Comp.  letter  to  Viret,  October,  1542,  ibid.  458: 
"  JBernardus  noster  miris  machinis  impetitus  est,  ut  nobis  abduceretur :  constanter 
tamen  perstat." 

s  "  Magnum  et  pi-oeclarum  virum,  qui  suo  discessu  non  parum  Italiam  commovit." 
Opera,  XI.  517. 

*  "  Bern.  Senensis,  vir  nuper  in  Italia  magni  nominis,  dignus  certe  qui  habeatur 
nbique  in  pretio."  Opera,  XII.  135.  Benrath  (192)  gives  the  wrong  date  of 
this  letter,  viz.  1542,  —  probably  a  typographical  error. 


§  129.   BERNAKDIXO  OCHINO.     1487-1 .305.  047 

salary  of  two  hundred  guilders  as  preacher  among  the  for- 
eigners. This  was  his  first  regular  settlement  after  he  had 
left  Italy.  At  Augsburg  he  lived  with  his  brother-in-law 
and  sister.  He  seems  to  have  married  at  that  time,  if  not 
earlier.^ 

OcHiNO  IX  England. 

After  his  victory  over  the  Smalkaldian  League,  the  Empe- 
ror Charles  V.  held  a  triumphant  entry  in  Augsburg,  Jan. 
23,  1547,  and  demanded  the  surrender  of  the  apostate  monk, 
whose  powerful  voice  he  had  heard  from  the  pulpit  at  Naples 
eleven  years  before.  The  magistrates  enabled  Ochino  to 
escape  in  the  night.  He  fled  to  Zlirich,  where  he  accident- 
ally met  Calvin,  who  arrived  there  on  the  same  day.  From 
Ziirich  he  went  to  Basel. 

Here  he  received,  in  1547,  a  call  to  England  from  Arch- 
bishop Cranmer,  who  needed  foreign  aid  in  the  work  of  the 
Reformation  under  the  favorable  auspices  of  the  young  King 
Edward  VI.  At  the  same  time  he  called  Peter  Martyr,  then 
professor  at  Strassburg,  to  a  theological  professorship  at 
Oxford,  and  two  years  afterwards  he  invited  Bucer  and 
Fagius  of  Strassburg,  who  refused  to  sign  the  Augsburg 
Interim,  to  professorial  chairs  in  the  University  of  Cambridge 
(1549).  Ochino  and  Peter  Martyr  made  the  journey  together 
in  company  with  an  English  knight,  who  provided  the  outfit 
and  the  travelling  expenses. 

Ochino  labored  six  years  in  London,  from  1547  to  1554, — 
probably  the  happiest  of  his  troubled  life,  —  as  evangelist 
among  the  Italian  merchants  and  refugees,  and  as  a  writer 
in  aid  of  the  Reformation.  His  family  followed  him.  He 
enjoyed  the  confidence  of  Cranmer,  who  appointed  him 
canon  of  Canterbury  (though  he  never  resided  there),  and 
received  a  competent  salary  from  the  private  purse  of  the 
kingf. 

1  Benrath,  p.  194.  We  know  nothing  of  his  wife  and  children,  not  even 
their  names.     An  old  monk  is  not  well  fitted  for  a  happy  family  life. 


648         THE   REFOKMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

His  chief  work  of  that  period  is  a  theological  drama  against 
the  papacy  under  the  title  "  A  Tragedy  or  a  Dialogue  of  the 
unjust,  usurped  primacy  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome,"  with  a  flat- 
tering dedication  to  Edward  VI.  He  takes  the  ground  of 
all  the  Reformers,  that  the  pope  is  the  predicted  Antichrist, 
seated  in  the  temple  of  God ;  and  traces,  in  a  series  of  nine 
conversations,  with  considerable  dramatic  skill  but  imperfect 
historical  information,  the  gradual  growth  of  the  papacy  from 
Boniface  HI.  and  Emperor  Phocas  (607)  to  its  downfall  in 
England  under  Henry  VIII.  and  Edward  VI.^ 

OCHINO    AGAIN    IN    SWITZERLAND. 

After  the  accession  of  Queen  Mary,  Ochino  had  to  flee, 
and  went  a  second  time  to  Geneva.  He  arrived  there  a  day 
after  the  burning  of  Servetus  (Oct.  28,  1553),  which  he  dis- 
approved, but  he  did  not  lose  his  respect  for  Calvin,  whom 
he  called,  in  a  letter  of  Dec.  4,  1555,  the  first  divine  and  the 
ornament  of  the  century.^ 

He  accepted  a  call  as  pastor  of  the  Italian  congregation  at 
Ziirich.  Here  he  associated  freely  with  Peter  Martyr,  but 
more,  it  would  seem,  with  Lselius  Socinus,  who  was  also 
a  native  of  Siena,  and  who  by  his  sceptical  opinions  exerted 
an  unsettling  influence  on  his  mind. 

He  wrote  a  catechism  for  his  congregation  (published  at 
Basel,  1561)  in  the  form  of  a  dialogue  between  "  lUurainato  " 
(the  catechumen)  and  "Ministro."  He  explains  the  usual 
five  parts  —  the  Decalogue  (which  fills  one-half  of  the  book), 
the  Apostles'  Creed,  the  Lord's  Prayer,  Baptism,  and  the 
Lord's  Supper,  with  an  appendix  of  prayers. 

His  last  works  were  his  "Labyrinths"  (1561)  and  "Thirty 
Dialogues "   (1563),  translated  by  Castellio  into  Latin,  and 

1  The  book  was  translated  from  Latin  into  English  by  Dr.  John  Ponnet, 
afterwards  bishop  of  Winchester,  and  published  in  London,  1549.  Benrath 
gives  a  good  summary,  pp.  215  sqq. 

2  "  Seculi  nostri  cleciis."     Benratli,  364  sq. 


§  129.  BERNAKDINO   OCHINO.     1487-1565.  649 

published  by  an  Italian  printer  at  Basel.  In  these  books 
Ochino  discusses  the  doctrines  of  predestination,  free-will, 
the  Trinity,  and  monogamy,  in  a  latitudinarian  and  sceptical 
way,  which  made  the  heretical  view  appear  stronger  in  the 
argument  than  the  orthodox. 

The  most  objectionable  is  the  dialogue  on  polygamy  (Dial. 
XXI.),  which  he  seemed  to  shield  by  the  example  of  the 
patriarchs  and  kings  of  the  Old  Testament ;  while  monog- 
amy was  not  sufficiently  defended,  although  it  is  declared 
to  be  the  only  moral  form  of  marriage.^  The  subject  was 
much  ventilated  in  that  age,  especially  in  connection  with 
the  bigamy  of  Philip  of  Hesse  and  the  deplorable  connivance 
of  the  Lutheran  Reformers.  A  dialogue  in  favor  of  polyg- 
amy appeared  in  1541,  under  the  fictitious  name  of  "  Hulde- 
ricus  Neobulus,"  in  the  interest  of  Philip  of  Hesse.  From 
this  dialogue  Ochino  borrowed  some  of  his  strongest  argu- 
ments.^ This  accounts  for  his  theoretical  error.  He  cer- 
tainly could  have  had  no  personal  motive,  for  he  was  then 
in  his  seventy-seventh  year,  a  widower  with  four  children.^ 
His  moral  life  had  always  been  unblemished,  as  his  congre- 
gation and  Bullinger  testified. 

The  End. 

The  dialogue  on  polygamy  caused  the  unceremonious 
deposition  and  expulsion  of  the  old  man  from  Ziirich  by  the 
Council,  in  December,  1563.  In  vain  did  he  protest  against 
misinterpretation,  and  beg  to  be  allowed  to  remain  during 
the  cold  winter  with  his  four  children.  He  was  ordered  to 
quit  the  city  within  three  weeks.     Even  the  mild  Bullinger 

1  I  learn  from  Schelhorn  (III.  2152),  that  this  dialogue  appeared  in  an 
English  translation,  "  by  a  Person  of  Quality,"  in  London,  1657. 

2  The  correspondence  of  the  two  books  has  been  proven  by  Schelhorn,  I.e., 
III.  2140  sqq.,  and  I.  631  sqq.  Bucer  was  suspected  of  being  concealed  under 
the  Neobulus,  but  he  denied  it.     See  Schelhorn,  I.  634. 

2  His  wife  died  in  consequence  of  an  accident  shortly  before  the  Dialogues 
were  published.     Benrath,  p.  o07. 


650  THE    KEFOKMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

did  not  protect  him.  He  went  to  Basel,  but  the  magistrates 
of  that  city  were  even  more  intolerant  than  the  clergy,  and 
would  not  permit  him  to  remain  during  the  winter.  Castellio, 
the  translator  of  the  obnoxious  books,  was  also  called  to 
account,  but  was  soon  summoned  to  a  higher  judgment 
(December  23).  The  printer,  Perna,  who  had  sold  all  the 
copies,  was  tlireatened  with  punishment,  but  seems  to  have 
escaped  it. 

Ochino  found  a  temporary  hiding-place  in  Niirnberg,  and 
sent  from  there  in  self-defence  an  ill-tempered  attack  upon 
Ziirich,  to  which  the  ministers  of  that  city  replied.^ 

Being  obliged  to  leave  Niirnberg,  he  turned  his  weary 
steps  to  Poland,  and  was  allowed  to  preach  to  his  country- 
men at  Cracow.  But  Cardinal  Hosius  and  the  papal  nuncio 
denounced  him  as  an  atheist,  and  induced  the  king  to  issue 
an  edict  by  which  all  non-Catholic  foreigners  were  expelled 
from  Poland  (Aug.  6,  1564). 

Ochino  entered  upon  his  last  weary  journey.  At  Pinczow 
he  was  seized  by  the  pestilence  and  lost  three  of  his  children  ; 
nothing  is  known  of  the  fourth.  He  himself  survived,  but 
a  few  weeks  afterwards  he  took  sick  again  and  ended  his 
Ironely  life  at  the  end  of  December,  1564,  at  Schlackau  in 
Moravia :  a  victim  of  his  sceptical  speculations  and  the  intol- 
erance of  his  age.  A  veil  is  thrown  over  his  last  days :  no 
monument,  no  inscription  marks  his  grave.  What  a  sad 
contrast  between  the  bright  morning  and  noon-day,  and  the 
gloomy  evening,  of  his  public  life ! 

A  false  rumor  was  spread  that  before  his  journey  to  Poland 
he  met  at  Schaffhausen  the  cardinal  of  Lorraine  on  his  return 
from  the  Council  of  Trent,  and  offered  to  prove  twenty-four 
errors  against  the  Reformed  Church.  The  offer  was  declined 
with  the  remark :  "  Four  errors  are  enough."  The  rumor  was 
investigated,  but  could  not  be  verified.     He  himself  denied 

1  Spongia  adversus  aspergines  Bernardini  Ochini,  etc.,  printed  in  Hottinger's 
Historia  Eccles.  N.  TL,  and  in  Schelhorn,  III.  2157-2194. 


§  130.  c^Lius  SECUNDUS  cuiMo.     1503-1569.         Gol 

it,  and  one  of  his  last  known  utterances  was :  "  I  wish  to  be 
neither  a  BuUingerite,  nor  a  Calvinist,  nor  a  Papist,  but 
simply  a  Christian."  ^ 

His  sceptical  views  on  the  person  of  Christ  and  the  atone- 
ment disturbed  and  nearly  broke  up  the  Italian  congregation 
in  Ziirich.  No  new  pastor  was  elected;  the  members  coa- 
lesced with  the  German  population,  and  the  antitrinitarian 
influences  disappeared. 

§  130.    Ccelius  Secundus  Curio.     1503-1569. 

Curio's  works  and  correspondence. — Trechsel,  I.  215  sqq.,  and  Wagemann 
in  Herzog,'^  III.  396-400  (where  the  literature  is  given). 

Celio  Secundo  Curione  or  Curio  Avas  the  youngest  of 
twenty-three  children  of  a  Piedmontese  nobleman,  studied 
history  and  law  at  Turin,  became  acquainted  with  the 
writings  of  Luther,  Zwingli,  and  Melanchthon  through  an 
Augustinian  monk,  and  labored  zealously  for  the  spread  of 
Protestant  doctrines  in  Pavia,  Padua,  Venice,  Ferrara,  and 
Lucca.  He  barely  escaped  death  at  the  stake,  and  fled  to 
Switzerland  with  letters  of  recommendation  by  the  Duchess 
Renata,  the  friend  of  Calvin.  He  received  an  appointment 
as  professor  of  eloquence  in  Lausanne  (1543-1547)  and  after- 
wards in  Basel.  He  was  the  father-in-law  of  Zanchius.  He 
attracted  students  from  abroad,  declined  several  calls,  kept 
up  a  lively  coirrespondence  with  his  countrymen  and  with 
the  Reformers,  and  wrote  a  number  of  theological  and  literary 
works.  He  sided  with  the  latitudinarians,  and  thereby  lost 
the  confidence  of  Calvin  and  Bullinger;  but  he  maintained 
his  ground  in  Basel,  and  became  the  ancestor  of  several 
famous  theological  families  of  that  city  (Buxtorf,  Z winger, 
Werenfels,  Frey). 

Curio  sympathized  with  Zwingli's  favorable  judgment  of 
the  noble  heathen,  and  thought  that  they  were  as  acceptable 

1  From  a  letter  of  Knibb  to  Bullinger,  Easter,  1664,  in  the  Simler  Collec- 
tion in  Ziirich.     Trechsel,  II.  265;  Benrath,  315. 


652  THE    KEFOEMATION    IN    FP.ENCH    SWITZEELAiSi). 

to  God  as  the  pious  Israelites.  Vergerio,  formerly  a  friend 
of  Curio,  charged  him  with  the  Pelagian  heresy  and  with 
teaching  that  men  may  be  saved  without  the  knowledge  of 
Christ,  though  not  without  Christ.^ 

Curio  advanced  also  the  hopeful  view  that  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  is  much  larger  than  the  kingdom  of  Satan,  and 
that  the  saved  will  far  outnumber  the  lost.^ 

Such  opinions  were  disapproved  by  Peter  Mart3^r,  Zanchi, 
BuUinger,  Brenz,  John  a  Lasco,  and  all  orthodox  Protestants 
of  that  age,  as  paradoxical  and  tending  to  Universalism.  But 
modern  Calvinists  go  further  than  Curio,  at  least  in  regard 
to  the  large  majority  of  the  saved.^ 


§  131.    The    Italian  Arititrinitarians    in    Greneva.      Crribaldo, 
Biandrata^  Aleiati,  G-entile. 

See  lit.  in  §  127,  and  Sandius  :  Bibliotheca  antitrinitaria.  Trechsel  (I.  277- 
390)  is  still  the  best  authority  on  the  early  Antitrinitarians  in  Switzer- 
land, and  gives  large  extracts  from  the  sources.  Fock  (I.  134)  has  only 
a  few  words  on  them.  —  Comp.  in  addition,  Hebekle  :  G.  Blandrata,  in 
the  "Tvibinger  Zeitschrift  fiir  Theologie,"  for  1840,  No.  IV.  Dornek: 
Hist,  of  Christolo(jij,  German  ed.,  II.  656  sqq. 

The  antitrinitarian  leaven  entered  the  Italian  congregation 
at  Geneva  during  and  after  the  trial  of  Servetus,  but  was 
suppressed  by  the  combined  action  of  the  Swiss  Churches. 
This  constitutes  the  last  chapter  of  Antitrinitarianism  in 
Switzerland. 

^  "Absque  Christi  cognitione,  licet  non  sine  Christo,  aliqnos  salutem  adipisci.'' 
Letter  of  Vergerio  to  Bullinger  (Tubingen,  Sept.  6, 1554),  quoted  by  Trechsel, 
I.  217.  Vergerio  denounced  Curio  to  the  Swiss  Churches.  See  his  letters  to 
Amerbach,  in  Trechsel,  II.  463-465. 

^  De  amplitudine  beati  regni  Dei  dialogi  II.  Printed  at  Poschiavo  in  the 
Grisons,  1554. 

^  Dr.  Charles  Hodge  {Syst.  Theol.  III.  879  sq.)  says:  "We  have  reason 
to  believe,  as  urged  in  the  first  volume  of  this  work,  and  as  often  urged  else- 
where, that  the  number  of  the  finally  lost  in  comparison  with  the  whole 
number  of  the  saved  will  be  very  inconsiderable." 


§  131.       THE    ITALIAN    ANTITRmiTARIANS    IN    GENEVA.       653 

Several  Italian  refugees  denounced  the  execution  of  Ser- 
vetus,  adopted  his  views  and  tried  to  improve  them,  but 
were  far  inferior  to  him  in  genius  and  originality. 

They  circulated  libels  on  Calvin,  and  ventilated  their 
opinions  in  the  weekly  conference  meetings  of  the  Italian  con- 
gregation, which  were  open  to  questions  and  free  discussions. 

1.  Matteo  Gribaldo,  a  noted  professor  of  jurisprudence 
at  Padua,  bought  the  estate  of  Farges  in  the  territory  of 
Bern,  near  Geneva,  and  spent  there  a  part  of  each  year.  He 
attended  the  Italian  meetings  on  his  visits  to  the  town. 
During  the  trial  of  Servetus  he  openly  expressed  his  dis- 
approval of  civil  punishment  for  religious  opinions,  and 
maintained  that  everybody  should  be  allowed  to  believe  what 
he  pleased.  He  at  first  concealed  his  views  on  the  doctrine 
of  Servetus,  except  among  intimate  friends.  After  an  exam- 
ination before  the  Council,  he  was  ordered  to  leave  the  city 
on  suspicion  of  heretical  opinions  on  the  Trinity  (1559). 
These  opinions  were  crude  and  undigested.  He  vacillated 
between  dyotheism  or  tritheism  and  Arianism.  He  could 
not  conceive  of  Father  and  Son  except  as  two  distinct  beings 
or  substances :  the  one  begetting,  the  other  begotten ;  the 
one  sending,  the  other  sent.  He  compared  their  relation  to 
that  between  Paul  and  Apollos,  who  were  two  individuals, 
yet  one  in  the  abstract  idea  of  the  apostolate. 

Before  his  dismission  from  Geneva  he  had,  through  the 
influence  of  Vergerio,  received  an  appointment  as  professor 
of  law  in  the  University  of  Tiibingen.  Passing  through 
Ziirich  he  called  on  Bullinger,  and  complained  bitterly  of 
the  conduct  of  Calvin.  He  gained  the  applause  of  the 
students  in  Tiibingen,  and  was  often  consulted  by  Duke 
Christopher  of  Wiirtemberg  on  important  matters. 

But  rumors  of  his  heresies  reached  Tiibingen,  and  inquiries 
were  sent  to  Geneva.  Calvin  warned  his  old  teacher,  Melchior 
Volmar,  against  him,  and  Beza  alarmed  Vergerio  by  unfavor- 
able reports.     Vergerio  informed  tlie  Duke  of  the  charges. 


654         THE   KEFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

Gribaldo  was  subjected  to  an  examination  before  the  aca- 
demic senate  in  the  presence  of  the  Duke,  and  was  pressed 
for  a  decided  answer  to  the  question,  whether  he  agreed  with 
the  Athanasian  Creed  and  the  edict  of  Theodosius  I.  respect- 
ing the  Trinity  and  the  Catholic  faith.  He  asked  three 
weeks'  time  for  consideration,  but  escaped  to  his  villa  at 
Farges,  where  his  family  still  resided. 

There  he  was  apprehended  by  the  magistrates  of  Bern 
at  the  instance  of  the  Duke  of  Wiirtemberg,  in  September, 
1557.  His  papers  were  seized  and  found  to  contain  anti- 
trinitarian  and  other  heresies.  He  was  ordered  to  renounce . 
his  errors  by  a  confession  drawn  up  with  his  own  hand,  and 
banished  from  the  territory  of  Bern ;  but  on  his  promise  to 
keep  quiet,  he  was  allowed  to  return  the  following  year 
for  the  sake  of  his  seven  children.  He  died  of  the  plague 
which  visited  Switzerland  in  1564,  and  swept  away  thirty- 
eight  thousand  persons  in  the  territory  of  Bern,  besides  seven 
thousand  in  Basel,  and  fourteen  hundred  at  Coire.  It  was  a 
fatal  time  for  the  Reformed  Church,  for  between  1564  and 
1566  several  of  the  leaders  died;  as  Calvin,  Farel,  Bibliander, 
Borrhaus,  Blaurer,  Fabricius,  and  Saluz.^ 

2.  Giorgio  Biandrata  (or  Blandrata),  an  educated 
physician  of  a  noble  family  of  Saluzzo  in  Piedmont  (born 
about  1515),  escaped  the  inquisition  by  flight  to  Geneva  in 
1557.  He  agreed  substantially  with  Gribaldo,  but  was  more 
subtle  and  cautious.  He  called  Calvin  his  reverend  father, 
and  consulted  him  on  theological  questions.  He  seemed  to 
be  satisfied,  but  returned  again  and  again  with  new  doubts. 
Calvin,  overburdened  with  labor  and  care,  patiently  listened 
and  spent  whole  hours  with  the  sceptic.  He  also  answered 
his  objections  in  writing.^  At  last  he  refused  further  discus- 
sion as  useless.  "He  tried,"  wrote  Calvin  to  Lismann,  "to 
circumvent  me  like  a  serpent,  but  God  gave  me  strength 
to  withstand  his  cunning." 

1  Trechsel,  II.  356. 

*  Ad questiones  Blandratce  responsum,  1558.     See  lit.  in  §  127. 


§  131.     THE   ITALIAN   ANTITRINITARTANS   IN   GENEVA.      655 

The  spirit  of  doubt  spread  more  and  more  in  the  Italian 
congregation.  One  of  the  principal  sympathizers  of  Biand- 
rata  was  Gianpaolo  Alciati,  a  Piedmontese  who  had 
served  in  the  arm}^  and  was  not  used  to  reverent  language. 

Martinengo,  the  worthy  Italian  pastor,  shortly  before  his 
death,  begged  Calvin  to  take  care  of  the  little  flock  and  to 
extirpate  the  dangerous  heresy.  Accordingly,  a  public  meet- 
ing of  the  Italian  congregation  was  held  May  18,  1558,  in 
the  presence  of  Calvin  and  two  members  of  the  Council. 
Calvin,  in  the  name  of  the  Council,  invited  the  malcontents 
to  utter  themselves  freely,  and  assured  them  that  they  should 
not  be  punished.  Biandrata  appealed  to  certain  expressions 
of  Calvin,  but  was  easily  convicted  of  mistake.  Alciati  went 
so  far  as  to  declare  that  the  orthodox  party  "worshipped 
three  devils  worse  than  all  the  idols  of  popery."  After  a 
three  hours'  discussion,  it  was  resolved  that  all  the  members 
of  the  congregation  should  subscribe  a  confession  of  faith, 
which  asserted  the  divinity  of  Christ  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  as 
being  consistent  with  the  essential  unity  of  the   Godhead. 

Six  members  at  first  refused  to  subscribe,  but  yielded  after- 
wards with  the  exception,  it  seems,  of  Biandrata  and  Alciati. 
They  felt  unsafe  in  Geneva,  and  went  to  Bern.  There  they 
found  a  sympathizer  in  Zurkinden,  the  secretary  of  the  city, 
who  engaged  in  an  angry  controversy  with  Calvin. 

Biandrata  left  for  Poland,  gained  the  confidence  of  Prince 
Radziwill,  propagated  his  Unitarian  opinions,  and  justified 
himself  before  a  synod  at  Pinczow  (1561).  In  1563  he 
accepted  a  call  of  Prince  John  Sigismund  of  Transylvania  as 
his  physician,  and  converted  him  and  many  others  to  his 
views,  but  was  charged  by  Faustus  Socinus  to  have  in  his 
last  years  favored  the  Jesuits  from  mercenary  motives.  It 
is  possible  that  the  old  man,  weary  of  theological  strife,  lost 
himself  in  the  maze  of  scepticism,  like  Ochino.  Tradition 
reports  that  he  was  robbed  and  murdered  by  his  own  nephew 
after  1585. 


656         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

3.  The  peace  of  the  Italian  congregation  was  again  dis- 
turbed by  GiovANNE  Valenti  Gentile  of  Calabria,  a 
schoolmaster  of  some  learning  and  acuteness,  who  was 
attracted  to  Geneva  by  Calvin's  reputation,  but  soon  imbibed 
the  sentiments  of  Gribaldo  and  Biandrata.  He  was  one  of 
the  six  members  who  had  at  first  refused  to  sign  the  Italian 
confession  of  faith.  Soon  after  the  departure  of  Biandrata 
and  Alciati  he  openly  professed  their  views,  urged,  as  he  said, 
by  his  conscience.  He  charged  the  orthodox  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity  with  quaternity,  —  adding  a  general  divine  essence 
to  the  three  divine  essences  of  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit,  —  and 
maintained  that  the  Father  was  the  only  divine  essence,  the 
"  essentiator."  Both  these  ideas  he  borrowed  from  Servetus. 
The  Son  is  only  an  image  and  reflection  of  the  Father. 

Gentile  was  thrown  into  prison,  July,  1557,  by  order  of 
the  Council,  on  the  charge  of  violating  the  confession  he  had 
signed.  He  repeated  his  views  and  appealed  to  the  minis- 
ters and  the  Council  for  protection  against  the  tyranny  of 
Calvin,  but  he  was  refuted  by  the  ministers.  At  last  he 
apologized  for  his  severe  language  against  Calvin,  whom 
he  had  always  revered  as  a  great  man,  but  he  refused  to 
recant  his  views.  The  Council  asked  the  judgment  of  five 
lawyers,  who  decided  that,  according  to  the  imperial  laws 
(De  summa  Trinitate  et  fide  catholica  et  de  hereticis).  Gentile 
deserved  death  by  fire.  The  Council,  instead,  pronounced  the 
milder  sentence  of  death  by  the  sword  (Aug.  15).  It  seems 
that  Calvin's  advice,  which  had  been  disregarded  in  the  case 
of  Servetus,  now  prevailed  in  the  case  of  Gentile. 

The  fear  of  death  induced  Gentile  to  withdraw  his  charges 
against  the  orthodox  doctrine,  and  to  sign  a  brief  confession 
of  faith  in  three  divine  Persons  in  one  Essence,  and  in  the 
unity,  coequality,  and  coeternity  of  the  Son  and  Holy  Spirit 
with  the  Father.  He  was  released  of  the  sentence  of  death ; 
yet  in  view  of  his  perjury,  his  heresies,  and  false  accusations 
against  the  Church  of  Geneva,  he  was  condemned   by  the 


§  131.    THE    ITALIAN    ANTITRINITARIANS    IN    GENEVA.  657 

magistrates  to  make  an  amende  honorable^  that  is,  in  his 
shirt,  bareheaded,  and  barefooted,  with  a  lighted  torch  in 
his  hand,  to  beg  on  his  knees  the  judge's  pardon,  to  burn 
his  writings  with  his  own  hand,  and  to  walk  through  the 
principal  streets  under  the  sound  of  the  trumpet.  The  sen- 
tence was  carried  out  on  the  second  of  September.  He 
submitted  to  it  with  surprising  readiness,  happy  to  escape 
death  at  such  a  cheap  price.  He  also  promised  on  oath  not 
to  leave  the  city  without  permission. 

But  he  was  hardly  set  at  liberty  when  he  escaped  and 
joined  his  friends  Gribaldo  and  Alciati  at  Farges.  Soon 
afterwards  he  spent  some  time  at  Lyons.  He  studied  the 
ante-Nicene  Fathers,  wlio  confirmed  his  subordinationism, 
and  wrote  a  book  (^Antidota)  in  defence  of  his  views  and 
against  the  chapter  on  the  Trinity  in  Calvin's  Institutes. 
He  declared  that  the  orthodox  terms  of  hovioousia,  person, 
substance,  trinity,  unity,  were  profane  and  monstrous,  and 
obscured  the  true  doctrine  of  the  one  God.  He  also  attacked 
the  doctrine  of  the  two  natures  in  Christ  and  the  communi- 
cation of  attributes  as  idle  speculations,  which  should  b^" 
banished  from  the  Church.  He  borrowed  from  Origen  the 
distinction  between  the  original  God  (avroOeo'^^,  that  is,, 
the  Father  and  the  derived  or  secondary  God  (^6e6<i,  Sevrepc- 
deos,  erepoOeo'i')  —  that  is,  the  Son.  The  Father  alone  is  God 
in  the  strict  sense  of  the  term  —  the  essentiator ;  the  Son  is 
essentiatus  and  subordinate.  He  spoke  most  disrespectfully 
and  passionately  of  the  orthodox  views.  Calvin  refuted  his 
opinions  in  a  special  book  (1561). 

Gentile  roused  the  suspicion  of  the  Catholic  authorities  in 
Lyons  and  was  imprisoned,  but  was  set  free  after  fifty  days 
on  his  declaration  that  his  writings  were  only  opposed  to 
Calvinism,  not  to  orthodoxy. 

But  he  felt  unsafe  in  France,  and  accepted,  with  Alciati, 
an  invitation  of  Biandrata  to  Poland  in  the  summer  of  1563. 

After  the  roval  edict,  which  expelled  all  the  Antitrinit;!- 


658         THE    REFORMATION    IX    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

rians,  he  returned  to  Switzerland,  was  apprehended  by  the 
authorities  of  Bern,  convicted  of  heresies,  deceits,  and  eva- 
sions, and  beheaded  on  the  tenth  of  September,  1566.  On 
the  way  to  the  place  of  execution,  he  declared  that  he  died 
a  martyr  for  the  honor  of  the  supreme  God,  and  charged 
the  ministers  Avho  accompanied  him  with  Sabellianism.  He 
received  the  death-stroke  with  firmness,  amid  the  exhorta- 
tions of  the  clergy  and  the  prayers  of  the  multitude  for  God's 
mercy.  Benedict  Aretius,  a  theologian  of  Bern,  published 
in  the  following  year  the  acts  of  the  process  with  a  refuta- 
tion of  Gentile's  objections  to  the  orthodox  doctrine. 

The  fate  of  Gentile  was  generally  approved.  No  voice  of 
complaint  or  protest  was  heard,  except  a  feeble  one  from 
Basel.  Calvin  had  died  more  than  two  years  before,  and 
now  the  city  of  Bern,  which  had  opposed  his  doctrinal  and 
disciplinary  rigor,  condemned  to  death  a  heretic  less  gifted 
and  dangerous  than  Servetus.  Gentile  himself  indirectly  ad- 
mitted that  a  teacher  of  false  religion  was  deserving  of  death, 
but  he  considered  his  own  views  as  true  and  scriptural.^ 

The  death  of  Gentile  ends  the  history  of  Antitrinitarianism 
in  Switzerland.  In  the  same  year  the  strictly  orthodox 
Second  Helvetic  Confession  of  Bullinger  was  published  and 
adopted  in  the  Reformed  Cantons. 

§  132.    The  Eucharistic  Controversies.      Calvin  and  Westphal. 

I.  The  Sources  are  given  in  §  117.     See  especially  Calvin's   Opera,  vol.  IX. 

1-252,  and  the  Prolegomena,  pp.  i-xxiv.  The  correspondence  between 
Bullinger,  a  Lasco,  Farel,  Viret,  and  Calvin,  on  the  controversy,  in  his 
Opera,  vols.  XV.  and  XV'I.  The  letters  of  Melanchtlion  from  this  period 
in  the  Corpus  Reform,  vols.  VII.-IX.  The  works  of  Westphal  are  quoted 
below. 

II.  Planck  (neutral)  :  Geschichte  des  Protest.  Lehrbegriff's  (Leipzig,  1799), 
vol.  V.  Part  II.  1-137.  —  Ebrard  (Reformed):  Das  Dogma  vom  heil. 
Abendmahl,  II.  525-744.  —  Nevin  (Reformed),  in  the  "  Mercersburg 
Review"  for  1850,  pp.  486-510.  —  Monckeberg  (Lutheran):  Joachim 
Westphal  und  Joh.  Calvin,  1865.  —  Wagenmann  in  Herzog^,  XVII.  1-6. 

1  See  on  this  last  chapter  in  the  history  of  Gentile,  Trechsel,  II.  355-380. 


§  132.    THE    EUCHAEISTIC    CONTKOVERSIES.  659 

Henry,  III.  298-357.  — Dyer,  401-412. —  Stahelix,  II.  112  sq(i.,  189  sqq. 
—  GiESELER,  III.  Part  II.  280  sqq.  —  Dorner:  Geschichte  der  protest. 
TheoL,  400  sqq.  —  Sciiaff,  Creeds,  I.  279  sqq. 

The  sacramental  controversy  between  Luther  and  ZwingU 
was  apparently  solved  by  the  middle  theory  of  Calvin, 
BuUinger,  and  Melanchthon,  and  liad  found  a  symbolical 
expression  in  the  Ziirich  Consensus  of  1549,  for  Switzerland, 
and  even  before  that,  in  the  Wittenberg  Concordia  of  1536 
and  in  Melanchthon's  irenical  restatement  of  the  10th 
article  of  the  Altered  Augsburg  Confession  of  1540,  for 
Germany.  Luther's  renewed  attack  upon  the  Swiss  in  1544 
was  isolated,  and  not  supported  by  any  of  his  followers ; 
while  Calvin,  from  respect  for  Luther,  kept  silent. 

But  in  1552  a  second  sacramental  war  was  opened  by 
Westphal  in  the  interest  of  the  high  Lutheran  theory,  and 
gradually  spread  over  all  Germany  and  Switzerland. 

We  may  well  "lament,"  with  Calvin  in  his  letter  to 
Schalling  (March,  1557),  that  those  who  professed  the  same 
gospel  of  Christ  were  distracted  on  the  subject  of  his  Last 
Supper,  which  should  have  been  the  chief  bond  of  union 
among  them.^ 

The  Westphal-Calvin  controversy  did  not  concern  the 
fact  of  the  real  presence,  which  was  conceded  by  Calvin  in 
all  his  previous  writings  on  the  subject,  but  the  subordinate 
questions  of  the  mode  of  the  presence,  of  the  ubiquity  of 
Christ's  body,  and  the  effect  of  the  sacrament  on  unworthy 
communicants,  whether  they  received  the  veiy  body  and 
blood  of  Christ,  or  only  bread  and  wine,  to  their  condemna- 
tion. Calvin  clearly  states  the  points  of  difference  in  the 
preface  to  his  "  Second  Defence  "  :  — 

1  "  Dolendum  est  quum  nos  pauci  numero  idem  prqfiteamur  evangeHum,  sacrcB 
ctetKE  occasione,  quam  prcecipuum  inter  nos  unitatis  vinculum  esse  decehat,  in  varias 
sententias  distrahi.  Sed  hoc  longe  atrocius,  non  minus  hostiliter  conjligere  quam 
si  nihil  esset  nobis  cum  Christo  commune."  Opera,  XVI.  429.  Planck,  the 
impartial  Lutheran  historian,  calls  the  sacramental  controversy  "die  arger- 
lichste  uUer  Streitigkeiten"  (I.e.,  V.  I.  p.  1). 


660         THE   EEFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

"That  I  have  written  reverently  of  the  legitimate  use,  dignity,  and  efficacy 
of  the  sacraments,  even  he  himself  [Westphal]  does  not  deny.  How  skilfully 
or  learnedly  in  his  judgment,  I  care  not,  since  it  is  enough  to  be  commended  for 
piety  by  an  enemy.     The  contest  remaining  with  him  embraces  three  articles : 

"  First,  he  insists  that  the  bread  of  the  Supper  is  substantially  {substantiali- 
ter)  the  body  of  Christ.  Secondly,  in  order  that  Christ  may  exhibit  himself 
present  to  believers,  he  insists  that  his  body  is  immense  {iminensiiin'),  and 
exists  everywhere,  though  without  place  {ubique  esse,  extra  locum).  Thirdly, 
he  insists  that  no  figure  is  to  be  admitted  in  the  words  of  Christ,  whatever 
agreement  there  may  be  as  to  the  thing.  Of  such  importance  does  he  deem 
it  to  stick  doggedly  to  the  -words,  that  he  would  sooner  see  the  whole  globe 
convulsed  than  admit  any  exposition. 

"  We  maintain  that  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  are  truly  offered  {yere 
offerri)  to  us  in  the  Supper  in  order  to  give  life  to  our  souls ;  and  we  explain, 
without  ambiguity,  that  our  souls  are  invigorated  by  this  spiritual  aliment 
(spirituali  alimento),  which  is  offered  to  us  in  the  Supper,  just  as  our  bodies 
are  nourished  by  daily  bread.  Therefore  we  hold,  that  in  the  Supper  there 
is  a  true  partaking  (vera  participatio)  of  the  flesh  and  blood  of  Christ. 
Should  any  one  raise  a  dispute  as  to  the  vrord  'substance,'  we  assert  that 
Christ,  from  the  substance  of  his  flesh,  breathes  life  into  our  souls ;  nay, 
infuses  his  own  life  into  us  (propriam  in  nos  vitam  diffundere),  provided 
always  that  no  transfusion  of  substance  be  imagined."  ^ 

The  Swiss  had  in  this  controversy  the  best  of  the  argu- 
ment and  showed  a  more  Christian  spirit.  The  result  was 
disastrous  to  Lutheranism.  The  Palatinate,  in  part  also 
Hesse,  Bremen,  Anhalt,  and,  at  a  later  period,  the  reigning 
dynasty  of  Prussia,  passed  over  into  the  Reformed  Church. 
Hereafter  there  were  two  distinct  and  separate  Confessions 
in  Protestant  Germany,  the  Lutheran  and  the  Reformed, 
which  in  the  Westphalia  Treaty  were  formally  recognized  on 
a  basis  of  legal  equality.  The  Lutheran  Church  might  have 
sustained  still  greater  loss  if  Melanchthon  had  openly  pro- 
fessed his  essential  agreement  with  Calvin.  But  the  mag- 
netic power  of  Luther's  name  and  personality,  and  of  his 
great  work  saved  his  doctrine  of  the  Eucharist  and  the 
ubiquity  of  Christ's  body,  which  was  finally  formulated  and 
fixed  in  the  Formula  of  Concord  (1577). 

Joachim  Westphal  (1510-1574),  a  rigid  Lutheran  minister 
and  afterwards  superintendent  at  Hamburg,  who  inherited 

1   Opera,  IX.  47. 


§  132.   THE   EUCHARISTIC   CONTROVERSIES.  661 

the  intolerance  and  violent  temper,  but  none  of  the  genius 
and  generosity  of  Luther,  wrote,  without  provocation,  a  tract 
against  the  "  Ziirich  Consensus,"  and  against  Calvin  and 
Peter  Martyr,  in  1552.  He  aimed  indirectly  at  the  Philip- 
pists  (Melanchthonians),  who  agreed  with  the  Calvinistic 
theory  of  the  Eucharist  without  openly  confessing  it,  and 
who  for  this  reason  were  afterwards  called  Crypto-Calvinists. 
He  had  previously  attacked  Melauchthon,  his  teacher  and 
benefactor,  and  compared  his  conduct  in  the  Interim  contro- 
versy with  Aaron's  worship  of  the  golden  calf.^  He  taught 
that  the  very  body  of  Christ  was  in  the  bread  substantially, 
that  it  was  ubiquitous,  though  illocal  {extra  locum)^  and  that 
it  was  partaken  by  Judas  no  less  than  by  Peter.  He  made 
no  distinction  between  Calvin  and  Zwinofli.  He  treats  as 
"  sacramentarians "  and  heretics  all  those  who  denied  the 
corporal  presence,  the  oral  manducation,  and  the  literal  eating 
of  Christ's  body  with  the  teeth,  even  by  unbelievers.  He 
charges  them  with  holding  no  less  than  twenty-eight  con- 
flicting opinions  on  the  words  of  institution,  quoting  extracts 
from  Carlstadt,  Zwingli,  Q^^colampadius,  Bucer,  a  Lasco, 
Bullinger,  Peter  Martyr,  Schwenkfeld,  and  chiefly  from 
Calvin.  But  nearly  all  these  opinions  are  essentially  the 
same,  and  that  of  Carlstadt  was  never  adopted  by  any  Church 
or  any  Reformed  theologian.^  He  speaks  of  their  godless 
perversion  of  the  Scriptures,  and  even  their  "satanic  blas- 
phemies." He  declared  that  they  ought  to  be  refuted  by  the 
rod  of  the  magistrates  rather  than  by  the  pen.^ 

1  Eistoria  vituli  aurei  Aaronis  Exod.  32  ad  nostra  (empora  et  controversias 
accommodata,  Magdeburg,  1549. 

2  See  the  remarks  of  the  Strassburg  editors  in  vol.  IX.  Proleg.  p.  x.  There 
are  really  only  two  Reformed  theories  on  the  Eucharist — the  Zwinglian  and 
the  Calvinistic,  and  the  latter  was  embodied  in  all  the  Reformed  Confessions. 
A  Lutheran  polemic  of  the  seventeenth  century  conclusively  proved  to  his 
own  satisfaction  that  "  the  cursed  Calvinistic  heretics  hold  six  hundred  and 
sixty-six  theses  in  common  with  the  Turks  !  " 

3  Farraqo  confusanearum  et  inter  se  dissidentium  opinionum  de  Ccena  Domini 
ex  Sacramentarioritm  libris  congesta.  Magdeburg,  1552  (a  small  pamphlet,  with 
a  preface). 


662         THE   REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

As  his  first  attack  was  ignored  by  the  Swiss,  he  wrote 
another  and  larger  tract  in  1553,  in  which  he  proved  the 
Lutheran  view  chiefly  from  1  Cor.  11  :  29,  30,  and  urged 
the  Lutherans  to  resist  the  progress  of  the  Zwinglian  or,  as 
it  was  now  called,  Calvinistic  heresy .^ 

The  style  and  taste  of  his  polemic  may  be  inferred  from 
his  calling  Bullinger  "the  bull  of  Ziirich,"  Calvin  "the  calf 
of  Geneva,"  and  a  Lasco  "  the  Polish  bear." 

About  the  same  time,  in  the  autumn  and  winter  of  1553, 
John  a  Lasco,  a  Polish  nobleman,  a  friend  of  Calvin,  and 
minister  of  a  foreign  Reformed  congregation  in  London,  fled 
with  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  Protestants  from  persecu- 
tion under  the  bloody  Mary,  and  sought  shelter  on  Danish 
and  German,  shores ;  but  was  refused  even  a  temporary  refuge 
in  cold  winter  at  Helsingor,  Copenhagen,  Rostock,  Liibeck, 
and  Hamburg  (though  they  found  it  at  last  in  East  Fries- 
land).  Westphal  denounced  these  noble  men  as  martyrs  of 
the  devil,  enraged  the  people  against  them,  and  gloried  in 
the  inhuman  cruelty  as  an  act  of  faith.^ 

This  conduct  roused  the  Swiss  to  self-defence.  Bullinger 
vindicated  the  orthodoxy  of  the  Ziirich  ministry  with  his 
usual  moderation.  Calvin  heard  of  the  treatment  of  the 
refugees  through  a  letter  of  Peter  Martyr,  then  at  Strassburg, 

1  Recta  fides  de  Coena  Domini,  Magdeburg,  1553.  This  was  followed  by 
Collectanea  sententiarum  Aurelii  Aiigustini  de  Ccena  Domini,  Ratisbon,  1555  (the 
preface  is  dated  September,  1554),  and  Fides  Cyrilli  de  prcesentia  corporis  et 
sanguinis  Christi,  Frankfort,  1555. 

2  A  full  account  in  Joh.  Utenhoven  (who  accompanied  a  Lasco),  Simplex 
et  fidelis  narratio,  etc.  Basil.,  1560.  The  spirit  of  this  rare  book  may  be 
judged  from  the  concluding  sentence  (quoted  by  Dalton  who  examined  a  copy 
in  Cracow)  :  "  In  conclusion  let  us  pray  all  the  pious  for  Christ's  sake  not  to 
harbor  any  hatred  against  those  who  have  thus  persecuted  us  in  our  affliction, 
and  not  to  call  fire  from  heaven  as  James  and  John  did  for  the  refusal  of 
hospitality,  but  rather  to  pray  for  them  that  they  may  repent  and  be  saved." 
See  extracts  in  Planck,  I.e.,  36  sqq.,  and  H.  Dalton,  Johannes  a  Lasco  (Gotha, 
1881),  427  sqq.  Mcinckeberg  attempts  to  apologize  for  Westphal,  but  with- 
out effect.  Dorner  says  {I.e.,  401,  note)  :  "  Westphal  wird  zum  Selbstankldger 
in  der  Vorrede  zu  der  Collectanea  aus  Augustin,  riihmt  die  That  der  Unbar mherzig- 
keit  als  eine  gute  That,  und  stellt  Nebuchadnezzar  als  Vorbild  fur  solche  Fdlle  auf." 


§  132.    THE   EUCHARISTIC    CONTROVERSIES.  663 

in  May,  1554,  and  took  up  his  sharp  and  racy  pen  in  three 
successive  pamplilets.  He  at  first  wished  to  issue  a  joint 
remonstrance  of  the  Swiss  Churches,  and  sent  a  hasty  draft 
to  BuUinger.  But  Ziiiich,  Basel,  and  Bern  found  it  too 
severe,  and  refused  to  sign  it.  He  corrected  the  draft, 
and  published  it  in  his  own  name  under  the  title  "  Defence 
of  the  Sound  and  Orthodox  Doctrine  on  the  Sacraments,"  as 
laid  down  in  the  Consensus  Tigurinus  (Geneva,  1555).  He 
treated  Westphal  with  sovereign  contempt,  without  naming 
him.  Westphal  replied  in  a  tract  thrice  as  large,  complain- 
ing of  the  unworthy  treatment,  denying  the  intention  of 
disturbing  the  peace  of  the  Church,  but  repeating  his  charges 
against  the  Sacramentarians.^  Calvin,  after  some  hesitation, 
prepared  a  "  Second  Defence,"  now  openly  directed  '•  contra 
Westphali  calumnias"  and  published  it,  with  a  preface  to  the 
Churches  of  Germany,  in  January,  1556.  Westphal  replied 
in  two  writings,  one  against  Calvin  and  one  against  a  Lasco, 
and  sent  letters  to  the  leading  cities  of  Xorth  Germany, 
urging  them  to  unite  in  an  orthodox  Lutheran  Confession 
against  the  Ziirich  Consensus.  He  received  twenty-five 
responses,  and  issued  them  at  Magdeburg,  1557.  He  also 
reprinted  Melanchthon's  former  opinions  on  the  real  presence 
(Hamburg,  1557).  To  meet  these  different  assaults  Calvin 
issued  his  "Last  Admonition  to  Westphal"  (1557).  West- 
phal continued  the  controversy,  but  Calvin  kept  silent  and 
handed  him  over  to  Beza. 

Besides  these  main  contestants  several  others  took  part  in 
the  fight:  on  the  Lutheran  side,  Timan,  Schnepf,  Alberus, 
Gallus,  Judex,  Brenz,  Andrese,  etc. ;  on  the  Reformed  side, 
a  Lasco,  Ochino,  Polanus,  Bibliander,  and  Beza. 

Calvin  indignantly  rebuked  the  "rude  and  barbarous 
insults  "  to  persecuted  members  of  Christ,  and  characterized 
the  ultra-Lutherans  as  men  who  would  rather  have  peace 

1  Adversus  cujusdam  Sacramentarii  falsam  rriminationem  justa  defensio, 
Frankfort,  1565. 


664         THE   REFORMATION    IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

with  the  Turks  and  Papists  than  with  Swiss  Christians.  He 
called  them  "  apes  of  Luther."  He  triumphantly  vindicated 
against  misrepresentations  and  objections  his  doctrine  of  the 
spiritual  real  presence  of  Christ,  and  the  sealing  communi- 
cation of  the  life-giving  virtue  of  his  body  in  heaven  to  the 
believer  through  the  poAver  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

He  might  have  defended  his  doctrine  even  more  effectually 
if  he  had  restrained  his  wrath  and  followed  the  brotherly 
advice  of  Bullinger,  and  even  Farel,  who  exhorted  him  not 
to  imitate  the  violence  of  his  opponent,  to  confine  himself 
to  the  thing,  and  to  spare  the  person.  But  he  wrote  to 
Farel  (August,  1557)  :  "  With  regard  to  Westphal  and  the 
rest  it  was  difficult  for  me  to  control  my  temper  and  to 
follow  your  advice.  You  call  those  '  brethren '  who,  if  that 
name  be  offered  to  them  by  us,  do  not  only  reject,  but  exe- 
crate it.  And  how  ridiculous  should  we  appear  in  bandying 
the  name  of  brother  with  those  who  look  upon  us  as  the 
worst  of  heretics."  ^ 

§  133.    Calvin  and  the  Augsburg  Confession.     Melanehthon's 
Position  in  the  Second  Eucharistic  Controversy. 

Comp.  Henry,   III.  335-339  and  Beilage,  pp.  102-110;   the  works  on  the 
Augsburg  Confession,  and  the  biographies  of  Melanchthon. 

During  the  progress  of  this  controversy  both  parties 
frequently  appealed  to  the  Augsburg  Confession  and  to 
Melanchthon.  They  were  both  right  and  both  wrong;  for 
there  are  two  editions  of  the  Confession,  representing  the 
earlier  and  the  later  theories  of  its  author  on  the  Lord's 
Supper.  The  original  Augsburg  Confession  of  1530,  in  the 
tenth  article,  teaches  Luther's  doctrine  of  the  real  presence 
so  clearly  and  strongly  that  even  the  Roman  opponents  did 
not  object  to  it.^     But  from  the  time  of  the  Wittenberg  Con- 

1  Opera,  XVI.  552. 

2  The  Catholica  Hefutatio  Augustance  Confessionis  of  Drs.  Eck,  Taber,  and 
Cochlaeus  says:  " Decimus  articnlus  [of  the  Augsburg  Confession]  in  verbis 
nihil  qffendit  si  modo  credant  [the  Lutlicran  signers],  sid)  qnalihet  specie  integrum 
Christum  esse." 


§  133.    CALVIN    AND   THE   AUGSBUEG   CONFESSION.       665 

cordia  in  1536,  or  even  eaiiier,i  Melanclithon  began  to  change 
his  view  on  the  real  presence  as  well  as  his  view  on  pre- 
destination and  free-will ;  in  the  former  he  approached  Calvin, 
in  the  latter  he  departed  from  him.  He  embodied  the  former 
change  in  the  Altered  Confession  of  1540,  without  official 
authority,  yet  in  good  faith,  as  the  author  of  the  document, 
and  in  the  conviction  that  he  represented  public  sentiment, 
since  Luther  himself  had  moderated  his  opposition  to  the 
Swiss  by  assenting  to  tlie  Wittenberg  Concordia.^  The 
altered  edition  was  made  the  basis  of  negotiations  with 
the  Romanists  at  the  Colloquies  of  Worms  and  Ratisbon  in 
1541,  and  at  the  later  Colloquies  in  1546  and  1557.  It  was 
printed  (with  the  title  and  preface  of  the  Invariata)  in  the 
first  collection  of  the  symbolical  books  of  the  Lutheran  Church 
(^Corpus  DoctrincB  Philippicuiri)  in  1559;  it  was  expressly 
approved  by  the  Lutheran  princes  at  the  Convention  of 
Naumburg  in  1561,  after  Melanchthon's  death,  as  an  improved 
modification  and  authentic  interpretation  of  the  Confession, 
and  was  adhered  to  by  the  Melanchthonians  and  the  Reformed 
even  after  the  adoption  of  the  Book  of  Concord  (1580). 
The  text  in  the  two  editions  is  as  follows :  — 

Ed.  1530.  Ed.  1540. 

" De  CcEiia  Domini  docent,  quod  cor-  "  De    Caena    Domini    docent,    quod 

pus   et   sanguis    Ch7-isti   vere  adsint  cum  pane  et  vino  vere  exhibeantur 

[the  German  text  adds :  unter  der  Ge-  corpus  et  sanguis  Christi  vescentibus  in 

stalt  des  Brots  und  Weins'\,  et  distrib-  Ccena  Domini." 
UANTUR  i-escentibus   in    Ccena  Domini; 

ET  IMPROBANT  SECUS  DOCENTES."     [In 

the    German    text:    "  Derhalhen    ivird 
auch  die  Gegenlehre  verworfen ."'\ 

1  Comp.  his  letters  to  Schnepf,  Agricola,  and  Brenz,  from  the  years  1534 
and  1535;  Matthes,  Leben  Melanchthons ,  p.  349;  C.  Schmidt,  Philipp  Melancli- 
thon, pp.  580  sqq. 

-  Luther  did  not  object  to  the  change.  When  he  broke  out  more  fiercely 
than  ever  against  the  Swiss,  in  his  "Short  Confession  on  the  Holy  Sacrament " 
(1544),  Melanchthon,  in  a  letter  to  Bullinger,  called  this  book  not  unjustly 
"  alrocissimum  scriptum."     See  vol.  VI.  054  sq. 


666         THE   REFOEMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

Ed.   1530.  Ed.  1540. 

"  Concerning  the   Lord's    Supper,  "  Concerning   the   Lord's   Supper, 

they  teach  that  the  body  and  blood  they  teach  that  with  bread  and  wine 

of  Christ  are  truly  present  [under  the  are  truly  exhibited  the  body  and  blood 

form   of   bread   and   wine],  and  are  of   Christ   to   those    who    eat  in  the 

distributed  to   those  that   eat   in   the  Lord's  Supper." 

Lord's  Supper.     And  the//  disapprove  [Disapproval  of  dissenting  views 

of  those  who  teach  otherwise."     [In  the  is  omitted.] 
German    text :     "  Wherefore    also    the 
opposite  doctrine  is  rejected."^ 

It  is  to  this  revised  edition  of  the  document,  and  to  its 
still  living  author,  that  Calvin  confidently  appealed. 

"  In  regard  to  the  Confession  of  Augsburg,"  he  says  in  his  Last  Admoni- 
tion to  Westphal,  "  my  answer  is,  that,  as  it  was  published  at  Ratisbon  (1541), 
it  does  not  contain  a  word  contrary  to  our  doctrine. ^  If  tiiere  is  any  ambigu- 
ity in  its  meaning,  there  cannot  be  a  more  competent  interpreter  than  its 
author,  to  whom,  as  his  due,  all  pious  and  learned  men  will  readily  pay  this 
honor.  To  him  I  boldly  appeal ;  and  thus  Westphal  with  his  vile  garrulity 
lies  prostrate.  ...  If  Joachim  wishes  once  for  all  to  rid  himself  of  all 
trouble  and  put  an  end  to  controversy,  let  him  extract  one  word  in  his  favor 
from  Philip's  lips.  The  means  of  access  are  open,  and  the  journey  is  not  so 
very  laborious,  to  visit  one  of  whose  consent  he  boasts  so  loftily,  and  with 
whom  he  may  thus  have  familiar  intercourse.  If  I  shall  be  found  to  have 
used  Philip's  name  rashly,  there  is  no  stamp  of  ignominy  to  which  I  am  not 
willing  to  submit. 

"  The  passage  which  Westphal  quotes,  it  is  not  mine  to  refute,  nor  do 
I  regard  what,  during  the  first  conflict,  before  the  matter  was  clearly  and 
lucidly  explained,  the  importunity  of  some  may  have  extorted  from  one  who 
was  then  too  backward  in  giving  a  denial.  It  were  too  harsh  to  lay  it  down 
as  a  law  on  literary  men,  that  after  they  have  given  a  specimen  of  their 
talent  and  learning,  they  are  never  after  to  go  beyond  it  in  the  course  of 
their  lives.  Assuredly,  whosoever  shall  say  that  Philip  has  added  nothing 
by  the  labor  of  forty  years,  does  great  wrong  to  him  individually,  and  to  the 
whole  Church. 

"The  only  thing  I  said,  and,  if  need  be,  a  hundred  times  repeat,  is,  that 
in  this  matter  Philip  can  no  more  be  torn  from  me  than  he  can  from  his  own 
bowels. 2  But  although  fearing  the  thunder  which  threatened  to  burst  from 
violent  men  (those  who  know  the  boisterous  blasts  of  Luther  understand  what 

1  "  De  Confessione  Augustana  sic  respondeo,  verbulum  in  ea,  qualis  Ratispono' 
editafuit,  non  exstare  doctrince  nostrce  contrarium."  '  Opera,  IX.  148.  Comp.  his 
letter  to  Schalling  at  Ratisbon,  March,  1557,  quoted  on  p.  377,  note  (Opera, 
XVI.  430). 

2  "  Solum  quod  dixi  et  guidem  centies  si  opus  sit,  conjirmo,  non  magis  a  me 
Philippum  quam  a  propriis  visceribus  in  hac  causa  posse  divelli."     Opera,  IX.  149. 


^  133.    CALVIN    AND   THE   AUGSBURG   CONFESSION.      667 

I  mean),  he  did  not  always  speak  out  openly  as  I  could  have  wislie.l,  there 
is  no  reason  why  Westphal,  while  pretending  diiierently,  should  indirectly 
charge  him  with  having  begun  to  incline  to  us  only  after  Luther  was  dead. 
Tor  when  more  than  seventeen  years  ago  we  conferred  together  on  this  point 
of  doctrine,  at  our  first  meeting,  not  a  syllable  required  to  be  changed. i  Nor 
should  I  omit  to  mention  Caspar  Cruciger,  who,  from  his  excellent  talents 
and  learning,  stood,  next  after  Philip,  highest  in  Luther's  estimation,  and  far 
beyond  all  others.  He  so  cordially  embraced  wliat  Westphal  now  impugns, 
that  nothing  can  be  imagined  more  perfectly  accordant  than  our  opinions. 

"  But  if  there  is  still  any  doubt  as  to  Philip,  do  I  not  make  a  sufficient 
offer  when  I  wait  silent  and  confident  for  his  answer,  assured  that  it  will  make 
manifest  the  dishonesty  which  has  falsely  sheltered  itself  under  the  vener- 
able name  of  that  most  excellent  man  ?  " 

Calvin  urged  Melanchtlion  repeatedly  to  declare  openly 
his  view  on  the  points  in  controversy.  In  a  letter  of  March 
5,  1555,  after  thanking  him  for  his  approval  of  the  dondemna- 
tion  of  Servetus,  he  says :  "  About  '  the  bread-worship '  Qirepl 
T>;9  apToXarpeiai;')^  your  most  intimate  opinion  has  long  since 
been  known  to  me,  which  you  do  not  even  dissemble  in  your 
letter.  But  your  too  great  slowness  displeases  me,  by  which 
the  madness  of  those  whom  you  see  rushing  on  to  the 
destruction  of  the  Church,  is  not  only  kept  up,  but  from  day 
to  day  increased."  Melanchtlion  an.s\vered,  May  12,  1555: 
"  I  have  determined  to  reply  simply  and  without  ambiguity, 
and  I  judge  that  I  owe  that  work  to  God  and  the  Church, 
nor  at  the  age  to  which  I  have  arrived,  do  I  fear  either  exile 
or  other  dangers."  On  August  28  of  the  same  year,  Calvin 
expressed  his  gratification  with  this  answer  and  wrote :  "  I 
entreat  you  to  discharge,  as  soon  as  you  can,  the  debt  which 
you  acknowledge  you  owe  to  God  and  the  Church."  He 
adds  with  undue  severity:  "If  this  warning,  like  a  cock 
crowing  rather  late  and  out  of  season,  do  not  awaken  you, 
all  will  cry  out  with  justice  that  you  are  a  sluggard.  Fare- 
well, most  distinguished  sir,  whom  I  venerate  from  the 
heart."     In  another  letter  of  Aug.  3,  1557,  he  complains  of 

^  He  refers  to  their  meeting  at  Frankfurt,  which  took  place  in  1539,  seven 
years  before  Luther's  death  and  five  years  before  his  last  book  against  the 
Sacramentarians.     See  above,  §  90,  pp.  388  sq. 


668         THE    EEFORMATION    IN    FP.ENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

the  silence  of  three  years  and  apologizes  for  the  severity 
of  his  last  letter,  but  urges  him  again  to  come  out,  like  a  man, 
and  to  refute  the  charge  of  slavish  timidity.  "I  do  not 
think,"  he  says,  "  you  need  to  be  reminded  by  many  words, 
how  necessary  it  is  for  you  to  hasten  to  wipe  out  this  blot 
from  your  character."  He  proposes  that  Melanchthon  should 
induce  the  Lutheran  princes  to  convene  a  peaceful  confer- 
ence of  both  parties  at  Strassburg,  or  Tiibingen,  or  Heidel- 
berg, or  Frankfurt,  and  attend  the  conference  in  person  with 
some  pious,  upright,  and  moderate  men.  "If  you  class  me," 
he  concludes,  "  in  the  number  of  such  men,  no  necessity,  how- 
ever pressing,  will  prevent  me  from  putting  up  this  as  my 
chief  vow,  that  before  the  Lord  gather  us  into  his  heavenly 
kingdom  I  may  yet  be  permitted  to  enjoy  on  earth,  a  most 
delightful  interview  with  you,  and  feel  some  alleviation  of  my 
grief  by  deploring  along  with  you  the  evils  which  we  cannot 
remedy."  In  his  last  extant  letter  to  Melanchthon,  dated 
Nov.  19,  1558,  Calvin  alludes  once  more  to  the  eucharistic 
controversy,  but  in  a  very  gentle  spirit,  assuring  him  that 
he  will  never  allow  anything  to  alienate  his  mind  "  from  that 
holy  friendship  and  respect  which  I  have  vowed  to  you.  .  .  . 
Whatever  may  happen,  let  us  cultivate  with  sincerity  a  fra- 
ternal affection  towards  each  other,  the  ties  of  which  no 
wiles  of  Satan  shall  ever  burst  asunder." 

Melanchthon  would  have  done  better  for  his  own  fame  if, 
instead  of  approving  the  execution  of  Servetus,  he  had  openly 
supported  Calvin  in  the  conflict  with  Westphal.  But  he 
was  weary  of  the  rabies  iheologorum^  and  declined  to  take  an 
active  part  in  the  bitter  strife  on  "bread-worship,"  as  he 
called  the  notion  of  those  who  were  not  contented  with  the 
presence  of  the  body  of  Christ  in  the  sacramental  wse,  but 
insisted  upon  its  presence  in  and  under  the  bread.  He  knew 
what  kind  of  men  he  had  to  deal  with.  He  knew  that  the 
court  of  Saxony,  from  a  sense  of  honor,  would  not  allow  an 
open  departure  from  Luther's  doctrine^     Prudence,  timidity, 


§  133.     CALVIN    AND    THE    AUGSBURG    CONFESSION.        669 

and  respect  for  the  memory  of  Liitlier  were  the  mingled 
motives  of  his  silence.  He  was  aware  of  his  natural  weak- 
ness, and  confessed  in  a  letter  to  Christopher  von  Carlowitz, 
in  1548:  "I  am,  perhaps,  by  nature  of  a  somewhat  servile 
disposition,  and  I  have  before  endured  an  altogether  unseemly 
servitude ;  as  Luther  more  frequently  obeyed  his  tempera- 
ment, in  which  was  no  little  contentiousness,  than  he  regarded 
his  own  dignity  and  the  common  good." 

But  in  his  private  correspondence  he  did  not  conceal  his 
real  sentiments,  his  disapproval  of  "bread-worship"  and  of 
the  doctrine  of  the  ubiquity  of  Christ's  body.  His  last  utter- 
ance on  the  subject  was  in  answer  to  the  request  of  Elector 
Frederick  IH.  of  the  Palatinate,  who  tried  to  conciliate  the 
parties  in  the  fierce  eucharistic  controversy  at  Heidelberg. 
Melanclithon  warned  against  scholastic  subtleties  and  com- 
mended moderation,  peace,  biblical  simplicity,  and  the  use  of 
Paul's  w(n-ds  that  "the  bread  \vhii'h  we  break  is  the  commun- 
ion of  the  body  of  Christ "  (1  Cor.  10  :  16),  not  "  changed 
into,"  nor  the  "  substantial,"  nor  the  "  true  "  body.  He  gave 
this  counsel  on  the  first  of  November,  1559.  A  few  months 
afterwards  he  died  (April  17,  loGO). 

The  result  was  that  the  Elector  deposed  the  leaders  of 
both  parties,  Heshusius  and  Klebitz,  called  distinguished 
foreign  divines  to  the  University,  and  entrusted  Zacharias 
Ursinus  (a  pupil  of  Melanchthon)  and  Caspar  Olevianus  (a 
pupil  of  Calvin)  with  the  task  of  composing  the  Heidelberg 
or  Palatinate  Catechism,  which  was  published  Jan.  19,  1563. 
It  became  the  principal  symbolical  book  of  the  German  and 
Dutch  branches  of  the  Reformed  Church.  It  gives  clear  and 
strong  expression  to  the  Calvinistic-Melanchthonian  theory 
of  the  spiritual  real  presence,  and  teaches  the  doctrine  of 
election,  but  without  a  word  on  reprobation  and  pretention. 
In  both  respects  it  is  the  best  expression  of  the  genius  and 
final  doctrinal  position  of  Melanchthon,  who  was  himself  a 
native  of  the  Palatinate. 


670         THE   KEFOKMATION    IN   FKENCH    SWITZEKLAND. 


NOTES.     MELANCHTHON'S   LAST   WORDS   ON  THE   EUCHARIST. 

Letter  to  Calvin,  Oct.  14,  1554.  Melanchthon  approves  of  the  execution 
of  Servetus  and  continues  :  "  Quod  in  proximis  Uteris  me  hortaris,  ut  reprimam 
ineruditos  clamores  illorum,  qui  renovant  certamen  irepl  aproXaTpeias,  scito,  quosdam 
prcBcipue  odio  mei  earn  disputationem  movere,  ut  habeant  plausibdem  causani  ad 
me  opprimendum."  He  expresses  the  hope  to  discuss  this  subject  with  him 
once  more  before  his  deatli.     (Mel's  Opera  in  the  Corp.  Reform.  VIII.  362  sq.) 

To  Hardenberg,  pastor  in  Bremen,  who  was  persecuted  for  resisting  the 
doctrine  of  ubiquity,  he  wrote,  May  9,  1557  {ibid.  IX.  154)  :  "  Crescif,  ut  tides, 
non  modo  certamen,  sed  etiam  rabies  in  scriptoribus,  qui  apToXarpeiav  stabiliunt." 

Letter  to  Mordeisen,  counsellor  of  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  Nov.  15,  1557 
{ibid.  IX.  374)  :  "  8i  mihi  concedetis,  ut  in  alio  loco  vivam,  respondebo  illis  indoctis 
sycophantis  et  vere  et  graviter,  et  dicam  utilia  ecclesice." 

One  of  his  last  utterances  is  reported  by  Peucer,  his  son-in-law,  "  ex  arcanis 
sermonibus  Dom.  Philippi,"  in  an  autograph  of  Jan.  3,  1561  (vol.  IX.  1088- 
1090).  Here  Melanchthon  asserts  the  real  presence,  but  declines  to  describe 
the  mode,  and  rejects  the  ubiquity  of  Christ's  body.  He  also  admits  the 
figurative  sense  of  the  words  of  institution,  which  Luther  so  persistently 
denied.  "  Consideranda  est,"  he  says,  "  interpretatio  verborum  Christi,  quce  ab 
aliis  Kara  rh  prjTOf,  ab  aliis  Kara  rp6iTov  accipiuntur.  Nee  sunt  plures  interpreta- 
tiones  quam  duce.  Posterior  Pauli  est  sine  omni  dubio,  qui  vocat  Koiucaviau  corporis 
panem,  et  aperte  testatur,  ovk  i^iffrdvai  ttjs  <j)v<Tea)s  ra  opw/neva  a-vfM0o\a.  Ekgo 
NECESSE  EST  ADMiTTi  rp6irov.  Cum  hac  consentit  vetustas  Qrceca  et  Latina. 
Grwci  ffv/x&o\a  avTirvira,  Latini  '  signa '  et  'Jiguras '  vocant  res  externas  et  in  usu 
corpus  et  sanguinem,  ut  discernant  hunc  sacrum  et  mysticum  cibum  a  profano,  et 
admoneant  Ecclesiam  de  re  signata,  quce  vere  exhibetur  et  applicatur  credentibus, 
et  dicunt  esse  symbola  rov  ovtoos  ffw/xaros,  contra  Entychem,  ut  sciat  Ecclesia,  non 
esse  inania  symbola  aut  notas  tantum  professionis,  sed  symbola  rerum  prasentium 
Christi  vere  prasentis  et  efficacis  et  impertientis  atque  applicantis  credentibus 
promissa  benejicia." 

From  Melanchthon's  Judicium  de  controversia  cosnce  Domini  ad  illustr.  Prin- 
cipem  ac  D.  D.  Fridericum,  Comitem  Palatinnm  Eheni,  Electorem,  dated  Nov.  1, 
1559  (IX.  960  sqq.)  :  "Non  difficile,  sed  periculosum  est  respondere.  Dicam 
tamen,  quce  nunc  de  controversia  illius  loci  monere  possuin  :  et  oro  Filium  Dei,  ut 
et  consilia  et  eventus  gubernet.  Non  dubium  est  de  controversia  Co^nae  ingentia 
certamina  et  bella  in  toto  orbe  terrarum  secutura  esse :  quia  mundus  dat  pcenas 
idololatrioE,  et  aliorum  peccatorum.  Ideo  petamus,  ut  Filius  Dei  nos  doceat  et  guber- 
net. Cum  autem  ubique  multi  sint  injirmi,  et  nondum  instituti  in  doctrina  Ecclesice, 
imo  conjirmati  in  erroribus  :  necesse  est  initio  habere  rationem  injirmorum. 

"  Probo  igitur  consilium  Illustrissimi  Electoris,  quod  rixantibus  utrinque  manda- 
vit  silentium  ne  distractio  fiat  in  tenera  Ecclesia,  et  injirmi  turbentur  in  illo  loco,  et 
vicinia :  et  optarim  rixatores  in  utraque  parte  abesse.  Secundo,  remotis  contentiosis,  • 
prodest  reliquos  de  una  forma  verborum  convenire.  Et  in  hac  controversia  optimum 
esset  retinere  verba  Pauli :  'Panis  quern  f rang imus,  Koivcovia  iarl  rov  ffd/xaTos.'  Et 
copiose  de  fructu  cance  dicendum  est,  ut  invitentur  homines  ad  amorem  hujus  pigno- 
ris,  et  crebrum  usum.     Et  vocabulum  Koivwvia  declarandum  est. 


§  134.     CALVIK    AKD   HESHUSIUS.  671 

"Noil  dicit  [Paulus],  mulari  nalurmii  panis,  ut  Papista^  dicunt :  non  dicit,  ut 
Bremenses,  punem  esse  substantiale  corpus  Chrisli.  Non  dicit,  ut  Heshusius, 
panem  esse  verum  corpus  C/iristi :  sed  esse  KOLvwviav,  id  est,  hoc,  quo  jit  consocia- 
tio  cum  corpore  Christi :  qme  Jit  in  usit,  et  quidem  non  sine  cogitations,  ut  cum 
inures  panem  rodunt.  .  .  . 

"  Sed  hanc  veram  et  simplicem  doctrinam  defructu,  nominant  quidam  cothurnos  : 
et  postulant  did,  an  sit  corpus  in  pane,  aut  speciebus  panis?  Quasi  vera  Sacra- 
mentum  propter  panem  et  illam  Papisticam  adorationem  institutum  sit.  Postea 
Jingunt,  quomodo  includant  pani :  alii  conversionem,  alii  transubstantiationem,  alii 
ubiquitatem  excogitarunt.    Hcec  portentosa  omnia  ignota  sunt  eruditce  vetustati.  ,  .  . 

"Ac  maneo  in  hac  sententia  :  Conientiones  utrinque  prohihendas  esse,  et  forma 
verborum  una  et  simili  utendum  esse.  8i  quibus  hac  non  placent,  nee  volunt  ad 
communionem  accedere,  his  permittatur,  ut  suo  judicio  utantur,  modo  nonjiant  dis- 
tractiones  in  populo. 

"  Oro  autem  Jilium  Dei,  Dominuni  nostrum  Jesum  Christum  sedentem  ad  dex- 
tram  ceterni  patris,  et  colligentem  oiternum  Ecclesiam  voce  Evangelii,  ut  nos  doceat, 
gubernet,  et  protegat.  Opto  etiam,  ut  aliquando  in  pia  8ynodo  de  omnibus  contro- 
versiis  horurn  temporum  deliberetur." 

§  134,    Calvin  and  Heshusius. 

I.  Heshusius  :  De  Prcesentia   Corporis   Christi  in   Cmia  Domini  contra  Sacra- 

mentarios.  Written  in  1559,  first  published  at  Jena,  1560  (and  also  at 
Magdeburg  and  Niirnberg,  1561).  Defensio  vera  et  sacrce  conjessionis  de 
vera  Prcesentia  Corporis  Christi  in  Ccena  Domini  adversus  calumnius  Calvini, 
Boquini,  Besce,  et  Clebitii.     Magdeburg,  1562. 

II.  Calvinus  :  Dilucida  Explicatio  same  DoctrincB  de  vera  Participatione  Carnis 
et  Sanguinis  Christi  in  Sacra  Ccena  ad  discutiendas  Heshusii  nebulas.  Gene- 
vae,  1561.  Also  in  French.  Opera,  IX.  457-524.  Comp.  Froleg.  xli-xliii. 
—  Beza  wrote  two  tracts  against  Heshusius:  KpeoKpayia  sive  Cjjclops,  etc., 
and  Abstersio  calumniarum  qtiibus  Calvinus  aspersus  est  ab  Heshusio.  Gen., 
1561.     BoQuiN  and  Klebitz  likewise  opposed  him. 

III.  J.  G.  Leuckfeld:  Ilistoria  Heshusiana.  Quedlinburg,  1716. —T.  H, 
WiLKENS  :  Tilemann  Uesshusen,  ein  Streittheologe  der  Luther skirche.  Leip- 
zig, I860.  — C.  Schmidt:  Philipp  Melanchthon.  Elberfeld,  1861,  pp.  639 
sqq.  —  Hackenschmidt,  Art.  "Hesshusen"  in  Herzog-,  VI.  75-79. — 
Henry,  III.  339-344,  and  Beilage,  221.  Comp.  also  Planck,  Heppe, 
G.  Frank,  and  the  extensive  literature  on  the  Reformation  in  the  Palati- 
nate and  the  history  of  the  Heidelberg  Catechism  (noticed  in  Schaff's 
Creeds  of  Christendom,  I.  529-531). 

Tilemann  Heshusius  (in  German  Hesshus  or  Hesshusen) 
was  born  in  1527  at  Niederwesel  in  the  duchy  of  Cleves,  and 
died  at  Helmstadt  in  1588.  He  ^yas  one  of  the  most  ener- 
getic and  pugnacious  champions  of  scholastic  orthodoxy  who 


672    THE  EEFORMATIOX  IN  FRENCH  SWITZERLAND. 

outluthered  Luther  and  outpoped  the  pope.^  He  identified 
piety  with  orthodoxy,  and  orthodoxy  with  illocal  con-in-' 
substan,tiation,2  or  "bread-worship,"  to  use  Melanchthon's 
expression.  He  occupied  influential  positions  at  Gosslar, 
Rostock,  Heidelberg,  Bremen,  Magdeburg,  Zweibriicken, 
Jena,  and  Prussia;  but  with  his  turbulent  disposition  he 
stirred  up  strife  everywhere,  used  the  power  of  excommuni- 
cation very  freely,  and  was  himself  no  less  than  seven  times 
deposed  from  office  and  expelled.  He  quarrelled  also  with 
his  friends  Flacius,  Wigand,  and  Chemnitz.  But  while  he 
tenaciously  defended  the  literal  eating  of  Christ's  body  by 
unbelievers  as  well  as  believers,  he  dissented  from  WestphaFs 
coarse  and  revolting  notion  of  a  chewing  of  Christ's  body 
with  the  teeth,  and  confined  himself  to  the  manducatio  oralis. 
He  rejected  also  the  doctrine  of  ubiquity,  and  found  fault 
with  its  introduction  into  the  Formula  of  Concord.^ 

Heshusius  was  originally  a  pupil  and  table-companion  of 
Melanchthon,  and  agreed  with  his  moderate  opinions,  but, 
like  Westphal  and  Flacius,  he  became  an  ungrateful  enemy 

1  The  other  leaders  of  the  anti-Melanchthonian  ultra-Lutheranism  were 
Amsdorf  (d.  1565),  Westphal  (d.  1574),  Flacius  (d.  1575),  Judex  (d.  1574), 
Jimann  (d.  1557),  Gallus  (d.  1570),  and  Wigand  (d.  1587).  The  chief  pupils 
of  Melanchthon  were  Eber  (d.  1569),  Cruciger  (d.  1548)  and  his  son 
(d.  1575),  Camerarius  (d.  1574),  Peucer,  Krell,  Pezel,  Pfeffinger,  Harden- 
berg.  Major,  Menius.  One  of  the  noblest  traits  of  Luther  was  his  liearty 
appreciation  of  Melanchthon  to  the  end  of  his  life,  notwithstanding  the 
marked  difference.  His  narrow  followers  entirely  lacked  this  element  of 
liberality  and  generosity.  Comp.  Dorner,  Geschichte  der  protest.  Theologie, 
pp.  330  sqq. 

-  I  coin  this  word  from  the  Lutheran  formula  cum,  in,  and  suh  pane  et  vino. 
The  usual  designation  "  consubstantiation  "  is  repudiated  by  Lutherans  in  the 
sense  of  inipanation  or  local  inclusion. 

3  Planck  and  Heppe  give  him  a  bad  character,  and  charge  him  with  inor- 
dinate ambition  and  avarice.  According  to  Heppe  he  was  "  einer  der  wider- 
wdrtigsten  lutherischen  Pfaffen  seiner  Zeit."  Hackenschmidt  judges  him  more 
mildly  as  a  consistent  advocate  of  the  tendency  which  makes  no  distinction 
between  religion  and  theology,  church  authority  and  police  force.  The 
Strassburg  editors  (Opera,  IX.  Prol.  p.  xli.)  call  liim  a  "  vir  iinperiosus  et 
<pi\oveiK6raTos."  Bullinger  compared  him  to  the  Homeric  Thersites,  who  was 
despised  for  scurrility. 


§  134.     CALVIN    AND   HESHUSIUS.  673 

of  his  benefactor.  He  was  recommended  by  him  to  a  profes- 
sorship at  Heidelberg  and  the  general  superintendency  of 
the  Lutheran  Church  in  the  Palatinate  on  the  Rhine  (1558). 
Here  he  first  appeared  as  a  champion  of  the  strict  Lutheran 
theory  of  the  substantial  presence,  and  attacked  "  the  Sacra- 
mentarians "  in  a  book  "  On  the  Presence  of  the  Body  of 
Christ  in  the  Lord's  Supper."  He  quarrelled  with  his  col- 
leagues, especially  with  Deacon  Klebitz,  who  was  a  Melanch- 
thonian,  but  no  less  violent  and  pugnacious.  He  even  tried 
to  wrest  the  eucharistic  cup  from  him  at  the  altar.  He 
excommunicated  him  because  he  would  not  admit  the  in  and 
sm6,  but  only  the  cum  (^pane  et  vino'),  in  the  scholastic  formula 
of  the  Lutheran  doctrine  of  the  real  presence.  Elector 
Frederick  III.,  called  the  Pious,  restored  peace  by  dismissing 
both  Heshusius  and  Klebitz  (Sept.  16,  1559),  with  the 
approval  of  Melanchthon.  He  afterwards  ordered  the  prep- 
aration of  the  Heidelberg  Catechism,  and  introduced  the 
Reformed  Church  into  the  Palatinate,  1563.^ 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Lutheran  clergy  of  Wiirtemberg, 
under  the  lead  of  Brenz,  in  a  synod  at  Stuttgart,  gave  the 
doctrine  of  the  ubiquity  of  Christ's  body,  which  Luther  had 
taught,  but  which  Melanchthon  had  rejected,  symbolical 
authority  for  Wiirtemberg  (Dec.  19,  1559).^ 

Calvin  received  the  book  of  Heshusius  from  Bullinger, 
who  advised  him  to  answer  the  arguments,  but  to  avoid 
personalities.^  He  hesitated  for  a  while,  and  wrote  to 
Olevianus  (November,  1560)  :  "  The  loquacity  of  that  brawler 
is  too  absurd  to  excite  my  anger,  and  I  have  not  yet  decided 
whether  I  shall  answer  him,  I  am  weary  of  so  many  pam- 
phlets, and  shall  certainly  not  think  his  follies  worthy  of 
many  days'  labor.  But  I  have  composed  a  brief  analysis  of 
this  controversy,  which  will,  perhaps,  be  shortly  published." 

1  See  §  133,  p.  669.  2  pianck,  vol.  V.  Part  II.  383  sqq. 

3  He  wrote  to  him:  "  Oro,  si  statuisti  respondere,  respondeas  ad  argumenta, 
diligenter  preterita  persona  ilia  T/iersitis  homenci." 


674         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

It  was  one  of  his  last  controversial  pauiplilets  and  appeared 
in  1561. 

In  the  beginning  of  his  response  he  made  that  most  touch- 
ino-  allusion  to  his  departed  friend  Melanchthon,  which 
we  have  noticed  in  another  connection.^  What  a  contrast 
between  this  noble  tribute  of  unbroken  friendship  and  the 
mean  ingratitude  of  Heshusius,  who  most  violently  attacked 
Melanchthon's  memory  immediately  after  his  death.^ 

Calvin  reiterates  and  vindicates  the  several  points  brought 
out  in  the  controversy  with  Westphal,  and  refutes  the  argu- 
ments of  Heshusius  from  the  Scripture  and  the  Fathers  with 
his  wonted  intellectual  vigor  and  learning,  seasoned  with 
pepper  and  salt.  He  compares  him  to  an  ape  clothed  in 
purple,  and  to  an  ass  in  a  lion's  skin.  The  following  are  the 
chief  passages :  — 

"  Heshusius  bewails  the  vast  barbarism  which  appears  to  be  impending, 
as  if  any  greater  or  worse  barbarism  were  to  be  feared  than  that  from  him 
and  his  fellows.  To  go  no  further  for  proof,  let  the  reader  consider  how 
fiercely  he  sneers  and  tears  at  his  master,  Philip  Melanchthon,  whose  memory 
he  ought  sacredly  to  revere.  .  .  .  Such  is  the  pious  gratitude  of  the  scholar, 
not  only  towards  the  teacher  to  whom  he  owes  whatever  little  learning  he 
may  possess,  but  towards  a  man  who  has  deserved  so  highly  of  the  whole 
Church.  .  .  . 

"Though  there  is  some  show  about  him,  he  does  nothing  more  by  his  mag- 
niloquence than  vend  the  old  follies  and  frivolities  of  Westphal  and  his  fel- 
lows. He  harangues  loftily  on  the  omnipotence  of  God,  on  putting  implicit 
faith  in  his  word,  and  subduing  human  reason,  in  terras  he  may  have  learned 
from  other  sources,  of  which  I  believe  myself  also  to  be  one.  I  have  no 
doubt,  from  his  childish  stolidity  of  glorying,  that  he  imagines  himself  to 
combine  the  qualities  of  Melanchthon  and  Luther.  From  the  one  he  ineptly 
borrows  flowers,  and  having  no  better  way  of  rivalling  the  vehemence  of  the 
other,  he  substitutes  bombast  and  sound.  .  .  . 

"  Westphal  boldly  affirms  that  the  body  of  Christ  is  chewed  by  the  teeth, 
and  confirms  it  by  quoting  with  approbation  the  recantation  of  Berengar,  as 
given  by  Gratian.  This  does  not  please  Heshusius,  who  insists  that  it  is 
eaten  by  the  mouth  but  not  touched  by  the  teeth,  and  greatly  disproves  those 
gross  modes  of  eating.  .  .  . 

"  Heshusius  argues  that  if  the  body  of  Christ  is  in  heaven,  it  is  not  in  the 
Supper,  and  that  instead  of  him  we  have  only  a  symbol.     As  if,  forsooth, 

1  See  §  90,  p.  398. 

-  Respoiiftio  ad  prnjudicinm  Phllippi  Melanchthonis,  1560. 


I 


§  134.    CALVIN   AND   HESHUSIUS.  675 

the  Supper  were  not,  to  the  true  worshippers  of  God,  a  heavenly  action,  or, 
as  it  were,  a  vehicle  which  carries  them  above  the  world.  But  what  is  this 
to  Heshusius,  who  not  only  halts  on  the  earth,  but  drives  his  nose  as  far  as 
he  can  into  the  mud  1  Paul  teaches  that  in  baptism  we  put  on  Christ  (Gal. 
3:27).  How  acutely  will  Heshusius  argue  that  this  cannot  be  if  Christ 
remain  in  heaven?  When  Paul  spoke  thus  it  never  occurred  to  him  that 
Christ  must  be  brought  down  from  heaven,  because  he  knew  that  he  is 
united  to  us  in  a  different  manner,  and  that  his  blood  is  not  less  present  to 
cleanse  our  souls  than  water  to  cleanse  our  bodies.  ...  Of  a  similar  nature 
is  his  objection  that  the  body  is  not  received  truly  if  it  is  received  symboli- 
cally ;  as  if  by  a  true  symbol  we  excluded  the  exhibition  of  the  reality. 

"  Some  are  suspicious  of  the  term  faith,  as  if  it  overthrew  the  reality  and 
the  effect.  But  we  ought  to  view  it  far  otherwise,  viz.  that  the  only  way  in 
which  we  are  conjoined  to  Christ  is  by  raising  our  minds  above  the  world. 
Accordingly,  the  bond  of  our  union  with  Christ  is  faith,  which  raises  us  up- 
wards, and  casts  its  anchor  in  heaven,  so  that  instead  of  subjecting  Christ 
to  the  figments  of  our  reason,  we  seek  him  above  in  his  glory. 

"  This  furnishes  the  best  method  of  settling  a  dispute  to  which  I  adverted, 
viz.  whether  believers  alone  receive  Christ,  or  all,  without  exception,  to 
whom  the  symbols  of  bread  and  wine  are  distributed,  receive  him  ?  Correct 
and  clear  is  the  solution  which  I  have  given:  Christ  offers  his  body  and  blood 
to  all  in  general ;  but  as  unbelievers  bar  the  entrance  of  his  liberality,  they 
do  not  receive  what  is  offered.  It  must  not,  however,  be  inferred  from  this 
that  when  they  reject  what  is  given,  they  either  make  void  the  grace  of 
Christ,  or  detract  in  any  respect  from  the  efficacy  of  the  sacrament.  The 
Supper  does  not,  through  their  ingratitude,  change  its  nature,  nor  does  the 
bread;  considered  as  an  earnest  or  pledge  given  by  Ciirist,  become  profane, 
so  as  not  to  differ  at  all  from  common  bread,  but  it  still  truly  testifies  com- 
munion with   THE    FLESH   AND    BLOOD   OF   ChRIST." 

This  is  the  conclusion  of  Calvin's  last  deliverance  on  the 
vexed  subject  of  the  sacrament.  For  the  rest  he  handed  his 
opponent  over  to  Beza,  who  answered  the  "  Defence "  of 
Heshusius  with  two  sharp  and  learned  tracts. 

The  eucharistic  controversy  kindled  by  Westphal  and 
Klebitz  was  conducted  in  different  parts  of  German}'-  with 
incredible  bigotry,  passion,  and  superstition.  In  Bremen, 
John  Timann  fought  for  the  carnal  presence,  and  insisted 
upon  the  ubiquity  of  Christ's  body  as  a  settled  dogma  (1555)  ; 
while  Albert  Hardenberg,  a  friend  of  Melanchthon,  opposed 
it,  and  was  banished  (1560)  ;  but  a  reaction  took  place  after- 
wards, and  Bremen  became  a  stronghold  of  the  Reformed 
Confession  in  Northern  Germany. 


676         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 
§  135.    Calvin  and  the  Astrologers. 

Calvin  :  Advertissement  contre  I'astrologie  qu'on  appelle  justiciaire  :  et  autres  curi- 
osite's  qui  regnent  aiijourdhuis  da?is  le  monde.  Geneve,  1549  (55  pp.).  The 
French  text  is  reprinted  in  Opera,  vol.  VII.  509-542.  Adinonitio  adversus 
astrologiam  quam  judiciariam  vacant ;  aliasque  prteterea  curiositates  nonnullas, 
quce  hodie  in  universam  fere  orhem  grassantur,  1549.  The  Latin  translation 
is  by  Fr.  Hottman,  sieur  de  Villiers,  at  that  time  secretary  of  Calvin, 
who  dictated  to  him  the  work  in  French.  The  Latin  text  is  reprinted  in 
the  Amsterdam  ed.,  vol.  IX.  500-509.  An  English  translation :  An 
Admonition  against  Astrology,  Judiciall  and  other  curiosities  that  reigne  now 
in  the  icoild,  by  Goddred  Gylby,  appeared  in  London  without  date,  and 
is  mentioned  by  Henkt,  III.  Beil.  212.     Comp.  Henry,  II.  391  sq. 

Calvin's  clear,  acute,  and  independent  intellect  was  in 
advance  of  the  crude  superstitions  of  his  age.  He  wrote 
a  warning  against  judicial  astrology  ^  or  divination,  which 
presumes  to  pronounce  judgment  upon  a  man's  character 
or  destiny  as  written  in  the  stars.  This  spurious  science, 
which  had  wandered  from  Babylon  ^  to  ancient  Rome  and 
from  heathen  Rome  to  the  Christian  Church,  flourished 
especially  in  Italy  and  France  at  the  very  time  when  other 
superstitions  were  shaken  to  the  base.  Several  popes  of  the 
Renaissance — Sixtus  IV.,  Julius  II.,  Leo  X.,  Paul  III. — 
were  addicted  to  it,  but  Pico  della  Mirandola  wrote  a  book 
against  it.  King  Francis  I.  dismissed  his  physician  because 
he  was  not  sufficiently  skilled  in  this  science.  The  Duchess 
Renata  of  Ferrara  consulted,  even  in  her  later  years,  the 
astrologer  Luc  Guaric.  The  court  of  Catherine  de  Medici 
made  extensive  use  of  this  and  other  black  arts,  so  that  the 
Church  and  the  State  had  to  interfere. 

But  more  remarkable  is  the  fact  that  such  an  enlightened 
scholar  as  Melanchthon  should  have  anxiously  watched  the 
constellations  for  their  supposed  bearing  upon  human  events. 
Lelio   Sozini  was  at  a  loss  to  know  whether  Melanchthon 

1  Astrologia  judiciaria  as  distinct  from  astrologia  natural  is,  or  simply 
astrologia. 

2  Hence  "  Chaldcei,"  "  mathematici,"  "  astrologi,"  were  identical  terms. 


§  135.     CALVIN    AND   THE   ASTROLOGERS.  677 

depended  most  on  the  stars,  or  on  their  Maker  and  Ruler.* 
In  this  respect  Luther,  notwithstanding  his  strong  belief  in 
witchcraft  and  personal  encounters  with  the  devil,  was  in  ad- 
vance of  his  more  learned  friend,  and  refuted  his  astrologi- 
cal calculation  of  the  nativit}'^  of  Cicero  with  the  Scripture 
fact  of  Esau's  and  Jacob's  birth  in  the  same  hour.  Yet  lie 
regarded  the  comets,  or  "harlot  stars,"  as  he  called  them, 
as  tokens  of  God's  wrath,  or  as  works  of  the  devil.  Zwlngli 
saw  in  Halley's  comet,  which  appeared  a  few  weeks  before 
the  disaster  of  Cappel,  a  sign  of  war  and  of  his  own  death. 
The  independent  and  heretical  Servetus  believed  and  prac- 
tised astrology  and  wrote  a  defence  of  it  (^Apologetica  Dls- 
ceptatio  pro  Astrologia). 

Nothing  of  this  kind  is  found  in  Calvin.  He  denounced 
the  attempt  to  reveal  what  God  has  hidden,  and  to  seek  him 
outside  of  his  revealed  will,  as  an  impious  presumption  and 
a  Satanic  delusion.  It  is  right  and  proper,  he  maintains,  to 
study  the  laws  and  motions  of  the  heavenly  bodies.^  True 
astronomy  leads  to  the  praise  of  God's  wisdom  and  majesty ; 
but  astrology  upsets  the  moral  order.  God  is  sovereign  in  his 
gifts  and  not  bound  to  any  necessity  of  nature.  He  has  fore- 
ordained all  things  by  his  eternal  decree.  Sometimes  sixty 
thousand  men  fall  in  one  battle  ;  are  they  therefore  born 
under  the  same  star?  It  is  true  the  sun  works  upon  the 
earth,  and  heat  and  dearth,  rain  and  storm  come  down  from 
the  skies,  but  the  wickedness  of  man  proceeds  from  his  will. 
The  astrologers  appealed  to  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  and 
to  the  prophet  Jeremiah,  who  calls  the  stars  signs,  but  Calvin 
met  them  by  quoting  Isa.  44 :  25 :  "  who  frustrateth  the 
tokens  of  the  liars  and  maketh  diviners  mad."     In  conclusion 


1  He  wrote  to  Bullinger  from  Wittenberg,  Aug.  20,  1550 :  "  Omnes  ah  uno 
Melanchthone  [pendenf],  qui  Astrologue.  judiciaries  fuit  addictus,  et  itnus  Hie  ab 
astrisne  magis,  an  ab  astrorum  conditore  ac  domino  pendeat,  ignoro."  Quoted  by 
Trechsel,  Antitrin.  II.  154,  note  4. 

2  Comp.  Inst.  I.  eh.  V.  §§  2  and  5,  where  be  speaks  highly  of  astronomy. 


678         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

he  rejects  the  whole  theory  and  practice  of  astrology  as  not 
only  superfluous  and  useless,  but  even  pernicious.^ 

In  the  same  tract  he  ridicules  the  alchemists,  and  incident- 
ally exhibits  a  considerable  amount  of  secular  learning. 

Calvin  discredited  also  the  ingenious  speculations  of 
Pseudo-Dionysius  on  the  Celestial  Hierarchy,  as  "  mere  bab- 
bling," adding  that  the  author  of  that  book,  which  was 
sanctioned  by  Thomas  Aquinas  and  Dante,  spoke  like  a  man 
descended  from  heaven  and  giving  an  account  of  things  he 
had  seen  with  his  own  eyes ;  while  Paul,  who  was  caught  up 
to  the  third  heaven,  did  not  deem  it  lawful  for  man  to  utter 
the  secret  things  he  had  seen  and  heard.^ 

Calvin  might  have  made  his  task  easier  if  he  had  accepted 
the  heliocentric  theory  of  Copernicus,  which  was  known  in 
his  time,  though  only  as  a  hypothesis.^ 

But  in  this  matter  Calvin  was  no  more  in  advance  of  his 
age  than  any  other  divine.  He  believed  that  "the  whole 
heaven  moves  around  the  earth,"  and  declared  it  preposterous 
to  set  the  conjecture  of  a  man  against  the  authority  of  God, 
who  in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  had  pointed  out  the  rela- 
tion of  the  sun  and  moon  to  the  earth.  Luther  speaks  with 
contempt  of  that  upstart  astronomer  who  wishes  to  reverse 

1  "  Curiositas  non  modo  supervacanea  et  ad  nullam  rem  titilis,  verum  etiam 
exitiosa." 

2  Inst.  Bk.  I.  ch.  XIV.  §  4. 

3  Copernicus  finished  his  work  De  Orbiiim  calestium  Revolutionibus  in  1530, 
and  dedicated  it  to  the  pope ;  but  it  was  not  published  till  1543,  by  Osiander 
of  Niirnberg,  to  whom  he  had  given  the  manuscript,  and  who  announced  the 
discovery  in  the  preface  as  a  mere  hypothesis.  He  received  a  copy  on  his 
death-bed  at  Frauenburg  on  the  borders  of  Prussia  and  Poland.  He  was 
probably  a  devout  man,  and  is  often  credited  with  the  prayer  graven  on  his 
tombstone:  "I  ask  not  the  grace  accorded  to  Paul;  not  that  given  to  Peter,- 
give  me  only  the  favor  which  thou  didst  show  to  the  thief  on  the  cross" 
{"non  parem  Pauli  grattam  reqm'ro,"  etc.)  ;  but  this  inscription  is  taken  from 
a  poem  of  ^Eneas  Sylvius  De  Passione  Domint,  and  was  put  upon  the  monu- 
ment of  Copernicus  at  Thorn  by  Dr.  Melchior  Pyrnesius  (1589).  Copernicus 
is  there  represented  with  folded  hands  before  a  crucifix.  See  Prowe's  work 
on  Copernicus,  and  Luthardt  in  the  "Theol.  Literaturblatt"  for  April  22, 
1892  (p.  188). 


§  135.     CALVIN  AND   THE   ASTROLOGERS.  679 

the  entire  science  of  astronomy  and  the  sacred  Scripture, 
which  tells  us  that  Joshua  commanded  the  sun  to  stand  still, 
and  not  the  earth.  Melanchthon  condemned  the  system  in 
his  treatise  on  the  "Elements  of  Physics,"  published  six 
years  after  the  death  of  Copernicus,  and  cited  against  it  the 
witness  of  the  eyes,  which  inform  us  that  the  heavens  revolve 
in  the  space  of  twenty-four  hours ;  and  passages  from  the 
Psalms  and  Ecclesiastes,  which  assert  that  the  earth  stands 
fast  and  that  the  sun  moves  around  it.  He  suggests  severe 
measures  to  restrain  such  impious  teaching  as  that  of 
Copernicus. 

But  we  must  remember  that  the  Copernican  theory  was 
opposed  by  philosophers  as  well  as  theologians  of  all  creeds 
for  nearly  a  hundred  years,  under  the  notion  that  it  contra- 
dicts the  testimony  of  the  senses  and  the  geocentric  teaching 
of  the  Bible.  When  towards  the  close  of  the  sixteenth 
century  Galileo  Galilei  (1564-1642)  became  a  convert  to  the 
Copernican  theory,  and  with  his  rude  telescope  discovered 
the  satellites  of  Jupiter  and  the  phases  of  Venus,  he  was 
denounced  as  a  heretic,  summoned  before  the  Inquisition 
at  Rome  and  commanded  by  Bellarmin,  the  standard  theolo- 
gian of  the  papacy,  to  abandon  his  error,  and  to  teach  that 
the  earth  is  the  immovable  centre  of  the  universe  (Feb.  26, 
1616).  The  Congregation  of  the  Index,  moved  by  Pope 
Paul  v.,  rendered  the  decree  that  "the  doctrine  of  the 
double  motion  of  the  earth  about  its  axis  and  about  the  sun 
is  false,  and  entirely  contrary  to  the  Holy  Scripture,"  and 
condemned  the  worlcs  of  Copernicus,  Kepler,  and  Galileo, 
which  affirm  the  motion  of  the  earth.  They  remained  on  the 
Index  Purgatorius  till  the  time  of  Benedict  XIV.  Even 
after  the  triumph  of  the  Copernican  system  in  the  scientific 
world,  there  were  respectable  theologians,  like  John  Owen 
and  John  Wesley,  who  found  it  inconsistent  with  their  theory 
of  inspiration,  and  rejected  it  as  a  delusive  and  arbitrary 
hypothesis  tending  towards  infidelity.  '' E  pur  si  muove,''  the 
earth  does  move  for  all  that ! 


680    THE  REFORMATION  IN  FRENCH  SWITZERLAND. 

There  can  be  no  contradiction  between  the  Bible  and  sci- 
ence ;  for  the  Bible  is  not  a  book  of  astronomy  or  geology 
or  science ;  but  a  book  of  religion,  teaching  the  relation  of 
the  world  and  man  to  God;  and  when  it  touches  upon  the 
heavenly  bodies,  it  uses  the  phenomenal  popular  language 
without  pronouncing  judgment  for  or  against  any  scientific 
theory. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 


SERVETUS:    HIS    LIFE,    OPINIONS,    TRIAL,    AND 
EXECUTION. 

§  136.    TJie  Servetus  Literature. 


l^tJfljtl 


^t^4Aeh<^ 


I.   Theological  Works  of  Michael  Servetus. 
DE   TRINI- 

TATIS    EURORIBUS 

LiBRi  Septem. 

Per  Michaelem  Serueto,  aliXs 

Reues  ai$  Aragoxia 

HiSPANUM 

Anno  MDXXXI. 
This  book  was  printed  at  Hagenau  in  the  Alsace,  but  without  the  name 
of  the  place,  or  of  the  publisher  or  printer.     It  contains  120  pasros. 

081 


682         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 


Dialogo  \  rum   de    Trinitate  \  Lihri  duo.  \  De  justlcia    regnl    Chri  \  sti,   Cupitula 
quatuor.  |  Per  Michaelem   Serveto,  \  alias  Reves,  ab  Aragonia  |  Hispamtm.  \ 
Anno  MDXKXII.     Likewise   printed   at   Hagenau.     It  concludes  with 
the  words  :   "  Perdat  Dominus  omnes  ecclesice  ti/rannos.     Amen.     Finis." 
These  two  works  (bound  in  one  volume  in  the  copy  before  me)  were  incor- 
porated in  revised  shape  in  the  Bestitutio. 


734 


APOLOGIA. 


CHRISTIANI 

SMI  RESTITV^ 

TIO. 

J^ctius  ecckjia  apoftoUca:  eft  ad  fua  limina 
vocatio ,  in  integrum  rejiituta  cognitione  Deiy  fidei  Chris 
Jli^  iujlijicationis  noftriD ,  r$generationisbaptifmi,'et  cae 
me  domim  manducationis.  Reflituto  denique  nobis  ru 
gno,  caltfii'i  Babylonis  impiis  captiuitate  foluta ^  et  Ans 
tichrifio  ctim  fuis  penitus  deflru^o* 

•»Krn    *-n«3»D  mop*    ^<^^l^    r-ipa 


jiimaqujcdam,  omnia  in  fc  conteraplans,  ct  lucidc  conri- 
nens:  mortalibus.  olim  vclata,  et  perCliriftuin  rciiclata: 
quam  erplcriquedixeruiit,  fuilTc  ipfninmct  animam  Chr?- 
fti.  Sapicntiitnnos  vcredidraus,  inftar  anima:Chri(li,r3f 
tionem  diuinam  dc  Chrifto ,  pcrronalcm  Chriili  fubftan- 
tiam  in  Deo  rdiicentcm,- et  omnia  cOntincntcm,  In  ca 
primaria  luce  elTe  rcliqua  omnia  fecundario  relucentia , 
vt  in  anima  ma  relucent  res  alia:,  qusc  funt  in  ipfa.  Vn- 
At  eft  aniraa  noftra  vera  imago  illiiis  fapientixDei,  ct  ab 
ea  vere  reformatur.  Nee  folum  dicimu?,  iiifaplcntiaDel 
omnia  rchicerc,  fed  et  inde  habere  fuum  efie,  ex  inuiii- 
bilibus  viGbiliafafta.  Ditimusitem,  eamaCIiriftofapicn- 
tis  lucem,  et  in  ange'los ,  et  in  animas  noftras  fe  diffun- 
dcntera,  velut  fpeculum  lucidum,  varias  nobis  et  ingelis 
Tcrum  cognitioncs  dare.  Atque  itaquicquid  angeli'vn- 
quara  cognoucrunt,  a  Chriflo  acceperunt,  ficut  ct  n05.  Be- 
nediftus.illc  Qt  in  fccula  fecolorum,  qui  fapicnriam  fuam 
infundfens,  lianc  de  fe  nojiis  cognitioneoi  dcdit.  Beoc^ 
didi  fint  in  ipfi>,  qui  ipfum  vere  credent  elTfe  fUiumDeJ, 
2b  Ktemo  in  Deo  relucentem,  ct  in  xternuin  regnantcnu 
Amen.    Amen. 


M.     S.     V. 
15    5    3. 


[Facsimile  of  last  page.] 


M.     D.     L 1 1 L 

[Facsimile  of  title  page.] 

This  work  was  printed  at  Vienne  in  Dauphine,  at  the  expense  of  the  author, 
who  is  indicated  on  the  last  page  by  the  initial  letters  M.  S.  V. ;  i.e.  Michael 
Servetus  Villanovanus.  It  contains  in  734  octavo  pages :  1)  Seven  books  on 
the  Trinity  (the  ed.  of  1531  revised)  ;  2)  Three  books  on  Faith  and  the 
Righteousness  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ  (revised) ;  3)  Four  books  on  Regen- 
eration and  the  kingdom  of  Antichrist;  4)  Thirty  Epistles  to  Calvin;  5)  Sixty 
Signs  of  the  reign  of  Antichrist ;  6)  Apology  to  Melanchthon  and  his  col- 
leagues on  the  mystery  of  the  Trinity  and  ancient  discipline. 

One  thousand  (some  say  eight  hundred)  copies  were  printed  and  nearly 
all  burnt  or  otherwise  destroyed.  Four  or  five  were  saved:  namely,  one  sent 
by  Servetus  tlirough  Frelon  to  Calvin ;  one  taken  from  the  five  bales  seized 
at  Lyons  for  the  use  of  the  Inquisitor  Ory ;  a  third  transmitted  for  inspection 
to  the  Swiss  Churches  and  Councils;  a  fourth  sent  by  Calvin  to  Bullinger; 
a  fifth  given  by  Calvin  to  CoUadon,  one  of  the  judges  of  Servetus,  in  which 
the  objectionable  passages  are  marked,  and  which  was,  perhaps,  the  same 
with  the  fourth  copy.  Castellio  (1554)  complained  that  he  could  not  get  a 
copy. 


§  136.    THE   SERVETUS   LITEKATUKE.  683 

At  present  only  two  copies  of  the  original  edition  are  known  to  exist ;  one 
in  the  National  Library  of  Paris  (the  Colladon  foi)y),  the  other  in  the  Imperial 
Library  of  Vienna.  Willis  gives  the  curious  history  of  these  copies,  pp.  5o5- 
541 ;  conip.  his  note  on  p.  196.  Audin  says  that  he  used  the  annotated  copy 
which  bears  the  name  of  Colladon  on  the  title-page,  and  the  marks  of  the 
flames  on  the  margins ;  liow  it  was  rescued,  he  does  not  know.  It  is  this 
copy  which  passed  into  the  hands  of  Dr.  Ilichard  Mead,  a  distinguished 
physician  in  London,  who  put  a  Latin  note  at  the  head  of  the  work:  " Fuit 
hie  liber  D.  Colladon  qui  ipse  nomen  suum  adscripsit.  Ille  vero  simul  cum  Ccdvino 
inter  judices  sedebat  qui  uuctorem  Servetum  Jlam  mis  damnarunt.  Ipse  indicem  in 
Jine  confecit.  Et  porro  in  ipso  opere  lineis  ductis  hie  et  illic  notavit  verba  quibus 
ejus  blasphemias  et  errores  eoargueret.  Hoe  exemplar  unicum  quantum  scire  licet 
Jlammis  servatum  restat  :  omnia  enim  qua;  reperire  poterat  aucloritate  sua  ut 
comburerentur  curavit  Calvintis."  (Quoted  from  Audin.)  This  must  be  the 
copy  now  in  Paris.  Dr.  Mead  began  to  republish  a  handsome  edition  in  1723, 
but  it  was  suppressed  and  burnt  by  order  of  Gibson,  the  bishop  of  London. 

In  1790,  the  book  rose  like  a  phoenix  from  its  ashes  in  the  shape  of  an 
exact  reprint,  page  for  page,  and  line  for  lino,  so  that  it  can  only  be  distin- 
guished from  the  first  edition  by  the  date  of  publication  at  the  bottom  of  the 
last  page  in  extremely  small  figures  — 1790  (not  1791,  as  Trechsel,  Stiihclin, 
Willis,  and  others,  say).  The  reprint  was  made  from  the  original  copy  in 
the  Vienna  Library  by  direction  of  Chr.  Th.  Murr,  M.D.  (See  his  Adno- 
tationes  ad  Bibliothecas  Hallerianas,  cum  variis  ad  scripta  Michaelis  Serveti  per- 
tinentibus,  Erlangen,  1805,  quoted  by  Willis.)  The  edition  must  have  been 
small,  for  copies  are  rare.  My  friend,  the  Rev.  Samuel  M.  Jackson,  is  in 
possession  of  a  copy  which  I  have  used,  and  of  which  two  pages,  the  first 
and  the  last,  are  given  in  facsimile. 

A  German  translation  of  the  Restitutio  by  Dr.  Berxhard  Spikss:  Michael 
Servets  Wiederherstellung  des  Christenthums  zum  ersten  Mai  iibersetzt.  Erster  Bd., 
Wiesbaden  (Limbarth),  1892  (323  pp.).  The  second  vol.  has  not  yet  appeared. 
He  says  in  the  preface  :  "  An  Beijeisterung  fur  Christus  und  an  biblischem  Puris- 
mus  ist  Servet  den  meisten  Theolor/en  unserer  Tage  weit  iiberlegen  [?]  ;  von  eigent- 
lichen  Ldsterungen  ist  nichts  bei  ihm  za  entdecken."  Dr.  Spiess,  like  Dr.  Tollin, 
is  both  a  defender  of  Servetus  and  an  admirer  of  Calvin.  He  translated  the 
first  ed.  of  his  Institutes  (1536)  into  German  (Wiesbaden,  1887). 

The  geographical  and  medical  works  of  Servetus  will  be  noticed  in  the 
next  sections. 

II.  Calvinistic  Sources. 
Calvin  :  Defensio  orthodoxce  Jidei  de  sacra  trinitate  contra  prodigiosos  errores 
Michaelis  Serveti  Hispani,  ubi  ostenditur  hareticos  jure  gladti  coercendos 
■  esse,  etc.,  written  in  1554,  in  Opera,  VIII.  (Brunsw.,  1870),  453-644.  The 
same  volume  contains  thirty  letters  of  Servetus  to  Calvin,  645-720,  and 
the  Actes  du  proces  de  Mich.  Servet.,  721-872.  See  also  the  correspond- 
ence of  Calvin  from  the  year  1553  in  vol.  XIV.  58  sqq.  (The  Defensio 
is  in  the  Amsterdam  ed.,  vol.  IX.  510-567.)  Calvin  refers  to  Servetus 
after  his  death  several  times  in  the  last  ed.  of  the  Institutes  (I.  III.  §  10, 
22;  II.  IX.  §  3,  10;  IV.  XVI.  29,  31),  in  his  Responsio  ad  Balduini  Con- 


684         THE   EEFORMATION   IN   mENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

vitia  (1562),  Opera,  IX.  575,  and  in  his  Commentary  on  John  1  : 1  (written 
in  155-4)  :  "  Sen^etus,  supei-bissimus  ex  gente  Hispanica  nebulo." 
Beza  gives  a  brief  account  in  his  Calvini  Vita,  ad  a.  1553  and  1554,  where  he 
says  that  "  Servetus  was  justly  punished  at  Geneva,  not  as  a  sectary, 
but  as  a  monster  made  up  of  nothing  but  impiety  and  horrid  blaspliemies, 
with  which,  by  his  speeches  and  writings,  for  the  space  of  thirty  years, 
he  had  infected  both  heaven  and  earth."  He  thinks  that  Servetus  uttered 
a  Satanic  prediction  on  the  title-page  of  his  book  :  "  Great  war  took  place 
in  heaven,  Michael  and  his  angels  fighting  with  [not  against]  the  dragon." 
He  also  wrote  an  elaborate  defence  of  the  death-penalty  for  heresy  in 
his  tract  De  hcreticis  a  civili  magistratu  puniendis,  adversus  Martini  Bellii 
[pseudonym]  farraginem  et  novorum  academicorum  sectam.  Geneva  (Oliva 
Rob.  Stephani),  1554;  second  ed.  1592;  French  translation,  1560.  See 
Heppe's  Beza,  p.  38  sq. 

III.  Anti-Calvinistic. 

BoLSEC,  in  his  Histoire  de  la  vie  ,  .  .  de  Jean  Colinn  (1577),  chs.  III.  and 
IV.,  discusses  the  trial  of  Servetus  in  a  spirit  hostile  alike  to  Calvin 
and  Servetus.  He  represents  the  Roman  Catholic  view.  He  calls  Serve- 
tus "a  very  arrogant  and  insolent  man,"  and  a  "monstrous  heretic," 
who  deserved  to  be  exterminated.  " Desireroy,"  he  says,  p.  25,  "que  tons 
semblables  fussent  exterminez  :  et  I'eglise  de  nostre  Seigneur  fut  bien  purgee  de 
telle  vermine."  His  more  tolerant  editor,  L.  F.  Chastel,  protests  against 
this  wish  by  an  appeal  to  Luke  9  :  55. 

IV.  Documentary  Sources. 

The  Acts  of  the  process  of  Servetus  at  Vienne  were  published  by  the  Abbe 
D'Artigny,  Paris,  1749  (Tom.  II.  des  Nouveaux  Me'moires').  —  The  Acts 
of  the  process  at  Geneva,  first  published  by  J.  H.  Albert  Rilliet  :  Rela- 
tion du  proces  criminel  intente  a  Geneve  en  1553  contre  Michel  Servet,  re'dige'e 
d'apres  les  documents  originaux.  Geneve,  1844.  Reprinted  in  Opera,  vol. 
VIII.  —  English  translation,  with  notes  and  additions,  by  W.  K.  Tweedie  : 
Calvin  and  Servetus.  Edinburgh,  1846.  German  translation  by  Brunne- 
MANN  (see  below). 

V.  Modern  Works. 

*L.  Mosheim,  the  famous  Lutheran  Church  historian  (1694-1755),  made  the 
first  impartial  investigation  of  the  Servetus  controversy,  and  marks  a 
reaction  of  judgment  in  favor  of  Servetus,  in  two  monographs,  Geschichte 
des  beriihmten  Spanischen  Arztes  Michael  Serveto,  Helmstjedt,  1748,  4° 
(second  vol.  of  his  Ketzergeschichte)  ;  and  Neue  Nachrichten  von  Serveto, 
1750.  He  had  first  intrusted  his  materials  to  a  pupil,  Henr.  Ab.  All- 
WOERDEN,  who  published  a  Historia  Michaelis  Serveti,  Helmstadii,  1727 
(238  pp.,  with  a  fine  portrait  of  Servetus  and  the  scene  of  his  execution)  ; 
but  as  this  book  was  severely  criticised  by  Armand  de  la  Chapelle,  the 
pastor  of  the  French  congregation  at  the  Hague,  Mosheim  wrote  his  first 
work  chiefly  from  copies  of  the  acts  of  the  trial  of  Servetus  at  Geneva 
(which  are  verified  by  the  publication  of  the  original  documents  in 
1844),  and  his  second  work  from  the  trial  at  Vienne,  which  were  fur- 


§  136.    THE   SERVETUS   LITERATURE.  685 

nishcd  to  him  by  a  French  ecclesiastic.  Comp.  Henry,  III.  102  sq.  ; 
Dyer,  540  sq. 
In  the  nineteenth  century  Servetus  has  been  thoroughly  discussed  by  the 
biographers  of  Calvin:  Henry  (vol.  III.  107  sqq.,  abridged  in  Stebbing's 
transl.,  vol.  II.);  Audin  (chs.  XL.  and  XLI.)  ;  Dyer  (chs.  IX.  and  X.,  pp. 
290-3G7)  ;  Stahelin  (I.  422  sqq. ;  II.  309  sqq.)  ;  and  by  Amedee  Roget, 
in  his  Hisloire  du  peuple  de  Geneve  (vol.  IV.,  1877,  which  gives  the  history 
of  1553-1555).  Henry,  Stahelin,  and  Roget  vindicate  Calvin,  but  dissent  from 
his  intolerance;  Dyer  aims  to  be  impartial;  Audin,  like  Bolsec,  condemns 
both  Calvin  and  Servetus. 

*  F.  Trechsel  :    Michael    Servet  imd  seine    Vonjdnger,  Heidelberg,  1839  (the 

first  part  of  his  Die  protest.  Antitrinitarier) .  He  draws  chiefly  from 
Servetus's  works  and  from  the  proceedings  of  the  trial  in  the  archives  of 
Bern,  which  agree  with  those  of  Geneva,  published  afterwards  by  Rilliet. 
His  work  is  learned  and  impartial,  but  with  great  respect  for  Calvin. 
Com[).  his  valuable  article  in  the  first  cd.  of  Herzog,  vol.  XIV.  280-301. 

*  W.  K.  TwEEDiE  :  Calvin  and  Servetus,  London,  1840. 

Emile  Saisset  :  Michael  Servet,  I.  Doctrine  philosophique  et  religieuse  de 
M.  S. ;  II.  Le  proces  et  la  mort  de  M.  S.  In  the  "  Revue  des  deux 
Mondes"  for  1848,  and  in  his  "  Melanges  d'histoire,"  1859,  pp.  117-227. 
Saisset  was  the  first  to  assign  Servetus  his  proper  place  among  scientists 
and  pantheists.  He  calls  him  "  le  tkeologien  philosophe  panthe'iste  pr^curseur 
inattendu  de  Malebranche  et  de  Spinoza,  de  Schleiermacher  et  de  Strauss." 

J.  S.  Porter  (Unitarian)  :  Servetus  and  Calvin,  1854. 

Karl  Brunnemann  :  M.  Serv.,  eine  aktemnassitje  DarsteUung  des  1553  in  Genf 
gegen  ihn  gefuhrten  Kriminal-processes,  Berlin,  1865.     (From  Rilliet.) 

*  Henri  Tollin  (Lie.  Theol.,  Dr.  Med.,  and  minister  of  the  French  Reformed 

Church  at  Magdeburg)  :  I.  Charakterbild  Michael  Servets.     Berlin,  1876, 

48  pp.  8°  (transl.  inio  French  by  Mrae.  Picheral-Dardier,  Paris,  1879) ; 

II.   Das  Lehrsystem  Michael  Servets,  genetisch  dargestellt,  Giitersloh,  1876- 

1878,  3  vols,  (besides  many  smaller  tracts;  see  below). 
*R.  Willis   (M.D.)  :    Servetus  and   Calvin.     London,  1877   (541  pp.),  with  a 

fine  portrait  of  Servetus  and  an  ugly  one  of  Calvin.     More  favorable 

to  the  former. 
Marcelino    Menendez    Pelayo    (R.    Cath.) :    Historia    de   las    Ileterodoxos 

Espanjoles.     Madrid,  1877.     Tom.  11.  249-313. 
Don  Pedro  Gonzales  de  Velasco:  Miguel  Serveto.     Madrid,  1880  (23  pp.). 

He  has  placed  a  statue  of  Serveto  in  the  portico  of  the  Instituto  antro- 

pologico  at  Madrid. 

*  Prof.  Dr.  A.  v.  d.  Linde  :   Michael  Servet,  een  Brandoffer  der   Gereformeerde 

Impiisitie.  Groningen,  1891  (326  pp.).  Hostile  to  Calvin,  as  the  title 
indicates,  and  severe  also  against  Tollin,  but  valuable  for  the  literary 
references,  distributed  among  the  chapters. 
(Articles  in  Encyclop.,  by  Charles  Dardier,  in  Lichtenbergcr's  "Encycl. 
des  Sciences  religieuses,"  vol.  XL,  pp.  570-582  (Paris,  1881);  in 
Larousse's  "Grand  Dictionnairc  universel,"  vol.  XIV.  621-623;    Alex. 


686         THE    REFORMATION    IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Gordon,  in  "  Eiicycl.  Brit."  XXL  G8i-686;   by  Beknh.  Riggenbach,  in 
Herzog^,  XIV.  153-101.) 
The  theology  of  Servetus  is  analyzed  and  criticised  by  Heberle  :  M.  Servets 
Trinitdtslehre    und    Christologie   in   the  "  Tiibinger  Zeitschrift"  for  1840; 
Baur:    Die    christl.  Lehre  v.  d.   Dreieinigkeit    und   Menschwerdung    Guiles 
(Tiibingen,  184.3),  III.  54-103;  Dorner:  Lehre  v.  d.  Person  Christi  (Ber- 
lin, 1853),  II.  613,  029,  649-000;  Punjer  :  De  M.  Serveti  doclrina,  Jena, 
1876. 
The  tragedy  of  Servetus  has  been  dramatized  by  Max  Ring  {Die  Genfer, 
1850),  Jose'  Echegaray  (1880),  and  Albert  Hamann  (1881). 

Servetus  lias  been  more  thoroughly  discussed  and  defended  in  recent 
times  than  any  man  connected  with  the  Reformation. 

The  greatest  Servetus  scholar  and  vindicator  is  Dr.  ToUin,  pastor  of 
a  Huguenot  Church  in  Germany,  who  calls  himself  "  a  Calvinist  by  birth 
and  a  decided  friend  of  toleration  by  nature."  He  was  led  to  the  study  of 
Servetus  by  his  interest  in  Calvin,  and  has  written  a  Serveto-centric  library 
of  about  forty  books  and  tracts,  bearing  upon  every  aspect  of  Servetus  :  his 
Theology,  Anthropologtj,  Soteriologij,  Eschatologi/,  Diahologij,  Antichristologij,  his 
relations  to  the  Reformers  (Luther,  Bucer,  Melanehthon),  and  to  Thomas 
Aquinas,  and  also  his  medical  and  geographical  writings.  He  has  kindly 
furnished  me  with  a  complete  list,  and  I  will  mention  the  most  important 
below  in  their  proper  places. 

Dr.  Tollin  assumes  that  Servetus  was  radically  misunderstood  by  all  his 
opponents  —  Catholic,  Calvinistic,  and  Lutheran,  and  even  by  his  Socinian 
and  other  Unitarian  sympathizers.  He  thinks  that  even  Calvin  misunder- 
stood him,  though  he  understood  him  better  than  his  other  contemporaries. 
He  makes  Servetus  a  real  hero,  the  peer  of  Calvin  in  genius,  the  discoverer 
of  the  circulation  of  tlie  blood,  the  founder  of  comparative  geography  (the 
forerunner  of  Ritter),  and  the  pioneer  of  modern  Christology,  which,  instead 
of  beginning  with  the  pre -existent  Logos,  rises  from  the  contemplation  of  the 
man  Jesus  to  the  recognition  of  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Messiah,  then  as  the 
Son  of  God,  and  last  as  God.  But  he  has  overdone  the  subject,  and  put 
some  of  his  own  ideas  into  the  brain  of  Servetus,  who,  like  Calvin,  must 
be  studied  and  judged  in  the  light  of  the  sixteenth,  and  not  of  the  nineteenth, 
century. 

Next  to  Tollin,  Professor  Harnack,  Neander's  successor  in  Berlin,  has 
formed  a  most  favorable  idea  of  Servetus.  Without  entering  into  an  analy- 
sis of  his  views,  he  thinks  that  in  him  "  the  best  of  all  that  came  to  maturity 
in  the  sixteenth  century  was  united,  if  we  except  the  evangelical  Reforma- 
tion," and  thus  characterizes  him  :  "  Servede  ist  g/eich  bedeulend  als  empirischer 
Forscher,  als  kritischer  Denker,  als  specu/ativer  Philosoph  und  als  christUcher 
Reformer  im  besten  Sinn  des  Worts.  Es  ist  eine  Paradoxic  der  Geschichte,  dass 
Spanien  —  das  Land,  ivelcJies  von  den  Ideen  der  neuen  Zeit  im  16  Jahrhundert  am 
wenigsten  herilhrt  gewesen  ist  —  diesen  einzigen  Mann  hervorgebracht  hat."  {L)og- 
mengeschichle ,  Bd.  III.  661.) 


§  137.    CALVIX    AND    SERVETUS.  687 

§  137.    Calvin  and  Servetus. 

We  now  come  to  the  dark  chapter  in  the  history  of  Calvin 
which  has  cast  a  gloom  over  his  fair  name,  and  exposed  him, 
not  unjustly,  to  the  charge  of  intolerance  and  persecution, 
which  he  shares  with  his  whole  asre. 

The  burning  of  Servetus  and  the  deeretum  liorrihile  are 
sufficient  in  the  judgment  of  a  large  part  of  the  Christian 
world  to  condemn  him  and  his  theology,  but  cannot  destroy 
the  rocky  foundation  of  his  rare  virtues  and  lasting  merits. 
History  knows  only  of  one  spotless  being  —  the  Saviour  of 
sinners.  Human  greatness  and  purity  are  spotted  by  marks 
of  infirmity,  which  forbid  idolatry.  Large  bodies  cast  large 
shadows,  and  great  virtues  are  often  coupled  with  great 
vices. 

Calvin  and  Servetus  —  what  a  contrast !  The  best  abused 
men  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  yet  direct  antipodes  of 
each  other  in  spirit,  doctrine,  and  aim :  the  reformer  and  the 
deformer ;  the  champion  of  orthodoxy  and  the  archheretic ; 
the  master  architect  of  construction  and  the  master  architect 
of  ruin,  brought  together  in  deadly  conflict  for  rule  or  ruin. 
Both  were  men  of  brilliant  genius  and  learning ;  both  deadly 
foes  of  the  Roman  Antichrist ;  both  enthusiasts  for  a  restora- 
tion of  primitive  Christianity,  but  with  opposite  views  of 
what  Christianity  is. 

They  Avere  of  the  same  age,  equally  precocious,  equally 
bold  and  independent,  and  relied  on  purely  intellectual 
and  spiritual  forces.  The  one,  while  a  youth  of  twenty- 
seven,  wrote  one  of  the  best  systems  of  theology  and  vindica- 
tions of  the  Christian  faith ;  the  other,  when  scarcely  above 
the  age  of  twenty,  ventured  on  the  attempt  to  uproot  the 
fundamental  doctrine  of  orthodox  Christendom.  Both  died 
in  the  prime  of  manhood,  the  one  a  natural,  the  other  a 
violent,  death. 

Calvin's  works  are  in  every  theological  library ;  the  books 


688         THE  KEFOEMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

of  Servetus  are  among  the  greatest  rareties.  Calvin  left 
behind  him  flourishing  churches,  and  his  influence  is  felt 
to  this  day  in  the  whole  Protestant  world ;  Servetus  passed 
away  like  a  meteor,  without  a  sect,  without  a  pupil ;  yet  he 
still  eloquently  denounces  from  his  funeral  pile  the  crime 
and  folly  of  religious  persecution,  and  has  recently  been 
idealized  by  a  Protestant  divine  as  a  prophetic  forerunner  of 
modern  christo-centric  theology. 

Calvin  felt  himself  called  by  Divine  Providence  to  purify 
the  Church  of  all  corruptions,  and  to  bring  her  back  to  the 
Christianity  of  Christ,  and  regarded  Servetus  as  a  servant  of 
Antichrist,  who  aimed  at  the  destruction  of  Christianity. 
Servetus  was  equally  confident  of  a  divine  call,  and  even 
identified  himself  with  the  archangel  Michael  in  his  apoca- 
lyptic fight  against  the  dragon  of  Rome  and  "the  Simon 
Magus  of  Geneva." 

A  mysterious  force  of  attraction  and  repulsion  brought 
these  intellectual  giants  together  in  the  drama  of  the  Refor- 
mation. Servetus,  as  if  inspired  by  a  demoniac  force,  urged 
himself  upon  the  attention  of  Calvin,  regarding  him  as  the 
pope  of  orthodox  Protestantism,  whom  he  was  determined 
to  convert  or  to  dethrone.  He  challenged  Calvin  in  Paris 
to  a  disputation  on  the  Trinity  when  the  latter  had  scarcely 
left  the  Roman  Church,  but  failed  to  appear  at  the  ap- 
pointed place  and  hour.^  He  bombarded  him  with  letters 
from  Vienne ;  and  at  last  he  heedlessly  rushed  into  his  power 

1  See  above,  p.  324.  Beza  thus  reports  this  incident :  "  Not  long  after 
Calvin  returned  [from  Angouleme,  in  1534]  to  Paris,  as  if  called  there  by 
the  hand  of  God  himself ;  for  the  impious  Servetus  was  even  then  disseminat- 
ing his  heretical  poison  against  the  sacred  Trinity  in  that  city.  He  professed 
to  desire  nothing  more  earnestly  than  to  have  an  opportunity  for  entering 
into  discussion  with  Calvin,  who  waited  long  for  Servetus,  the  time  and  place 
for  an  interview  having  been  appointed,  with  great  danger  to  his  own  life, 
since  he  was  at  that  time  under  the  necessity  of  being  concealed  on  account 
of  the  incensed  rage  of  his  adversaries.  Calvin  was  disappointed  in  his 
expectations  of  meeting  Servetus,  who  wanted  courage  to  endure  even  the 
sight  of  his  opponent." 


§  137.    CALVIN    AND   SERVETUS.  689 

at  Geneva,  and  into  the  flames  which  have  iinniortalized  his 
name.i 

The  judgment  of  historians  on  these  remarkable  men  has 
undergone  a  great  change.  Calvin's  course  in  the  tragedy 
of  Servetus  Avas  fully  approved  by  tlie  best  men  in  the  six- 
teenth and  seventeenth  centuries.^  It  is  as  fully  condemned 
in  the  nineteenth  century.  Bishop  Bossuet  was  able  to 
affirm  that  all  Christians  were  happily  agreed  in  maintaining 
the  rightfulness  of  the  death  penalty  for  obstinate  heretics, 
as  murderers  of  souls.  A  hundred  years  later  the  great  his- 
torian Gibbon  echoed  the  opposite  public  sentiment  when 
he  said  :  "  I  am  more  deeply  scandalized  at  the  single  execu- 
tion of  Servetus  than  at  the  hecatombs  which  have  blazed  at 
auto-da-f^s  of  Spain  and  Portugal."  '^ 

It  would  be  preposterous  to  compare  Calvin  with  Torque- 
mada."*  But  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  burning  of  Servetus 
is  a  typical  case  of  Protestant  persecution,  and  makes  Calvin 
responsible  for  a  principle  which  may  be  made  to  justify 
an  indefinite  number  of  applications.  Persecution  deserves 
much  severer  condemnation  in  a  Protestant  than  in  a  Roman 

1  "If  ever  a  poor  fanatic  thrust  himself  into  the  tire,  it  was  Michael 
Servetus."     Coleridge,  in  his  Table-Talk. 

-  See  the  judgments  below  in  §  139. 

3  In  a  footnote  in  ch.  LIV.  of  his  work  on  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  R.  E. 
(Smith's  ed.  V.  552).  He  assigns  three  reasons  for  this  judgment:  (1)  the 
zeal  of  Calvin  was  envenomed  by  personal  malice  and  perhaps  envy  [1]  ; 
(2)  the  deed  of  cruelty  was  not  varnished  by  the  pretence  of  danger  to  the 
Church  or  State ;  (3)  Calvin  violated  the  golden  rule  of  doing  as  he  would 
be  done  by.  Gibbon's  prejudice  against  Calvinism  is  expressed  in  the  sen- 
tence (p.  551)  that  "many  a  sober  Christian  would  rather  admit  that  a  wafer 
is  God  than  that  God  is  a  cruel  and  capricious  tyrant." 

*  James  Martineau  states  that  "  in  his  eighteen  years  of  office,  Cardinal 
Thomas  de  Torquemada  had  burned  alive,  it  is  computed,  eighty-eight  hun- 
dred victims,  and  punished  ninety  thousand  in  various  ways,  not  for  offences 
against  the  moral  law,  or  crimes  against  society,  but  for  thoughts  of  their 
own  about  religion,  which  only  God,  and  not  the  pope,  had  allowed ;  or  for 
being  Jews  that  would  not  be  apostates ;  or  for  refusing  on  the  rack  to  con- 
fess what  thej'  had  never  done."  The  Seat  of  Authority  in  Religion,  1890» 
p.  156;  comp.  Florente's  Ilistoire  Critique  de  I' Inquisition,  IV.  251  sq. 


690         THE   REFORMATION    IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Catholic,  because  it  is  inconsistent.  Protestantism  must 
stand  or  fall  witli  freedom  of  conscience  and  freedom  of 
worship. 

From  the  standpoint  of  modern  Christianity  and  civiliza- 
tion, the  burning  of  Servetus  admits  of  no  justification. 
Even  the  most  admiring  biographers  of  Calvin  lament  and 
disapprove  his  conduct  in  this  tragedy,  which  has  spotted 
his  fame  and  given  to  Servetus  the  glory  of  martyrdom. 

But  if  we  consider  Calvin's  course  in  the  light  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  Ave  must  come  to  the  conclusion  that  he 
acted  his  part  from  a  strict  sense  of  duty  and  in  harmony 
with  the  public  law  and  dominant  sentiment  of  his  age,  which 
justified  the  death  penalty  for  heresy  and  blasphemy,  and 
abhorred  toleration  as  involving  indifference  to  trutli  Even 
Servetus  admitted  the  principle  under  which  he  suffered;  for 
he  said,  that  incorrigible  obstinacy  and  malice  deserved  death 
before  God  and  men.^ 

Calvin's  prominence  for  intolerance  was  his  misfortune. 
It  was  an  error  of  judgment,  but  not  of  the  heart,  and  must 
be  excused,  though  it  cannot  be  justified,  by  the  spirit  of 
his  age.^ 

Calvin  never  changed  his  views  or  regretted  his  conduct 
towards  Servetus.  Nine  years  after  his  execution  he  justi- 
fied it  in  self-defence  against  the  reproaches  of  Baudouin 
(1562),  saying:  "Servetus  suffered  the  penalty  due  to  his 
heresies,  but  was  it  by  my  will  ?  Certainly  his  arrogance 
destroyed  him  not  less  than  his  impiety.  And  what  crime 
was  it  of  mine  if  our  Council,  at  my  exhortation,  indeed,  but 
in  conformity  with  the   opinion  of  several  Churches,  took 

^  "  Hoc  crimen  est  morte  simpliciter  dignum,  et  apud  Deum  et  apud  homines." 
In  the  twenty-seventh  letter  to  Calvin  (Christianismi  Restitutio,  p.  656).  He 
speaks  there  of  the  punishment  of  Ananias  and  Sapphira,  who  were  "  incorri- 
gihiles,  in  malitia  obstinati."  Calvin  refers  to  this  admission  of  Servetus,  and 
charges  him  with  inconsistency.     Opera,  VIII.  462. 

2  This  is  admitted  now  by  all  impartial  historians.  Michelet  (XI.  96) 
calls  this  blot  in  Calvin's  life  "crime  du  temps  plus  que  de  Vhomme  meme." 


§  loT.     CALVIX    AND    SERVETUS.  691 

vengeance  on  his  execrable  blasphemies?  Let  Baudouin 
abuse  me  as  long  as  he  will,  provided  that,  by  the  judgment 
of  Melanchthon,  posterity  owes  me  a  debt  of  gratitude  for 
having  purged  the  Church  of  so  pernicious  a  monster."  i 

In  one  respect  he  was  in  advance  of  his  times,  by  recom- 
mending to  the  Council  of  Geneva,  though  in  vain,  a  miti- 
gation of  punishment  and  the  substitution  of  the  sword  for 
the  stake. 

Let  us  give  him  credit  for  this  comparative  moderation  in 
a  semi-barbarous  age  when  not  only  hosts  of  heretics,  but 
even  innocent  women,  as  witches,  were  cruelly  tortured  and 
roasted  to  death.  Let  us  remember  also  that  it  was  not 
simpl}'  a  case  of  fundamental  heresy,  but  of  horrid  blas- 
phemy, with  which  he  had  to  deal.  If  he  was  mistaken,  if 
he  misunderstood  the  real  opinions  of  Servetus,  that  was  an 
error  of  judgment,  and  an  error  which  all  the  Catholics  and 
Protestants  of  that  age  shared.  Nor  should  it  be  overlooked 
that  Servetus  was  convicted  of  falsehood,  that  he  over- 
whelmed Calvin  with  abuse, ^  and  that  he  made  common 
cause  with  the  Libertines,  the  bitter  enemies  of  Calvin,  who 
had  a  controlling  influence  in  the  Council  of  Geneva  at  that 
time,  and  hoped  to  overthrow  him. 

It  is  objected  that  there  was  no  law  in  Geneva  to  justify  the 
punishment  of  Servetus,  since  the  canon  law  had  been  abol- 
ished by  the  Reformation  in  1535 ;  but  the  Mosaic  law  was 
not  abolished,  it  was  even  more  strictly  enforced ;  and  it  is 

1  Responsio  ad  Balduinl  Convicia,  Opera,  IX.  575:  "  Iitstas  quidem  itle  poenas 
dedit  :  sed  an  meo  arbitrio  ?  Certe  arrogantia  non  minus  quam  impietas  perdidit 
hominem.  Sed  quodnam  meum  crimen,  si  Senatus  nosier  meo  hortatii,  ex  plurium 
tamen  ecclesiarum  sententia,  exsecrabiles  blaspliemias  ultus  est?  Vituperet  me  sane 
hac  in  parte  Franciscus  Balduinus,  modo  Pliilippi  M elanchthonis  iudicio  posteritas 
mihi  (jratitudinem  debeat,  quia  tarn  exiliali  monstro  ecdesiam  purgaverim.  Senatum 
etiam  nostrum,  sub  cuius  ditione  aliquandn  rixif,  perstringat  ingratus  hospes  :  modo 
idem  Philippus  scripto  publice  edito  testetur  dignum  esse  exemplum  quod  imilentur 
omnes  christiani  principes." 

2  He  called  him  at  the  trial  Simo7i  Afagus,  impostor,  sijcophanta,  nebulo,  per- 
Jidus,  impudens,  ridictdus  mus,  cacodannon,  homicida,  etc. 


692         THE   REFOKMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

from  the  Mosaic  law  against  blasphemy  that  Calvin  drew 
his  chief  argument. 

On  the  other  hand,  however,  we  must  frankly  admit  that 
there  were  some  aggravating  circumstances  which  make  it 
difficult  to  reconcile  Calvin's  conduct  with  the  principles  of 
justice  and  humanit}-.  Seven  years  before  the  death  of  Ser- 
vetus  he  had  expressed  his  determination  not  to  spare  his  life 
if  he  should  come  to  G-eneva.  He  wrote  to  Farel  (Feb.  13, 
1546)  :  "  Servetus  lately  wrote  to  me,  and  coupled  with  his 
letter  a  long  volume  of  his  delirious  fancies,  with  the  Thra- 
sonic  boast,  that  I  should  see  something  astonishing  and 
unheard  of.  He  offers  to  come  hither,  if  it  be  agreeable  to 
me.  But  I  am  unwilling  to  pledge  my  word  for  his  safety ; 
for  if  he  does  come,  and  my  authority  be  of  any  avail, 
I  shall  never  suffer  him  to  depart  alive."  ^  It  was  not  incon- 
sistent with  this  design,  if  he  aided,  as  it  would  seem,  in 
bringing  the  book  of  Servetus  to  the  notice  of  the  Roman 
inquisition  in  Lyons.  He  procured  his  arrest  on  his  arrival 
in  Geneva.  He  showed  personal  bitterness  towards  him 
during  the  trial.  Servetus  was  a  stranger  in  Geneva,  and 
had  committed  no  offence  in  that  city.  Calvin  should 
have  permitted  him  quietly  to  depart,  or  simply  caused  his 
expulsion  from  the  territory  of  Geneva,  as  in  the  case  of 
Bolsec.  This  would  have  been  sufficient  punishment.  If 
he  had  recommended  expulsion  instead  of  decapitation,  he 
would  have  saved  himself  the  reproaches  of  posterity,  which 
will  never  forget  and  never  forgive  the  burning  of  Servetus. 

In  the  interest  of  impartial  history  we  must  condemn  the 
intolerance  of  the  victor  as  well  as  the  error  of  the  victim, 

1  "  Servetus  nuper  ad  me  scripsit  ac  litteris  adjiinxit  longum  volumen  suorum 
deliriorum,  cum  Thrasonica  jactantia,  me  stupenda  et  hactemus  inaudita  visurum. 
Si  mild  placeat,  hue  se  venturum  recipit.     Sed  nolo  Jidem  meam  interponere.     Nam 

SI  VENERIT,  MODO   VALEAT    MEA   AUCTOEITAS,  VIVDM   EXIRE   NLXQUAM   PATIAR." 

Opera,  VIII.  283 ;  Henry,  III.  Beil.  65-()7  ;  Bonnet-Constable,  II.  17.  Grotius 
discovered  this  damaging  letter  in  Paris,  which  was  controverted,  but  is  now 
generally  admitted  as  genuine.     There  is  an  exact  copy  of  it  in  G-eneva. 


§  188.     CATHOLIC    INTOLERANCE.  693 

and  admire  in  both  the  loyalty  to  conscientious  conviction. 
Heresy  is  an  error ;  intolerance,  a  sin ;  persecution,  a 
crime. 

§  188.    Catholic  Intolerance. 

Comp.  vol.  VI.  §§  11  and  12  (pp.  50-80),  and  Sciiaff  :  The  Progress  of 
Religious  Liberty  as  slioivn  in  the  History  of  Toleration  Acts.  New  York, 
1889. 

This  is  the  place  to  present  the  chief  facts  on  the  subject 
of  religious  toleration  and  intolerance,  which  gives  to  the 
case  of  Servetus  its  chief  interest  and  importance  in  history. 
His  theological  opinions  are  of  far  less  consequence  than  his 
connection  with  the  theory  of  persecution  which  caused 
his  death. 

Persecution  and  war  constitute  the  devil's  chapter  in 
history;  but  it  is  overruled  by  Providence  for  the  develop- 
ment of  heroism,  and  for  the  progress  of  civil  and  religious 
freedom.  Without  persecutors,  there  could  be  no  martyrs. 
Every  church,  yea,  every  truth  and  every  good  cause,  has 
its  martyrs,  who  stood  the  fiery  trial  and  sacrificed  comfort 
and  life  itself  to  their  sacred  convictions.  The  blood  of 
martyrs  is  the  seed  of  toleration ;  toleration  is  the  seed 
of  liberty;  and  liberty  is  the  most  precious  gift  of  God  to 
every  man  who  has  been  made  in  his  image  and  redeemed 
by  Christ. 

Of  all  forms  of  persecution,  religious  persecution  is  the 
worst  because  it  is  enacted  in  the  name  of  God.  It  violates 
the  sacred  rights  of  conscience,  and  it  rouses  the  strongest 
and  deepest  passions.  Persecution  by  word  and  pen,  which 
springs  from  the  hatred,  envy,  and  malice  of  the  human  heart, 
or  from  narrowness  and  mistaken  zeal  for  truth,  will  con- 
tinue to  the  end  of  time ;  but  persecution  by  fire  and  sword 
contradicts  the  spirit  of  humanity  and  Christianity,  and  is 
inconsistent  with  modern  civilization.  Civil  offences  against 
the   State   deserve  civil  punishment,  by  fine,  imprisonment, 


694        THE    EEFOKMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

confiscation,  exile,  and  death,  according  to  tlie  degree  of 
guilt.  Spiritual  offences  against  the  Church  should  be 
spiritually  judged,  and  punished  by  admonition,  deposition, 
and  excommunication,  with  a  view  to  the  reformation  and 
restoration  of  the  offender.  This  is  the  law  of  Christ.  The 
temporal  punishment  of  heresy  is  the  legitimate  result  of 
a  union  of  Church  and  State,  and  diminishes  in  rigor  as  this 
union  is  relaxed.  A  religion  established  by  law  must  be 
protected  by  law.  Hence  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  in  securing  full  liberty  of  religion,  forbids  Congress 
to  establish  by  law  any  religion  or  church.^  The  two  were 
regarded  as  inseparable.  An  established  church  must  in 
self-defence  persecute  dissenters,  or  abridge  their  liberties ; 
a  free  church  cannot  persecute.  And  yet  there  may  be  as 
much  individual  Christian  kindness  and  charity  in  an  estab- 
lished church,  and  as  much  intolerance  and  bigotry  in  a  free 
church.  The  ante-Nicene  Fathers  had  the  same  zeal  for 
orthodoxy  and  the  same  abhorrence  of  heresy  as  the  Nicene 
and  post-Nicene  Fathers,  the  mediseval  popes  and  school- 
men, and  the  Reformers ;  but  they  were  confined  to  the 
spiritual  punishment  of  heresy.  In  the  United  States  of 
America  persecution  is  made  impossible,  not  because  the 
zeal  for  truth  or  the  passions  of  hatred  and  intolerance  have 
ceased,  but  because  the  union  between  Church  and  State 
has  ceased. 

The  theory  of  religious  persecution  was  borrowed  from 
the  Mosaic  law,  which  punished  idolatry  and  blasphemy 
by  death.  "  He  that  sacrificeth  unto  any  god,  save  unto 
Jehovah  only,  shall  be  utterly  destroyed."  ^  "  He  that  blas- 
phemeth  the  name  of  Jehovah,  he  shall  surely  be  put  to 
death;    all  the  congregation  shall  certainly  stone  him:    as 

^  In  the  First  Amendment  of  the  Constitution :  "  Congress  shall  make  no 
law  respecting  an  establishment  of  religion,  or  prohibiting  the  free  exercise 
thereof." 

2  Ex.  22  ;  20;  comp.  Deut.  13 :  5-15 ;  17  :  2-5,  etc. 


§  138.    CATHOLIC    INTOLERANCE.  695 

well  the  stranger,  as  the  home-born,  when  he  blasphemeth 
the  name  of  Jehovah,  shall  l)e  put  to  death."  ^ 

The  Mosaic  theocracy  was  superseded  in  its  national  and 
temporal  provisions  by  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  which  is  "  not 
of  this  world."  The  confounding  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments,  of  the  law  of  Moses  and  the  gospel  of  Christ, 
was  the  source  of  a  great  many  evils  in  the  Church. 

The  New  Testament  furnishes  not  a  shadow  of  support 
for  the  doctrine  of  persecution.  The  whole  teaching  and 
example  of  Christ  and  the  Apostles  are  directly  opposed  to 
it.  They  suffered  persecution,  but  they  persecuted  no  one. 
Their  weapons  were  spiritual,  not  carnal.  They  rendered 
to  God  the  things  that  are  God's,  and  to  Ceesar  the  things 
that  are  Caesar's.  The  only  passage  which  St.  Augustin 
could  quote  in  favor  of  coercion,  was  the  parabolic  "Con- 
strain them  to  come  in  "  (Luke  14  :  23),  which  in  its  literal 
acceptation  would  teach  just  the  reverse,  namely,  a  forced 
salvation.  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  does  not  quote  any  passage 
from  the  New  Testament  in  favor  of  intolerance,  but  tries 
to  explain  away  those  passages  which  commend  toleration 
(Matt.  13:29,  30;  1  Cor.  11:19;  2  Tim.  2:24).  The 
Church  has  never  entirely  forgotten  this  teaching  of  Christ 
and  always,  even  in  the  darkest  ages  of  persecution,  avowed 
the  principle,  '■'■  Ecclesia  non  sitit  sanguinem'" ;  but  she  made 
the  State  her  executor. 

In  the  first  three  centuries  the  Church  had  neither  the 
power  nor  the  wish  to  persecute.  Justin  Martyr,  Tertullian, 
and  Lactantius  were  the  earliest  advocates  of  the  liberty  of 
conscience.  The  Toleration  Edict  of  Constantine  (313) 
anticipated  the  modern  theory  of  the  right  of  every  man  to 
choose  his  religion  and  to  worship  according  to  his  convic- 
tion. But  this  was  only  a  step  towards  the  union  of  the 
empire  with  the  Church,  when  the  Church  assumed  the 
position  and  power  of  the  heathen  state  religion. 

1  Lev.  24  :  16 ;  comp.  1  Kings  21  :  10,  13. 


696         THE   REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

The  era  of  persecution  within  the  Church  began  with  the 
first  Oecumenical  Council,  which  was  called  and  enforced  by 
Constantine.  This  Council  presents  the  first  instance  of  a 
subscription  to  a  creed,  and  the  first  instance  of  banishment 
for  refusing  to  subscribe.  Arius  and  two  Egyptian  bishops, 
who  agreed  with  him,  Avere  banished  to  Illyria.  During  the 
violent  Arian  controversies,  which  shook  the  empire  between 
the  first  and  second  (Ecumenical  Councils  (325-381),  both 
parties  when  in  power  freely  exercised  persecution  by 
imprisonment,  deposition,  and  exile.  The  Arians  were  as 
intolerant  as  the  orthodox.  The  practice  furnished  the  basis 
for  a  theory  and  public  law. 

The  penal  legislation'  against  heresy  was  inaugurated  by 
Theodosius  the  Great  after  the  final  triumph  of  the  Nicene 
Creed  in  the  second  Qiicumenical  Council.  He  promulgated 
during  his  reign  (379-395)  no  less  than  fifteen  severe  edicts 
against  heretics,  especially  those  who  dissented  from  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  They  were  deprived  of  the  right 
of  public  worship,  excluded  from  public  offices,  and  exposed, 
in  some  cases,  to  capital  punishment.^  His  rival  and  col- 
league, Maximus,  put  the  theory  into  full  practice,  and  shed 
the  first  blood  of  heretics  by  causing  Priscillian,  a  Spanish 
bishop  of  Manichsean  tendency,  with  six  adherents,  to  be 
tortured,  condemned,  and  executed  by  the  sword. 

The  better  feeling  of  the  Church  raised  in  Ambrose 
of  Milan  and  Martin  of  Tours  a  protest  against  this  act  of 
inhumanity.  But  public  sentiment  soon  approved  of  it. 
Jerome  seems  to  favor  the  death  penalty  for  heresy  on  the 
ground  of  Deut.  13 : 6-10.     The  great  Augustin,  who  had 

1  See  the  Theodosian  and  Justinian  Codes  under  the  titles :  De  summa 
Trinitate,  De  Catholica  Fide,  De  Hcereticis,  De  Apostatis.  For  a  summary 
compare  Gibbon,  ch.  XXVII.  (vol.  III.  197  sqq.),  and  Milman,  Latin  Chris- 
tianity, bk.  III.  ch.  V.  (I.  512  sqq.).  Gibbon  says:  "Theodosius  considered 
every  heretic  as  a  rebel  against  the  supreme  powers  of  lieaven  and  of  earth ; 
and  each  of  these  powers  might  exercise  their  peculiar  jurisdiction  over  the 
soul  and  body  of  the  guilty." 


§  138.    CATHOLIC   INTOLERANCE.  697 

himself  been  a  Manichsean  heretic  for  nine  years,  justified 
forcible  measures  against  the  Donatists,  in  contradiction  to 
his  noble  sentiment:  "Nothing  conquers  but  truth,  the 
victory  of  truth  is  love."  ^  The  same  Christian  Father  who 
ruled  the  thinking  of  the  Church  for  many  centuries,  and 
moulded  the  theology  of  the  Reformers,  excluded  all  unbap- 
tized  infants  from  salvation,  though  Christ  emphatically 
included  them  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Leo  I.,  the 
greatest  of  the  early  popes,  advocated  the  death  penalty 
for  heresy  and  approved  of  the  execution  of  the  Priscillian- 
ists.  Thomas  Aquinas,  the  master  theologian  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  lent  the  weight  of  his  authority  to  the  doctrine  of 
persecution,  and  demonstrated  from  the  Old  Testament  and 
from  reason  that  heretics  are  worse  criminals  than  debasers 
of  money,  and  ought  to  be  put  to  death  by  the  civil  magis- 
trate.'^ Heresy  was  regarded  as  the  greatest  sin,  and  worse 
than  murder,  because  it  destroyed  the  soul.  It  took  the 
place  of  idolatry  in  the  Mosaic  law. 

The  Theodosian  Code  was  completed  in  the  Justinian 
Code  (527-534)  ;  the  Justinian  Code  passed  into  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire,  and  became  the  basis  of  the  legislation  of 
Christian  Europe.  Rome  ruled  the  world  longer  by  law 
and  by  the  cross  than  she  had  ruled  it  by  the  sword.  The 
canon  law  likewise  condemns  to  the  flames  persons  convicted 
of  heresy.^  This  law  was  generally  accepted  on  the  Conti- 
nent in  the  thirteenth  century.*  England  in  her  isolation 
was  more  independent,  and  built  society  on  the  foundation 

^  Conip.  vol.  III.  144  sq. 

2  Summa  Theol.  Secanda  Secundce,  Quest.  XI.  {de  hceresi).  Art.  3.  In 
Migne's  ed.  Tom.  III.  107. 

3  See  Boehmer, /ns<.  Juris  Canonici,  1747,  lib.  V.  tit.  7,  §  10. 

*  Friedberg,  Lehrbuch  des  kathoUschen  and  evangelischen  Kirchenreckts,  2d 
ed.  1884,  p.  221:  "Im  XIII.  Jahrhundert  erfolgt  iiberall  die  rechtliche  staat- 
liche  Feststellung  der  Todesstra/e  und  Vermogensconfiscation  fur  Ketzerei,  und 
die  Kirche  hat  diese  staatlir.hen  Strafen  nicM  nur  gebilligt,  sondern  audi  verlangt, 
und  die  weltliche  Obrigkeit,  die  sie  niclit  verhdnge,  selbst  mit  der  Strafe  der  Ketzerei 
bedroht." 


698         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

of  the  common  law;  but  Henry  IV.  and  his  Parliament 
devised  the  sanguinary  statute  de  hceretico  comburendo,  by 
which  William  Sawtre,  a  parish  priest,  was  publicly  burnt  at 
gmithfield  (Feb.  26,  1401)  for  denying  the  doctrine  of  tran- 
substantiation,  and  the  bones  of  Wiclif  were  burnt  by  Bishop 
Fleming  of  Lincoln  (in  1428).  The  statute  continued  in 
force  till  1677,  when  it  was  formally  abolished. 

On  this  legal  and  theological  foundation  the  mediaeval 
Church  has  soiled  her  annals  with  the  blood  of  an  army  of 
heretics  which  is  much  larger  than  the  army  of  Christian 
martyrs  under  heathen  Rome.  We  need  only  refer  to  the 
crusades  against  the  Albigenses  and  Waldenses,  which  were 
sanctioned  by  Innocent  III.,  one  of  the  best  and  greatest  of 
popes  ;  the  tortures  and  autos-da-fe  of  the  Spanish  Inquisi- 
tion, which  were  celebrated  with  religious  festivities ;  the 
fifty  thousand  or  more  Protestants  who  were  executed  during 
the  reign  of  the  Duke  of  Alva  in  the  Netherlands  (1567- 
1573)  ;  the  several  hundred  martyrs  who  were  burned  in 
Smithfield  under  the  reign  of  the  bloody  Mary;  and  the, 
repeated  wholesale  persecutions  of  the  innocent  Waldenses 
in  France  and  Piedmont,  which  cried  to  heaven  for 
vengeance. 

It  is  vain  to  shift  the  responsibility  upon  the  civil  govern- 
ment. Pope  Gregory  XIII.  commemorated  the  massacre 
of  St.  Bartholomew  not  only  by  a  Te  Deum  in  the  churches 
of  Rome,  but  more  deliberately  and  permanently  by  a  medal 
which  represents  "  The  Slaughter  of  the  Huguenots "  by 
an  angel  of  wrath.  The  French  bishops,  under  the  lead  of 
the  great  Bossuet,  lauded  Louis  XIV.  as  a  new  Constantine, 
a  new  Theodosius,  a  new  Charlemagne,  a  new  exterminator 
of  heretics,  for  his  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  and 
the  infamous  dragoonades  against  the  Huguenots. 

Among  the  more  prominent  individual  cases  of  persecu- 
tion, we  may  mention  the  burning  of  Hus  (1415)  and 
Jerome  of  Prague  (1416)  by  order  of  the  Council  of  Con- 


§  138.    CATHOLIC    INTOLERANCE.  699 

stance,  the  burning  of  Savonarola  in  Florence  (1498),  the 
burning  of  the  three  English  Reformers  at  Oxford  (1556), 
of  Aonio  Paleario  at  Rome  (1570),  and  of  Giordano  Bruno 
(1600)  in  the  same  city  and  on  the  same  spot  where  (1889) 
the  liberals  of  Ital}-  have  erec^ted  a  statue  to  his  memory. 
Servetus  was  condemned  to  death  at  the  stake,  and  burnt 
in  effigy,  by  a  Roman  Catholic  tribunal  before  he  fell  into  the 
hands  of  Calvin. 

The  Roman  Church  has  lost  the  power,  and  to  a  large 
extent  also  the  disposition,  to  persecute  by  fire  and  sword. 
Some  of  her  highest  dignitaries  frankly  disown  the  principle 
of  persecution,  especially  in  America,  where  they  enjoy  the 
full  benefit  of  religious  freedom.^  But  the  Roman  curia 
has  never  officially  disowned  the  theory  on  which  the 
practice  of  persecution  is  based.  On  the  contrary,  several 
popes  since  the  Reformation  have  indorsed  it.  Pope  Clement 
VIII.  denounced  the  Toleration  Edict  of  Nantes  as  "the 
most  accursed  that  can  be  imagined,  whereby  liberty  of 
conscience  is  granted  to  everybody ;  which  is  the  worst 
thing  in  the  world."  Pope  Innocent  X.  "  condemned, 
rejected,  and  annulled"  the  toleration  ai'ticles  of  the  West- 
phalian  Treaty  of  1648,  and  his  successors  have  ever  pro- 
tested against  it,  though  in  vain.  Pope  Pius  IX.,  in  the 
Syllabus  of  1864,  expressly  condemned,  among  the  errors 
of  this  age,  the  doctrine  of  religious  toleration  and  liberty.^ 

1  Among  these  is  Cardinal  Gibbons  of  Baltimore,  who  says  {The  Faith  of 
our  Fathers,  Balto.,  1890,  36th  ed.,  p.  284  sq.)  :  "  I  am  not  the  apologist  of  the 
Spanish  Inquisition,  and  I  have  no  desire  to  palliate  or  excuse  the  excesses 
into  which  that  tribunal  may  at  times  have  fallen.  From  my  heart  I  abhor 
and  denounce  every  species  of  violence,  and  injustice,  and  persecution,  of 
which  the  Spanish  Inquisition  may  have  been  guilty.  And  in  raising  my 
voice  against  coercion  for  conscience's  sake,  I  am  expressing  not  only  my 
own  sentiments,  but  those  of  every  Catholic  priest  and  layman  in  the  land. 

"  Our  Catholic  ancestors,  for  the  last  three  hundred  years,  have  suffered 
so  much  for  freedom  of  conscience,  that  they  would  rise  up  in  judgment 
against  lis,  were  we  to  become  the  advocates  and  defenders  of  religious 
persecution.  We  would  be  a  disgrace  to  our  sires  were  we  to  trample  on  the 
principle  of  liberty  which  tliey  held  dearer  than  life." 

2  Syllabus  Errorum,  §  III.  15;  VI.  55;  X.  78. 


700        THE   REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

And  this  pope  has  been  declared  to  be  officially  infallible  by 
the  Vatican  decree  of  1870,  which  embraces  all  his  prede- 
cessors (notwithstanding  the  stubborn  case  of  Honorius  I.) 
and  all  his  successors  in  the  chair  of  St.  Peter.  Leo  XIII. 
has  moderately  and  cautiously  indorsed  the  doctrine  of  the 
Syllabus.^ 

§  139.    Protestant  Intolerance.     Judgments  of  the  Reformers 

on  Servetus. 

The  Reformers  inherited  the  doctrine  of  persecution  from 
their  mother  Church,  and  practised  it  as  far  as  they  had 
the  power.  They  fought  intolerance  with  intolerance.  They 
differed  favorably  from  their  opponents  in  the  degree  and 
extent,  but  not  in  the  principle,  of  intolerance.  They  broke 
down  the  tyranny  of  popery,  and  thus  opened  the  way  for 
the  development  of  religious  freedom ;  but  they  denied  to 
others  the  liberty  which  they  exercised  themselves.  The 
Protestant  governments  in  Germany  and  Switzerland  ex- 
cluded, within  the  limits  of  their  jurisdiction,  the  Roman 
Catholics  from  all  religious  and  civil  rights,  and  took 
exclusive  possession  of  their  churches,  convents,  and  other 
property.  They  banished,  imprisoned,  drowned,  beheaded, 
hanged,  and  burned  Anabaptists,  Antitrinitarians,  Schwenk- 
feldians,  and  other  dissenters.  In  Saxom*,  Sweden,  Nor- 
way, and  Denmark  no  religion  and  public  worship  was 
allowed  but  the  Lutheran.  The  Synod  of  Dort  deposed  and 
expatriated  all  Arrainian  ministers  and  school-teachers.  The 
penal  code  of  Queen  Elizabeth  and  the  successive  acts  of 
Uniformity  aimed  at  the  complete  extermination  of  all 
dissent,  whether  papal  or  protestant,  and  ma'de  it  a  crime 
for  an  Englishman  to  be  anything  else  than  an  Episcopalian. 
The  Puritans  when  in  power  ejected  two  thousand  ministers 

1  See  his  Encyclicals  of  Nov.  1,  1885  (Immortale  Dei),  and  of  June  20, 
1888  (Libertas  priestantissimum  natunu  donum).  They  are  printed  in  the  latest 
ed.  of  Schaff's  Creeds  of  Christendom,  II.  555-602. 


§  139.    PROTESTANT   INTOLERANCE.  701 

from  their  benefices  for  non-conformity ;  and  the  Episcopa- 
lians paid  them  back  in  the  same  coin  when  they  returned 
to  power.  "The  Reformers,''  says  Gibbon,  with  sarcastic 
severity,  "were  ambitious  of  succeeding  the  tyrants  whom 
they  had  dethroned.  They  imposed  with  equal  rigor  their 
creeds  and  confessions  ;  they  asserted  the  right  of  the  magis- 
trate to  punish  heretics  with  death.  The  nature  of  the  tiger 
was  the  same,  but  he  was  gradually  deprived  of  his  teeth 
and  fangs."  ^ 

Protestant  persecution  violates  the  fundamental  principle 
of  the  Reformation.  Protestantism  has  no  rigfht  to  exist 
except  on  the  basis  of  freedom  of  conscience. 

How,  then,  can  we  account  for  this  glaring  inconsistency  ? 
There  is  a  reason  for  everything.  Protestant  persecution 
was  necessary  in  self-defence  and  in  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence. The  times  were  not  ripe  for  toleration.  The  infant 
Churches  could  not  have  stood  it.  These  Churches  had  first 
to  be  consolidated  and  fortified  against  surrounding  foes. 
Universal  toleration  at  that  time  would  have  resulted  in 
universal  confusion  and  upset  the  order  of  society.  From 
anarchy  to  absolute  despotism  is  but  one  step.  The  division 
of  Protestantism  into  two  rival  camps,  the  Lutheran  and  the 
Reformed,  weakened  it ;  further  divisions  within  these  camps 
would  have  ruined  it  and  prepared  an  easy  triumph  for  united 
Romanism,  which  would  have  become  more  despotic  than 
ever  before.  This  does  not  justify  the  principle,  but  it 
explains  the  practice,  of  intolerance. 

The  Reformers  and  the  Protestant  princes  and  magis- 
trates were  essentially  agreed  on  this  intolerant  attitude, 
both  towards  the  Romanists  and  the  heretical  Protestants, 
at  least  to  the  extent  of  imprisonment,  deposition,  and 
expatriation.     They    differed    only    as    to    the    degree     of 

1  Decline  and  Fall,  ch.  LIV.  It  should  be  remembered,  however,  that  the 
most  intolerant  form  of  intolerance  is  the  intolerance  of  infidelity  as  mani- 
fested in  the  French  Revolution  during  "  the  reign  of  terror." 


702         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

severity.  They  all  believed  that  the  papacy  is  anti-Christian 
and  the  mass  idolatrous ;  that  heresy  is  a  sin  against  God 
and  society ;  that  the  denial  of  the  Trinity  and  the  divinity 
of  Christ  is  the  greatest  of  heresies,  which  deserves  death 
according  to  the  laws  of  the  empire,  and  eternal  punishment 
according  to  the  Athanasian  Creed  (with  its  three  damnatory 
clauses) ;  and  that  the  civil  government  is  as  much  bound 
to  protect  the  first  as  the  second  table  of  the  Decalogue, 
and  to  vindicate  the  honor  of  God  against  blasphemy.  They 
were  anxious  to  show  their  zeal  for  orthodoxy  by  severity 
against  heresy.  They  had  no  doubt  that  they  themselves 
were  orthodox  according  to  the  only  true  standard  of 
orthodoxy  —  the  Word  of  God  in  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
And  as  regards  the  dogmas  of  the  Trinity  and  Incarnation, 
they  were  fully  agreed  with  their  Catholic  opponents,  and 
equally  opposed  to  the  errors  of  Servetus,  who  denied  those 
dogmas  with  a  boldness  and  contempt  unknown  before. 

Let  us  ascertain  the  sentiments  of  the  leading  Reformers 
with  special  reference  to  the  case  of  Servetus.  They  form 
a  complete  justification  of  Calvin  as  far  as  such  a  justifica- 
tion is  possible. 

Luther. 

Luther,  the  hero  of  Worms,  the  champion  of  the  sacred 
rights  of  conscience,  was,  in  words,  the  most  violent,  but 
in  practice,  the  least  intolerant,  among  the  Reformers.  He 
was  nearest  to  Romanism  in  the  condemnation  of  heresy,  but 
nearest  to  the  genius  of  Protestantism  in  the  advocacy  of 
religious  freedom.  He  was  deeply  rooted  in  medieeval  piety, 
and  yet  a  mighty  prophet  of  modern  times.  In  his  earlier 
years,  till  1529,  he  gave  utterance  to  some  of  the  noblest 
sentiments  in  favor  of  religious  liberty.  "  Belief  is  a  free 
thing,"  he  said,  "  which  cannot  be  enforced."  "  If  heretics 
were  to  be  punished  by  death,  the  hangman  would  be  the 
most   orthodox   theologian."     "  Heresy  is  a  spiritual   thing 


§  139.     PROTESTANT    INTOLERANCE.  703 

which  no  iron  can  hew  down,  no  fire  burn,  no  water 
drown."  i  ''  To  burn  heretics  is  contrary  to  the  will  of  the 
Holy  Spirit."  2  "  False  teachers  should  not  be  put  to  deatli ; 
it  is  enough  to  banish  them."-^ 

But  with  advancing  years  he  became  less  liberal  and 
more  intolerant  against  Catholics,  heretics,  and  Jews.  lie 
exhorted  the  magistrates  to  forbid  all  preaching  of  Ana- 
baptists, Avhom  he  denounced  without  discrimination  as  false 
prophets  and  messengers  of  the  devil,  and  he  urged  their 
expulsion.*  He  raised  no  protest  when  the  Diet  of  Speier, 
in  1529,  passed  the  cruel  decree  that  the  Anabaptists  be 
executed  by  lire  and  sword  without  distinction  of  sex,  and 


1  In  his  book  Von  weltlicher  Ohriijkeit  wie  weit  man  ihr  Gehorsam  schuldig 
sei  (1523),  in  Werke  XXII.  90:  "  Ketzerei  kann  man  nimmermehr  mit  Geivalt 
tcehren,  es  gehort  ein  under  Griff  duzu,  und  ist  hie  ein  ander  Streit  und  Handel, 
denn  mit  dem  Schwert.  Gottes  Wort  soil  hie  streiten ;  wenn  das  nicht  ausreicht, 
so  wird's  ivohl  unausgerichtet  bleiben  von  weltlicher  Gewalt,  ob  sie  gleich  die  Welt 
7nit  Blut  fullet.  Ketzerei  ist  ein  geistlich  Ding,  das  kann  man  mit  keinem  Eisen 
haiien,  mit  keinem  Feuer  verbreniien,  mit  keinem  Wasser  ertrdnken.  Es  ist  aber 
allein  das  Wort  Gottes  da,  das  thut's,  wie  Paulus  sagt  2  Cor.  10  :  4,  5  :  '  Unsere 
Waffen  sind  nicht  Jleischlich,  sondern  mdchtig  in  Gott.'" 

-  Conclus.  LXXX.  in  the  Besol.  de  Induhjentiis,  1518.  This  is  one  of  the 
theses  which  tlie  Sorbonne  of  Paris  condemned  in  1521. 

3  His  l.ast  liberal  utterance  on  the  subject  is  in  his  letter  to  Link,  1528: 
"  Nullo  modo  possum  admitlerc,  fulsos  doctores  occidi :  satis  est  eos  releqari." 
Briefe,  III.- 347  sq.  (De  Wette's  ed.).  In  the  same  year  he  wrote  his  book 
Von  der  Wiedertaufe  an  zwei  Pfarrherrn  (Erl.  ed.  vol.  XXVI)  in  which  he 
treats  the  doctrines  of  the  Baptists  without  mercy,  but  at  the  same  time 
expresses  sincere  regret  at  the  cruel  treatment  of  them,  saying :  "  Es  ist  nicht 
recht  und  mir  wahrlich  leid,  dass  man  solche  elende  Leute  so  jdmmerllch  ermordet, 
verbrennet  und  grdulich  umbringt ;  man  sollte  ja  einen  jeglichen  lassen  glaiiben, 
was  er  wollt ;  glaiibt  er  unrecht,  so  hat  er  genug  Strafen  an  dem  ewigen  Feuer  in 
der  Hiillen.  Warum  will  man  sie  denn  auch  noch  zeitlich  martern,  so  feme  sie 
allein  im  Glauben  irren  und  nicht  auch  daneben  aufriihrerisch  sind  oder  sonst  der 
Obrigkeit  widerstreben  !  Lieber  Gott,  wie  bald  ist's  geschehen,  dass  einer  irre  wird 
und  dem  Teufel  in  Stricke  fdllt  ?  Mit  der  Schrift  und  Gottes  Wort  sollt  man 
ihnen  ivehren  und  ividerstehen,  mit  Feuer  wird  man  wenig  aitsrichten."  I  have 
quoted  this  and  other  passages  in  vol.  VI.  59  sq.,  but  could  not  well  omit 
them  here  on  account  of  the  connection. 

*  Von  den  Srhleichern  und  Winkelpredigern,  addressed  to  Eberhard  von  der 
Tannen  on  tlie  Wartburg,  1531.      Werke,  XXXI.  214  sqq. 


704         THE   EEFOKMATION"   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

even  without  a  previous  hearing  before  the  spiritual  judges.^ 
The  Elector  of  Saxony  considered  it  his  duty  to  execute 
this  decree,  and  put  a  number  of  Anabaptists  to  death  in 
his  dominions.  His  neighbor,  Philip  of  Hesse,  who  had 
more  liberal  instincts  than  the  contemporary  princes  of 
Germany,  could  not  find  it  in  his  conscience  to  use  the 
sword  against  differences  of  belief.^  But  the  theologians 
of  Wittenberg,  on  being  consulted  by  the  Elector  John 
Frederick  about  1540  or  1541,  gave  their  judgment  in  favor 
of  putting  the  Anabaptists  to  death,  according  to  the  laws 
of  the  empire.  Luther  approved  of  this  judgment  under 
his  own  name,  adding  that  it  was  cruel  to  punish  them  by 
the  sword,  but  more  cruel  that  they  should  damn  the  min- 
istry of  the  Word  and  suppress  the  true  doctrine,  and 
attempt  to  destroy  the  kingdoms  of  the  world. ^ 

1  "  Dass  alle  und  jede  Widertdnffer  iind  Widergetaufte,  Mann  und  Weibs- 
personen  verstdndlgs  Alters  vom  natiirlichen  Le.hen  ziim  Tode  mit  Feuer,  Schivert 
oder  den/leichen  nach  Gelegenheit  der  Personen  ohne  vorgehende  der  geistlichen 
Richter  Inquisition  gerichtet  oder  gebracht  werden."  Tliis  was  the  same  Diet  in 
which  the  Lutheran  Protestants  entered  their  protest  against  the  decision 
of  the  majority  (Iience  their  name) ;  but  they  assented  to  the  cruel  decree 
against  the  Anabaptists,  and  also  to  the  exclusion  of  the  Zwinglians  from  tol- 
eration, witli  the  exception  of  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse,  wlio  protested  also 
against  this  intolerance. 

2  In  1540  lie  boasted  that  no  Anabaptist  had  been  executed  for  opinion's 
sake  by  him,  whereas  in  otlier  German  lands  the  number  of  such  martyrdoms 
was,  up  to  1530,  hard  upon  two  thousand.  "  Wir  konnen  in  unserem  Getvissen 
nicht  Jinden,"  he  said  to  the  elector,  "jenianden  des  Glaubens  halben,  wo  wir  nicht 
sonst  genngsam  Ursache  der  Vericirkung  haben  nwgen,  mit  dem  Schivert  richten  zu 
lassen.  Denn  so  es  die  Meinung  haben  sollte,  miissten  wir  keinen  Juden  nock  Papi- 
sten,  die  Christum  am  hochsten  blasphemiren,  bei  uns  dulden  und  sie  derqestalt 
richten  lassen."  G.  L.  Schmidt,  Justus  Menius,  der  Reformator  Thiiringens 
(Gotiia,  1867),  vol.  I.  144.     Comp.  Corpus  Reform.  IX.  757. 

3  He  wrote  beneath  the  judgment  of  the  Wittenberg  theologians  :  "Placet 
MiHi  Martino  Luthero.  Wiewol  es  crudele  anzusehen,  dass  man  sie  mit  dem 
Schwert  straft,  so  isls  doch  crudelius,  dass  sie  ininisterium  verbi  damniren  und 
keine  gewisse  Lehre  treiben,  und  rechte  Lehre  tinterdriicken,  und  dazu  regna  mundi 
zerstoren  wollen."  The  last  sentence  refers  to  tlie  chiliastic  views  held  by 
many  of  the  Anabaptists,  for  which  tliey  are  condemned  in  tlie  Augsburg 
Confession.  Seidemann,  in  the  sixth  vol.  of  De  Wette's  "  Correspondence 
of  Luther,"  p.  291.  He  assigns  this  document  to  the  year  1541.  Comp. 
Corp.  Bef.  IV.  737-740. 


§  139.     PROTESTANT   INTOLERANCE.  705 

If  we  put  a  strict  construction  on  this  sentence,  Luther 
must  be  counted  with  the  advocates  of  the  death-penalty  for 
heresy.  But  he  made  a  distinction  between  two  cLasses  of 
Anabaptists  —  those  who  were  seditious  or  revolutionary, 
and  those  who  were  mere  fanatics.  The  former  should  be 
put  to  death,  the  latter  should  be  banished.^  In  a  letter  to 
Philip  of  Hesse,  dated  November  20,  1538,  he  urgently 
requested  him  to  expel  from  his  territory  the  Anabaptists, 
whom  he  characterizes  as  children  of  the  devil,  but  says 
nothing  of  using  the  sword.^  We  should  give  him,  there- 
fore, the  benefit  of  a  liberal  construction. -^ 

At  the  same  time,  the  distinction  was  not  always  strictly 
observed,  and  fanatics  were  easily  turned  into  criminals, 
especially  after  the  excesses  of  Miinster,  in  1535,  which  were 
greatly  exaggerated  and  made  the  pretext  for  punishing 
innocent  men  and  women.*     The  whole  history  of  the  Ana- 

1  "  Anaba/UistcE  occidendi.  D.  dixit  :  Diiplices  sunt.  Quidam  aperte  sediotiose 
docent  contra  magistratus ;  eos  jure  occidit  elector.  Reliqui  habent  fanaticas 
opiniones,  ii  plerumque  relegantur."  G.  Loesche,  Anahcta  Lutherana  et  Melanch- 
thoniann.     Tischreden  Luthers  und  Ausspriiche  Melancht/ions,  Gotlia,  1892,  p.  137. 

2  "  Es  ist  niclit  allein  mein  Bedenken,  sondern  audi  demiithiges  Bitten,  E.  F.  G. 
wollten  sie  [e?/e  Wiedertdujer^  ernstlic/i  des  Landes  verweisen,  denn  est  ist  gleich- 
tvol  des  TeufeJs  Samen,"  etc.  Lutlier's  Briefe,  Sendschreiben  und  Bedenken, 
vol.  VI.  by  Joli.  Karl  Seidemann  (Berlin,  1856),  p.  21G. 

^  This  is  the  conc-lusion  of  my  friend,  Dr.  Kiistlin,  of  Halle,  the  distin- 
guished biographer  of  Luther.  In  reply  to  a  letter,  March  12,  1892,  he  com- 
municated to  me  his  careful  opinion  as  follows :  "  Nirgends,  auch  nicht  in  seiner 
spateren  Zeit,  that  Luther  Aeusserungen,  in  welchen  er  den  Grundsatz  des  dumaligen 
allgemeinen  llechts  (auch  der  Carolina),  dass  z.  B.  Bestreitung  der  Trinitdtslehie 
oder  andere  bloss  dogmatische  Irrlehre  schon  ah  solche  mit  dem  Tod  bestraft  werden 
sollte,  sich  angeeignet  hiitte.  So  iceit  wir  sehen,  hat  er  darin  doch  immer  sehr  von 
Calvin  und  auch  von  Melanchthon,  ja  von  alien  anderen  Hauptlehrern  der  Beforma- 
tion  sick  unterschieden.  Insbesondere  beschrankt  er  sich,  z.  B.  einem  Antitrini- 
tarter  wie  Joh.  Campan  gegenuber  ('Jilium  Satana;  aduersariuin  Dei,  quern  plus 
etiam  quam  Arius  blasphemat' ),  doch  auf  den  Wunsch,  dass  die  Obrigleit  'tales 
farias  non  vocatas '  nicht  zulassen  moge.  Brieje  v.  De  Wette  IV.  321.  Auch 
die  schdrfsten  Ausserungen  der  Tischreaen  (rf.  auch  die  Colloquien  ed.  Bindseil) 
gehen  nie  iveiter,  soweit  sie  dogmatische  Trrlehren  betreffen." 

*  See  L.  Keller :  Geschichte  der  Wiedertdnfer  und  ihres  Eeichs  zu  Miinster, 
Munster,  1880,  and  his  D'e  Reformation,  p.  451,  where  he  speaks  of  new 
sources  discovered  since  1880. 


706         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

baptist  movement  in  the  sixteenth  century  has  to  be  rewritten 
and  disentangled  from  the  odium  theologieum. 

As  regards  Servetus,  Luther  knew  only  his  first  work 
against  the  Trinity,  and  pronounced  it,  in  his  Table  Talk 
(1532),  an  "awfully  bad  book."  ^  Fortunately  for  his  fame, 
he  did  not  live  to  pronounce  a  judgment  in  favor  of  his 
execution,  and  we  must  give  him  the  benefit  of  silence. 

His  opinions  on  the  treatment  of  the  Jews  changed  for  the 
worse.  In  1523  he  had  vigorously  protested  against  the 
cruel  persecution  of  the  Jews,  but  in  1543  he  counselled  their 
expulsion  from  Christian  lands,  and  the  burning  of  their 
books,  synagogues,  and  private  houses  in  which  they  blas- 
pheme our  Saviour  and  the  Holy  Virgin.  He  repeated  this 
advice  in  his  last  sermon,  preached  at  Eisleben  a  few  days 
before  his  death.^ 

Melanchthon. 

Melanchthon's  record  on  this  painful  subject  is  unfortu- 
nately worse  than  Luther's.  This  is  all  the  more  significant 
because  he  was  the  mildest  and  gentlest  among  the  Reform- 
ers. But  we  should  remember  that  his  utterances  on  the 
subject  are  of  a  later  date,  several  years  after  Luther's  death. 
He  thought  that  the  Mosaic  law  against  idolatry  and  blas- 
phemy was  as  binding  upon  Christian  states  as  the  Deca- 
logue, and  was  applicable  to  heresies  as  well.^     He  therefore 

^  " Ein  graulich  bos  Buck."  When  Melanchthon  informed  him  that  the 
opinions  of  Servetus  found  much  applause  in  Italy,  he  remarked  that  "Italy- 
was  full  of  pestilential  opinions,  and  that  if  such  errors  as  those  of  Servetus 
should  get  there,  horrible  abominations  would  arise"  (Jiorribiles  abominationes 
ibi  orituras).  Bindseil,  Martini  Lutheri  CoUoquia,  Tom.  I.  376.  Comp.  ToUin, 
M.  Luther  und  M.  Servet,  Berlin,  1875,  and  AI.  Servet  und  Martin  Butzer  (or 
Servet  und  die  oberlandischen  Beformatoren,  Berlin,  1880,  vol.  I.  105  sq.). 
ToUin  tries  to  prove  in  both  these  books,  on  the  strength  of  an  obscure 
passage  in  a  letter  of  Servetus  to  fficolampadius,  that  Servetus  accompanied 
Butzer  as  amanuensis  in  September,  1530,  from  Augsburg  to  Coburg  to 
see  Luther.     But  neither  Bucer  nor  Luther  say  a  word  about  it. 

2  Erlangen  ed.,  vol.  XXII.  558  sq. 

3  Corpus  Re/ormatorum,  vol.  VIII.  520.  He  mentions  among  the  heresies 
worthy  of  death  the  deliramenta  Samosateni  and  Manichcei. 


§  139.    PROTESTANT   INTOLERANCE.  7U7 

fully  and  repeatedly  justified  the  course  of  Calvin  and  the 
Council  of  Geneva,  and  even  held  them  up  as  models  for 
imitation !  In  a  letter  to  Calvin,  dated  Oct.  14,  1554,  nearly 
one  year  after  the  burning  of  Servetus,  he  wrote :  — 

"Reverend  and  dear  Brother:  I  have  read  your  book,  in  which  you  have 
clearly  refuted  the  horrid  bhisplieinies  of  Servetus;  and  I  give  thanks  to  the 
Son  of  God,  who  was  the  BpxSeurris  [_tke  awarder  of  your  crown  of  victory]  in 
this  your  combat.  To  you  also  the  Church  owes  gratitude  at  the  present 
moment,  and  will  owe  it  to  the  latest  posterity.  I  perfectly  assent  to  your 
opinion.  I  affirm  also  that  your  magistrates  did  right  in  punishing,  after 
a  regular  trial,  this  blasphemous  man."i 

A  year  later,  Melanchthon  wrote  to  BuUinger,  Aug.  20, 
1555 :  — 

"  Reverend  and  dear  Brother :  I  have  read  your  answer  to  the  blaspliemies 
of  Servetus,  and  I  approve  of  your  piety  and  opinions.  I  judge  also  that 
tlie  Genevese  senate  did  perfectly  right,  to  put  an  end  to  this  obstinate  man, 
who  could  never  cease  blaspheming.  And  I  wonder  at  those  who  disapprove 
of  this  severity."  2 

Three  years  later,  April  10, 1557,  Melanchthon  incidentally 
(in  the  admonition  in  the  case  of  Theobald  Thamer,  who 
had  returned  to  the  Roman  Church)  adverted  again  to  the 

1  Corpus  Reformat,  vol.  VIII.  302  (also  in  Calvin's  Opera,  XV.  268  sq.)  : 
"  Reverende  vir  et  car issime  /rater:  Lerji  scriptum  tuum,  in  quo  refutasti  hcculenter 
horrendas  Serveti  blasphemias  :  ac  Filio  Dei  g  rati  as  ago,  qui  fuit  BpaBevrvs  huius 
tut  agonis.     Tibi  quoque  ecclesia  et  nunc  et  ad  posteros  gratitudinem  debet  et  dehebit. 

Too  JUDICIO  PRORSUS  ASSENTIOR.  AfFIRMO  ETIAM  VESTROS  MAGISTRATUS 
JUSTE  FECISSE,  QUOD  HOMINEM  BLASPHEMUM,  RE  ORDINE  JUDICATA,  INTER- 
FECERUNT." 

(The  rest  of  this  letter  is  an  answer  to  Calvin's  request  that  he  should 
define  his  views  on  the  predestinarian  and  eucharistic  controversies.  Melanch- 
thon declined  to  do  this  for  prudential  reasons,  but  intimated  his  dissent  from 
the  carnal  theory  of  the  real  presence  by  calling  it  aproKarpia,  and  expresses 
the  hope  of  conversing  with  him  once  more,  "  antequam  ex  hoc  mortali  carcere 
mens  discedat.") 

2  Corpus  Reform.  VIII.  523.  After  thanking  Bullinger  for  a  number  of 
books,  he  adds:  " Legi  etiam  quae  de  Serveti  blaspliemiis  respondistis,  et  pietatem 
ac  judicia  x^estra  probo.  Judico  etiam  Senatum  Genevensem  recte  fecisse  quod 
hominem  pertinacem  et  nan  omissurum  blasphemias  sustulit.  Ac  miratus  sum,  esse 
[aliquosl,  qui  sever itatem  illam  improbent.  Mitto  de  ea  qumstione  breves  pagellas, 
sed  tamen  sententice  nostra  testes."  This  refers  to  his  consilium  on  the  rightfu! 
ness  of  the  punishment  of  heretics  by  the  civil  magistrate  (1555). 


708         THE    REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

execution  of  Servetus,  and  called  it  "a  pious  and  memorable 
example  to  all  posterity."  ^  It  is  an  example,  indeed,  but 
certainly  not  for  imitation. 

This  unqualified  approval  of  the  death  penalty  for  heresy 
and  the  connivance  at  the  bigamy  of  Philip  of  Hesse  are  the 
two  dark  spots  on  the  fair  name  of  this  great  and  good  man. 
But  they  were  errors  of  judgment.  Calvin  took  great 
comfort  from  the  indorsement  of  the  theological  head  of  the 
Lutheran  Church.^ 

Martin  Bucer. 

Bucer,  who  stands  third  in  rank  among  the  Reformers 
of  Germany,  was  of  a  gentle  and  conciliatory  disposition, 
and  abstained  from  persecuting  the  Anabaptists  in  Strass- 
burg.  He  knew  Servetus  personally,  and  treated  him  at 
first  with  kindness,  but  after  the  publication  of  his  work 
on  the  Trinity,  he  refuted  it  in  his  lectures  as  a  "  most 
pestilential  book."  ^  He  even  declared  in  the  pulpit  or  in 
the  lecture-room  that  Servetus  deserved  to  be  disembowelled 
and  torn  to  pieces.*  From  this  we  may  infer  how  fully  he 
would  nave  approved  his  execution,  had  he  lived  till  1553. 

1  Commonefactio  de  Thammero,  vol.  IX.  133:  "  Dedit  vero  et  Genevensis 
Meipublian  Magistrntas  ante  annos  quatuor  punitte  insa7iahilis  blaspheniioe  adversus 
Filium  Dei,  sublato  Serveto  Arragone  pium  et  memorahile  ad  omnem  posteritatem 
exemplum ." 

'^  He  wrote  to  Melanchthon,  March  5,  1555 :  "  Your  letter,  most  reverend 
sir,  was  grateful  to  me,  not  only  because  whatever  comes  from  you  is  dear 
to  me,  and  because  it  has  assured  me  that  the  affection,  which  you  entertained 
for  me  in  the  commencement  of  our  intercourse,  still  remains  unaltered ;  but 
above  all  because  in  it  I  find  a  magnificent  eulogy,  in  which  you  commend 
my  zeal  in  crushing  the  impiety  of  Servetus.  Wlience  also  I  conjecture  that 
you  have  not  been  offended  with  the  honest  freedom  of  my  admonitions." 
He  referred  to  Melanchthon  again  in  his  reply  to  the  Reproaches  of  Baudouin, 
1562.     See  above,  §  137. 

^  So  he  wrote  to  Ambrosius  Blaurer,  Dec.  29,  1531:  "  Pestilentissimum 
ilium  de  Trinitate  librum  novi,  proh  dolor,  et  hie  in  publicis  prcelectionibus  nostris 
confutavi." 

*  Dignum  esse,  qui  avidsls  visceribus  discerperetur ."  So  reports  Calvin 
Sept.  8,  1553.  This  is  confirmed  by  a  letter  of  Professor  Frecht  of  Tubingen 
to  Capito,  dated  Nov.  25,  1538.     See  Toliin,  Michael  Servet  und  Martin  Butzer, 


§  139.    PROTESTANT  INTOLERANCE.  709 

The  Swiss  Churches. 

The  Swiss  Reformers  ought  to  have  been  in  advance  of 
those  of  Germany  on  this  subject,  but  they  were  not.  They 
advised  or  approved  the  exclusion  of  Roman  Catholics  from 
the  Reformed  Cantons,  and  violent  measures  against  Ana- 
baptists and  Antitrinitarians.  Six  Anabaptists  were,  by 
a  cruel  irony,  drowned  in  the  river  Limmat  at  ZUrich 
by  order  of  the  government  (between  1527  and  1532).i 
Other  Cantons  took  the  same  severe  measures  against  the 
Anabaptists.  Zwingli,  the  most  liberal  among  the  Reform- 
ers, did  not  object  to  their  punishment,  and  counselled 
the  forcible  introduction  of  Protestantism  into  the  neutral 
territories  and  the  Forest  Cantons.  Ochino  was  expelled 
from  Ziirich  and  Basel  (1563). 

As  regards  the  case  of  Servetus,  the  churches  and  magis- 
trates of  Ziirich,  Schaffhausen,  Basel,  and  Bern,  on  being 
consulted  during  his  trial,  unanimously  condemned  his  errors, 
and  advised  his  punishment,  but  without  committing  them- 
selves to  the  mode  of  punishment.^ 

BuUinger  wrote  to  Calvin  that  God  had  given  the  Council 
of  Geneva  a  most  favorable  opportunity  to  vindicate  the 
truth  against  the  pollution  of  heresy,  and  the  honor  of  God 
against  blasphemy.  In  his  Second  Helvetic  Confession  (ch. 
XXX.)  he  teaches  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  magistrate  to 
use  the  sword  against  blasphemers.  Schaffhausen  fully 
agreed  with  Ziirich.  Even  the  authorities  of  Basel,  which 
was  the  headquarters  of  the  sceptical  Italians  and  enemies 

in  the  "Magazin  fiir  die  Lit.  des  Auslandes,"  Berlin,  1876,  and  Servet  und  die 
oherldndischen  Reformatoren,  Bd.  I.  {Michael  Servet  und  Martin  Butzer),  Berlin, 
1880,  pp.  232  sqq.  ToUin  thinks  that  Bucer  meant  the  book,  not  the  person 
of  Servetus ;  but  books  have  no  viscera, 

1  See  above,  §  26,  pp.  87  sqq. 

2  The  judgments  of  the  magistrates  and  ministers  of  Zurich,  Schaffhausen, 
Basel,  and  Bern  are  printed  in  Calvin's  Opera,  VIII.  808-823  (in  German 
and  Latin).  The  judgment  of  the  pastors  of  Ziirich,  dated  Oct.  2,  1553,  is 
also  inserted  in  Calvin's  Defensio,  ibid,  fol.  555-558. 


710        THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

of  Calvin,  gave  the  advice  that  Servetus,  whom  their  own 
CEcohxmpadius  had  declared  a  most  dangerous  man,  be 
deprived  of  the  power  to  harm  the  Church,  if  all  efforts 
to  convert  him  should  fail.  Six  years  afterwards  the  Council 
of  Basel,  with  the  consent  of  the  clergy  and  the  University, 
ordered  the  body  of  David  Joris,  a  chiliastic  Anabaptist  who 
had  lived  there  under  a  false  name  (and  died  Aug.  25,  1556), 
to  be  dug  from  the  grave  and  burned,  with  his  likeness  and 
books,  by  the  hangman  before  a  large  multitude  (1559) .^ 

Bern,  which  had  advised  moderation  in  the  affair  of  Bolsec 
two  years  earlier,  judged  more  severely  in  the  case  of 
Servetus,  because  he  "had  reckoned  himself  free  to  call  in 
question  all  the  essential  points  of  our  religion,"  and 
expressed  the  wish  that  the  Council  of  Geneva  might  have 
prudence  and  strength  to  deliver  the  Churches  from  "this 
pest."  Thirteen  years  after  the  death  of  Servetus,  the 
Council  of  Bern  executed  Valentino  Gentile  by  the  sword 
(Sept.  10,  1566)  for  an  error  similar  to  but  less  obnoxious 
than  that  of  Servetus,  and  scarcely  a  voice  was  raised  in 
disapproval  of  the  sentence.^ 

The  Reformers  of  French  Switzerland  went  further  than 
those  of  German  Switzerland.  Farel  defended  death  by  fire, 
and  feared  that  Calvin  in  advising  a  milder  punishment  was 
guided  by  the  feelings  of  a  friend  against  his  bitterest  foe. 
Beza  wrote  a  special  work  in  defence  of  the  execution  of 
Servetus,  whom  he  characterized  as  "  a  monstrous  compound 
of  mere  impiety  and  horrid  blasphemy."  ^  Peter  Martyr 
called  him  "a  genuine  son  of  the  devil,"  whose  "pestiferous 
and  detestable  doctrines"  and  "intolerable  blasphemies" 
justified  the  severe  sentence  of  the  magistracy.'* 

1  See  Nippold,  Ueher  Leben,  Lehre  und  Sekte  des  David  Joris,  in  the 
"  Zeitschrif t  fur  historische  Theologie,"  1863,  No.  I.,  and  1864,  No.  IV. 

2  See  above,  §  131,  p.  658. 

2  "  Monstrum  ex  mera  impietate  horrendisque  blasphemiis  conflatum."  Vita 
Calv.  (Annul.  XXI.  148). 

^  See  the  whole  passage  in  Trechsel's  Zusdtze  to  vol.  I, 


§  139.    PROTESTAXT    INTOLERANCE.  711 

Craxmkr. 

The  English  Reformers  were  not  behmd  those  of  the 
Continent  in  the  matter  of  intolerance.  Several  years  before 
the  execution  of  Servetus,  Archbishop  Cranmer  had  per- 
suaded the  reluctant  young  King  Edward  VI.  to  sign  the 
death-warrant  of  two  Anabaptists  —  one  a  woman,  called 
Joan  Bocher  of  Kent,  and  the  other  a  foreigner  from  Holland, 
George  van  Pare;  the  former  was  burnt  May  2,  1550,  the 
latter,  April  6,  1551. 

The  only  advocates  of  toleration  in  the  sixteenth  century 
were  Anabaptists  and  Antitrinitarians,  Avho  were  themselves 
sufferers  from  persecution.  Let  us  give  them  credit  for  their 
humanity. 

Gradual  Triumph  of  Toleratiox  and  Liberty. 

The  reign  of  intolerance  continued  to  the  end  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  It  was  gradually  undermined  during 
the  eighteenth  century,  and  demolished  by  the  combined 
influences  of  Protestant  Dissenters,  as  the  Anabaptists, 
Socinians,  Arminians,  Quakers,  Presbyterians,  Independents, 
of  Anglican  Latitudinarians,  and  of  philosophers,  like  Bayle, 
Grotius,  Locke,  Leibnitz  ;  nor  should  we  forget  Voltaire  and 
Frederick  the  Great,  who  were  unbelievers,  but  sincere  and 
most  influential  advocates  of  religious  toleration ;  nor 
Franklin,  Jefferson,  and  Madison  in  America.  Protestant 
Holland  and  Protestant  England  took  the  lead  in  the  legal 
recognition  of  the  principles  of  civil  and  religious  liberty, 
and  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  completed  the 
theory  by  putting  all  Christian  denominations  on  a  parity 
before  the  law  and  guaranteeing  them  the  full  enjoyment 
of  equal  rights. 

Hand  in  hand  with  the  growth  of  tolerance  went  the  zeal 
for  prison  reform,  the  abolition  of  torture  and  cruel  punish- 
ments, the  abrogation  of  the  slave  trade,  serfdom,  and  slavery, 
the  improvement  of  the  condition  of   the   poor  and  miser- 


712        THE   KEFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

able,  and  similar  movements  of  philanthropy,  which  are  the 
late  but  genuine  outgrowth  of  the  spirit  of  Christianity. 

§  140.    The  Early  Life  of  Servetus. 

For  our  knowledge  of  the  origin  and  youth  of  Servetus 
we  have  to  depend  on  the  statements  which  he  made  at  his 
trials  before  the  Roman  Catholic  court  at  Vienne  in  April, 
1553,  and  before  the  Calvinistic  court  at  Geneva  in  August 
of  the  same  year.  These  depositions  are  meagre  and  incon- 
sistent, either  from  defect  of  memory  or  want  of  honesty. 
In  Geneva  he  could  not  deceive  the  judges,  as  Calvin  was 
well  acquainted  with  his  antecedents.  I  give,  therefore, 
the  preference  to  his  later  testimony. ^ 

Michael  Serveto,  better  known  in  the  Latinized  form 
Servetus,  also  called  Reves,^  was  born  at  Villa-nueva  or 
Villanova  in  Aragon  (hence  "  Villanovanus  "),  in  1509,  the 
year  of  the  nativity  of  Cahdn,  his  great  antagonist.^  He 
informed  the  court  of  Geneva  that  he  was  of  an  ancient  and 
noble  Spanish  family,  and  that  his  father  was  a  lawyer  and 
notary  by  profession. 

1  A.  V.  d.  Linde,  p.  3  sq.,  presents  the  contradictory  statements  of  Servetus 
in  parallel  columns. 

2  In  the  title  of  his  first  book.  "Reves"  is  an  abridged  anagram  of  Ser- 
veto. Others  derive  it  from  the  maiden  name  of  his  mother.  But  we  know 
nothing  of  his  family.  Tlie  form  "  Servede  "  never  occurs  among  his  con- 
temporaries, and  not  before  1597,  but  is  used  by  several  modern  writers, 
as  Herzog,  Gucricke,  Hase,  Dorner,  Harnack. 

3  Place  and  date  are  disputed.  In  the  trial  at  Vienne  he  stated  that  he 
was  born  at  Tudela  in  the  old  Spanish  kingdom  of  Navarre,  that  he  was  tlien 
forty-two  years  old,  which  would  put  his  birth  in  1511.  In  the  trial  at 
Geneva  he  declared  himself  to  be  "  Espagnol  Arragonese  de  Villeneufve," 
and  to  be  forty-four  years  old.  This  is  confirmed  by  the  author's  name 
on  the  title-page  of  his  first  book:  "Per  Michaelem  Serveto,  alias  Reves  ab 
Aragonia  Hispanum,"  by  the  subscription  at  theend  of  his  Restitutio  "  M.  S.  V." 
[Villanovanus]  and  by  the  name  "  Villeneuve,"  under  which  he  was  known 
in  France.  So  also  Willis  and  v.  d.  Linde.  But  Tollin  decides  for  Tudela 
and  for  the  year  1511.  See  his  Servers  Kindheit  und  Jugend,  in  Kahnis' 
"  Zeitschrift  fur  hist.  Theol.,"  1875. 


§  140.  THE  EARLY  LIFE  OF  SEKVETUS.       713 

The  hypothesis  that  he  was  of  Jewish  or  Moorish  extrac- 
tion is  an  unwarranted  inference  from  his  knowledge  of 
Hebrew  and  the  Koran. 

He  was  slender  and  delicate  in  body,  but  precocious, 
inquisitive,  imaginative,  acute,  independent,  and  inclined 
to  mysticism  and  fanaticism.  He  seems  to  have  received  his 
early  education  in  a  Dominican  convent  and  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Saragossa,  with  a  view  at  first  to  the  clerical  vocation. 

He  was  sent  by  his  father  to  the  celebrated  law-school  of 
Toulouse,  where  he  studied  jurisprudence  for  two  or  three 
years.  The  University  of  Toulouse  was  strictly  orthodox, 
and  kept  a  close  watch  against  the  Lutheran  heresy.  But 
it  was  there  that  he  first  saw  a  complete  copy  of  the  Bible, 
as  Luther  did  after  he  entered  the  University  of  Erfurt. 

The  Bible  now  became  his  guide.  He  fully  adopted  the 
Protestant  principle  of  the  supremacy  and  sufficiency  of 
the  Bible,  but  subjected  it  to  his  speculative  fancy,  and 
carried  opposition  to  Catholic  tradition  much  farther  than 
the  Reformers  did.  He  rejected  the  oecumenical  orthodox}^ 
while  they  rejected  only  the  mediaeval  scholastic  orthodoxy. 
It  is  characteristic  of  his  mystical  turn  of  mind  that  he 
made  the  Apocalypse  the  basis  of  his  speculations,  while  the 
sober  and  judicious  Calvin  never  commented  on  this  book. 

Servetus  declared,  in  his  first  work,  that  the  Bible  was 
the  source  of  all  his  philosophy  and  science,  and  to  be  read  a 
thousand  times.^  He  called  it  a  gift  of  God  descended  from 
heaven.2  Next  to  the  Bible,  he  esteemed  the  ante-Nicene 
Fathers,  because  of  their  simpler  and  less  definite  teaching. 
He  quotes  them  freely  in  his  first  book. 

We  do  not  know  whether,  and  how  far,  he  was  influenced 

1  Omnem  philosopkiam  et  scientiam  ego  in  BIblia  reperio.  .  .  .  Lege  ohsecro 
millles  Bihliam."     {De  Trinitatis  Erroribus,  fol.  786  and  79.) 

2  "  Datus  est  de  ccelo  liber  ut  in  eo  Deum  investigemus,  adjuvante  ad  hocjide 
quae  non  est  ilk  crudus  sophistarum  assensus,  sed  inotus  cordis,  sicut  dicit  Scriptnra, 
corde  creditur."  (Ibid.  f.  1076.)  "  Figmenta  sunt  imaginaria  qua  Scriptura 
limites  transgrediuntur."     {Ibid,  f .  816.) 


714         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

by  the  writings  of  tlie  Reformers.  He  may  have  read  some 
tracts  of  Luther,  which  were  early  translated  into  Spanish, 
but  he  does  not  quote  from  them.^ 

We  next  find  Servetus  in  the  employ  of  Juan  Quintana, 
a  Franciscan  friar  and  confessor  to  the  Emperor  Charles  V. 
He  seems  to  have  attended  his  court  at  the  coronation  by 
Pope  Clement  VH.  in  Bologna  (1529),  and  on  the  journey 
to  the  Diet  of  Augsburg  in  1530,  which  forms  an  epoch  in 
the  history  of  the  Lutheran  Reformation.^  At  Augsburg 
he  may  have  seen  Melanchthon  and  other  leading  Lutherans, 
but  he  was  too  young  and  unknown  to  attract  much 
attention. 

In  the  autumn  of  1530  he  was  dismissed  from  the  service 
of  Quintana ;  we  do  not  know  for  what  reason,  probably  on 
suspicion  of  heresy. 

We  have  no  account  of  a  conversion  or  moral  struggle  in 
any  period  of  his  life,  such  as  the  Reformers  passed  through. 
He  never  was  a  Protestant,  either  Lutheran  or  Reformed, 
but  a  radical  at  war  with  all  orthodoxy.  A  mere  youth  of 
twenty-one  or  two,  he  boldly  or  impudently  struck  out  an 
independent  path  as  a  Reformer  of  the  Reformation.  The 
Socinian  society  did  not  yet  exist ;  and  even  there  he  would 
not  have  felt  at  home,  nor  would  he  have  long  been  toler- 
ated. Nominally,  he  remained  in  the  Roman  Church,  and 
felt  no  scruple  about  conforming  to  its  rites.  As  he  stood 
alone,  so  he  died  alone,  leaving  an  influence,  but  no  school 
nor  sect. 

From  Germany  Servetus  went  to  Switzerland  and  spent 
some  time  at  Basel.  There  he  first  ventilated  his  heresies 
on  the  trinity  and  the  divinity  of  Christ. 

1  ToUin  conjectures  that  he  had  read  the  writintrs  of  Luther,  Melanchthon, 
and  Bucer,  and  was  especially  influenced  by  Erasmus. 

2  See  Tollin,  Die  Beichtvdter  Kaiser  Karls  V.,  three  short  papers  in  the 
"Magazin  fiir  die  Lit.  des  Auslandes,"  1874,  and  Serret  auf  dem  Reichstag  zu 
Augsburg,  in  Thelemann's  "  Evang.  Reform.  Kirchenzeitung,"  1876,  No.  17-- 
24. 


§  141.    THE   BOOK   AGAINST   THE   HOLY   TRINITY.       7l0 

He  importuned  (Ecolampadius  with  interviews  and  letters, 
hoping  to  convert  him.  I^ut  Gicolampadius  was  startled 
and  horrified.  He  informed  his  friends,  Bucer,  Zwingli,  and 
Bullinger,  who  happened  to  be  at  Basel  in  October,  1530, 
that  he  had  been  troubled  of  late  by  a  hot-headed  Spaniard, 
who  denied  the  divine  trinity  and  the  eternal  divinity  of  our 
Saviour.  Zwingli  advised  him  to  try  to  convince  Servetus 
of  his  error,  and  by  good  and  wholesome  arguments  to  win 
him  over  to  the  truth.  Qicolampadius  said  that  he  could 
make  no  impression  upon  the  haughty,  daring,  and  conten- 
tious man.  Zwingli  replied:  "  This  is  indeed  a  thing  insuf- 
ferable in  the  Church  of  God.  Therefoie  do  everything 
possible  to  prevent  the  spread  of  such  dreadful  blasphemy." 
Zwingli  never  saw  the  objectionable  book  in  print. 

Servetus  sought  to  satisfy  (Ecolampadius  by  a  misleading 
confession  of  faith,  but  the  latter  was  not  deceived  by  the 
explanations  and  exhorted  him  to  "confess  the  Son  of  God 
to  be  coequal  and  coeternal  with  the  Father " ;  otherwise 
he  could  not  acknowledge  him  as  a  Christian. 

§  141.    The  Book  against  the  Holy  Trinity, 

Servetus  was  too  vain  and  obstinate  to  take  advice.  In 
the  beginning  of  1531,  he  secured  a  publisher  for  his  book 
on  the  "Errors  of  the  Trinity,"  Conrad  Koenig,  who  had 
shops  at  Basel  and  Strassburg,  and  who  sent  the  manuscript 
to  Secerius,  a  printer  at  Hagenau  in  Alsace.  Servetus  went 
to  that  place  to  read  the  proof.  He  also  visited  Bucer  and 
Capito  at  Strassburg,  who  received  him  with  courtesy  and 
kindness  and  tried  to  convert  him,  but  in  vain. 

In  July,  1531,  the  book  appeared  under  the  name  of  the 
author,  and  was  furnished  to  the  trade  at  Strassburg,  Frank- 
fort, and  Basel,  but  nobody  knew  where  and  by  whom  it 
was  published.     Suspicion  fell  upon  Basel. 

This  book  is  a  very  original  and,  for  so  young  a  man,  very 
remarkable  treatise  on  the  Trinity  and  Incarnation  in  oppo- 


716         THE   REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

sition  to  the  traditional  and  oecumenical  faith.  The  style 
is  crude  and  obscure,  and  not  to  be  compared  with  Calvin's, 
who  at  the  same  age  and  in  his  earliest  writings  showed 
himself  a  master  of  lucid,  methodical,  and  convincing  state- 
ment in  elegant  and  forcible  Latin.  Servetus  was  familiar 
with  the  Bible,  the  ante-Nicene  P"'athers  (TertuUian  and 
Irenseus),  and  scholastic  theology,  and  teemed  with  new, 
but  ill-digested  ideas  which  he  threw  out  like  firebrands. 
He  afterwards  embodied  his  first  work  in  his  last,  but  in 
revised  shape.  The  following  is  a  summary  of  the  Seven 
Books  on  the  Trinity :  — 

In  the  first  book  he  proceeds  from  the  historical  Jesus 
of  Nazareth,  and  proves,  first,  that  this  man  is  Jesus  the 
Christ ;  secondly,  that  he  is  the  Son  of  God ;  and  thirdly, 
that  he  is  God.^  He  begins  with  the  humanity  in  opposition 
to  those  who  begin  with  the  Logos  and,  in  his  opinion,  lose 
the  true  Christ.  In  this  respect  he  anticipates  the  Socinian 
and  modern  humanitarian  Christology,  but  not  in  a  rational- 
istic sense ;  for  he  asserts  a  special  indwelling  of  God  in 
Christ  (somewhat  resembling  Schleiermacher),  and  a  deifica- 
tion of  Christ  after  his  exaltation  (like  the  Socinians).^  He 
rejects  the  identity  of  the  Logos  with  the  Son  of  God  and 
the  doctrine  of  the  communication  of  attributes.  He  dis- 
tinguishes between  the  Hebrew  names  of  God:  Jeliovah 
means  exclusively  the  one  and  eternal  God ;  Elohim  or  El 
or  Adonai  are  names  of  God  and  also  of  angels,  prophets, 


^  "  Primo,  hie  est  Jesus  Christus.  8ecundo,hicestJiliusDei.  Tertio,  hie  est 
Deits."     (p.  la.) 

2  "  Secundutn  carnem  homo  est,  et  spiritu  est  Deus,  quia  quod  natum  est  de 
spiritu,  spirilus  est,  et  spiritus  est  deus.  Et  ita  Esaice  9.  Puer  nalus  est  nobis, 
vocabitur  nomen  eius  deus  fortis.  Vide  clare  et  dei  nomen  et  fortitudinem  nnto 
puero  attrihntam,  cui  data  est  omnis  potestas  in  ccelo  et  in  terra.  Et  Thomas 
lohannis  20.  earn  appellat,  Deus  meus,  Dominus  mens.  Et  Rom.  nono  Christus 
dicitur  in  omnibus  laudandus  et  benedicendus.  Mtdtisque  aliis  locis  eius  divinifas 
ostenditur,  quia  exallatus  est,  ut  acciperet  divinitatem,  et  nomen  super  omne 
nomen."     10a. 


§  141.     THE   BOOK   AGAINST   THE   HOLY   TRINITY.       717 

and  kings  (John  10  :  34-36). i  The  prologue  of  John  speaks 
of  things  that  were,  not  of  things  that  are.  Everywhere 
else  the  Bible  speaks  of  the  man  Christ.  The  Holy  Spirit 
means,  according  to  the  Hebrew  ruach  and  the  Greek 
pneuma,  wind  or  breath,  and  denotes  in  the  Bible  now  God 
himself,  now  an  angel,  now  the  spirit  of  man,  now  a  divine 
impulse. 

He  then  explains  away  the  proof  texts  for  the  doctrine 
of  the  Trinity,  1  John  5:7  (which  he  accepts  as  genuine, 
though  Ei-asmus  omitted  it  from  his  first  edition)  ;  John 
10  :  30  ;  14 :  11 ;  Rom.  11 :  36.  The  chief  passages,  the  bap- 
tismal formula  (Matt.  28 :  19)  and  the  apostolic  benediction 
(2  Cor.  13 :  14)  where  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Spirit 
are  co-ordinated,  he  understands  not  of  three  persons,  but 
of  three  dispositions  of  God. 

In  the  second  book  he  treats  of  the  Logos,  the  person  of 
Christ,  and  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  chiefly  explains  the  pro- 
logue to  the  fourth  Gospel.  The  Logos  is  not  a  metaphysical 
being,  but  an  oracle ;  the  voice  of  God  and  the  light  of  the 
world.^  The  Logos  is  a  disposition  or  dispensation  in  God,  so 
understood  by  TertuUian  and  Irenseus.^  Before  the  incarna- 
tion the  Logos  was  God  himself  sj)eaking;  after  the  incarnation 
the  Logos  is   Jesus  Christ,  who  makes  God  known  to  us.* 

1  "Notes  differentiam  inter  HIT  proprium  Dei  nnmen,  et  "^X  ""nX  D"n'?K  et 
alia  siinilia  Deo  attributa.  Et  quod  Thomas  luhannis  20.  non  lehovah,  sed  elohiin 
et  adonai  de  Christo  dixerit,  infra  probiibo."  14a.  "  Similiter  el  D'bx  de 
angelis  et  hominihus  fortihus  dicitur,  Psal.  8S  et  lob  41."  146.  He  identifies 
Christ  witli  tiie  Eloiiim  instead  of  Jehovah. 

2  "Ad-yos  non  phllosophicam  ilium  rem,  sed  oracnhtm,  vocem,  sermonem,  eloqiiiitm 
Dei  sonat.     Usurpatiir  enim  a  verbo  \4yu,  quod  est  dico."     47a. 

3  «  pg,.  sacramentum  Verbi  intelliyit  quandam  in  Deo  disposltionem  seu  dispen- 
sationem,  qua  placitum  est  ei  arcanum  voluntatis  sucb  nobis  revelare.  Et  hoc  Ter- 
tuUianus'olKovofjiiav,  et  Irenmus  dispositionem  sre/iissime  appellant."     48a. 

*  "  Verbum  in  Deo  proferente,  est  ipsemet  Deus  loquens.  Post  prolationem  est  ipsa 
caro,  sen  Verbum  Dei,  antequam  sermo  ille  euro  Jieret,  intell i<jebatur  ipsum  Dei 
oraculum  intra  nuhis  caliginem  nondum  manifestatum,  aula  Deus  erat  ille  sermo. 
Et  postqnam  Verbum  homo  factum  est,  per  Verbum  intellitjimus  ipsu7n  Christum, 
qui  est  Verbum  Dei,  et  vor  Dei,  nam,  quasi  vox,  est  ex  ore  Dei  prolatus."  48a  and  6. 
He  refers  for  proof  to  Rev.  19: 13:  rh  uvofia  ahrov  'O  \6yos  tov  @eov. 


718         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

All  that  God  before  did  through  the  Word,  Christ  does  in 
the  flesh.  To  him  God  has  given  the  kingdom  and  the  power 
to  atone  and  to  gather  all  things  in  him. 

The  third  book  is  an  exposition  of  the  relation  of  Christ 
to  the  divine  Logos. 

The  fourth  book  discusses  the  divine  dispositions  or  mani- 
festations. God  appeared  in  the  Son  and  in  the  Spirit.  Two 
divine  manifestations  are  substituted  for  the  orthodox  tri- 
personality.  The  position  of  the  Father  is  not  clear ;  he  is 
now  represented  as  the  divinity  itself,  now  as  a  disposition 
and  person.  The  orthodox  christology  of  two  natures  in 
one  person  is  entirely  rejected.  God  has  no  nature  (from 
nasci)^  and  a  person  is  not  a  compound  of  two  natures  or 
things,  but  a  unit. 

The  fifth  book  is  a  worthless  speculative  exposition  of  the 
Hebrew  names  of  God.  The  Lutheran  doctrine  of  justifica- 
tion is  incidentally  attacked  as  calculated  to  make  man 
lazy  and  indifferent  to  good  works. 

The  sixth  book  shows  that  Christ  is  the  only  fountain  of 
all  true  knowledge  of  God,  who  is  incomprehensible  in 
himself,  but  revealed  himself  in  the  person  of  his  Son.  He 
who  sees  the  Son  sees  the  Father. 

The  seventh  and  last  book  is  an  answer  to  objections,  and 
contains  a  new  attack  on  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  which 
was  introduced  at  the  same  time  with  the  secular  power  of 
the  pope.  Servetus  probably  believed  in  the  fable  of  the 
donation  of  Constantine. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  this  book  gave  great  offence 
to  Catholics  and  Protestants  alike,  and  appeared  to  them 
blasphemous.  Servetus  calls  the  Trinitarians  tritheists  and 
atheists.^  He  frivolously  asked  such  questions  as  whether 
God  had  a  spiritual  wife  or  was  without  sex.^     He  calls  the 

•  "  TritheiUn  .  .  .  Athei,  hoc  est  sine  Deo."     21b. 

^  "  Debuissent  dicere  quod  habebat  [Dews]  uxorem  quandam  spiritualem,  vel 
quod  solus  ipse  masculo-foemineus  aut  Hermaphroditus,  simul  erat  pater  et  mater." 


§  141.    THE   BOOK   AGAINST   THE   HOLY   TRIXITV.       719 

three  gods  of  the  Trinitarians  a  deception  of  the  devil,  yea 
(in  his  later  writings),  a  three-headed  monster.^ 

Zwingli  and  GEcolampadius  died  a  few  months  after  the 
publication  of  the  book,  but  condemned  its  contents  before- 
hand. Luther's  and  Bucer's  views  on  it  have  already  been 
noticed.  Melanchthon  felt  the  difficulties  of  the  trinitarian 
and  christological  problems  and  foresaw  future  controversies. 
He  gave  his  judgment  in  a  letter  to  his  learned  friend 
Camerarius   (dated  5  Id.  Febr.  1533)  :  — 

"  You  ask  me  what  I  think  of  Servetus "?  I  see  him  indeed  sufficiently 
sharp  and  subtle  in  disputation,  but  I  do  not  give  him  credit  for  much 
depth.  He  is  possessed,  as  it  seems  to  me,  of  confused  imaginations,  and  his 
thoughts  are  not  well  matured  on  the  subjects  he  discusses.  He  manifestly 
talks  foolishness  when  he  speaks  of  justification.  Trepl  rrjs  rpidSos  [on  the 
subject  of  the  Trinity]  you  know,  I  have  always  feared  that  serious  diflScul- 
ties  would  one  day  arise.  Good  God !  to  what  tragedies  will  not  these  ques- 
tions give  occasion  in  times  to  come :  e!f  eVriv  virSa-Tacris  6  \6yos  [is  the  Logos 
an  hypostasis]  ?  ej  icrrtv  vw6(TTa.<Tis  fh  irvevjxa  [is  the  Holy  Spirit  an  hyposta- 
sis] 1  For  my  own  part  I  refer  to  those  passages  of  Scripture  that  bid  us 
call  on  Christ,  which  is  to  ascribe  divine  honors  to  him,  and  find  them  full 
of  consolation."  ^ 

396.  This  reminds  one  of  the  reasoning  of  the  Mohammedans  that  God  has 
no  wife,  therefore  he  can  have  no  son.  He  approves  of  the  objection  of  the 
Turks  :  "  Nee  mirum,  si  Turci  nos  asinarios  vacant,  postquam  iios  Deum  vocare 
asinum  non  eruhescimus."     12a. 

1  The  last  expression  I  could  not  find  in  the  work  De  Trinitatis  Erroribus, 
but  it  occurs  in  his  letters  to  Calvin,  and  in  a  lettter  to  Poupin,  where  he 
says:  "Pro  uno  Deo  habetis  tricipitem  cerbenim."  Calvin's  Opera,  VIIL  750. 
It  was  made  the  chief  ground  of  the  charge  of  blasphemy  at  the  trial  in 
Geneva.  "  Un  Dieu  party  en  trois  .  .  .  est  un  diable  a  trois  testes  comme  le 
Cerberus  que  les  Poetes  anciens  ant  appelle'  le  chien  d'enfer,  un  monstre."  Ibid. 
728,  Art.  IX.  Tollin,  in  his  article  Der  Verfasser  de  Trinitatis  Erroribus 
("  Jahrbucher  fiir  protest.  Theologie,"  1891,  p.  414),  derives  these  offensive 
phrases  from  the  papal  controversialist  Cochlaeus,  who  in  his  Lutherus  septiceps, 
1529,  says:  "Quid  ad  hcec  Janus  Bifrons?  Quid  Geryon  Triceps?  Quid 
Cerberus  trifaux  ?  fabuloi  sunt  poetarum  et  jocosa  figmenta."  Cochlaeus  com- 
pared these  fables  with  the  seven-capped  Luther,  who  surpassed  them  all  in 
monstrosity. 

2  He  adds  in  Greek  that  it  is  not  profitable  to  inquire  curiously  into  the 
ideas  and  differences  of  the  divine  persons.  Opera,  ed.  Bretschneider,  II.  630, 
and  his  letter  to  Brenz,  July,  1533,  II.  660.  Also  Tollin,  Ph.  Melanchthon  und 
M.  Servet,  Berlin,  1876. 


720         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZH:RLAND. 

Cochlaeus  directed  the  attention  of  Quintana,  at  the  Diet 
of  Regensburg,  in  1532,  to  the  book  of  Servetus  which  was 
sokl  there,  and  Quintana  at  once  took  measures  to  suppress 
it.  The  Emperor  prohibited  it,  and  the  book  soon  dis- 
appeared. 

Servetus  published  in  1532  two  dialogues  on  the  Trinity, 
and  a  treatise  on  Justification.  He  retracted,  in  the  preface, 
all  he  had  said  in  his  former  work,  not,  however,  as  false, 
but  as  childish.^  He  rejected  the  Lutheran  doctrine  of  justi- 
fication, and  also  both  the  Lutheran  and  Zwinglian  views 
of  the  sacrament.  He  concluded  the  book  by  invoking 
a  malediction  on  "  all  tyrants  of  the  Church."  ^ 

§  142.    Servetus  as  a  Creographer. 

As  Servetus  was  repulsed  by  the  Reformers  of  Switzerland 
and  Germany,  he  left  for  France  and  assumed  the  name  of 
Michel  de  Villenedve.  His  real  name  and  his  obnoxious 
books  disappeared  from  the  sight  of  the  world  till  they 
emerged  twenty  years  later  at  Vienne  and  at  Geneva.  He 
devoted  himself  to  the  study  of  mathematics,  geography, 
astrology,  and  medicine. 

In  1534  he  was  in  Paris,  and  challenged  the  young  Calvin 
to  a  disputation,  but  failed  to  appear  at  the  appointed  hour. 

He  spent  some  time  at  Lyons  as  proof-reader  and  pub- 
lisher of  the  famous  printers,  Melchior  and  Caspar  Trechsel. 
He  issued  through  them,  in  1535,  under  the  name  of  "  Villa- 
novanus,"  a  magnificent  edition  of  Ptolemy's  Geography, 
Avith  a  self4audatory  preface,  which  concludes  with  the  hope 
that  "no  one  will  underestimate  tlie  labor,  though  pleasant 

1  "  Qun  nuper  contra  receptam  de  Trinitate  sententiam,  septem  libris,  scripsi, 
omnia  nunc,  candide  lector^  retracto.  Non  quia  falsa  sint,  sed  quia  imperfecta, 
et  tamquam  a  parvulo  parvulis  scripta.  .  .  .  Quod  auteni  ita  harbarus,  confusus  et 
incorrectus,  prior  liber  prodierit,  imperitiie  mea:  et  typographi  incurice  adscribendus 
est." 

2  "  Perdat  Dominus  oinnes  ecclesice  tijrannos.     Amen." 


§  142.  SERVETUS  AS  A  GEOGRAPHER.       721 

in  itself,  that  is  implied  in  the  collation  of  our  text  with  that 
of  earlier  editions,  unless  it  be  some  Zoilus  of  contracted 
brow,  who  cannot  look  without  envy  upon  the  zealous  labors 
of  others."  A  second  and  improved  edition  appeared  in 
1541.1 

The  discoveries  of  Columbus  and  his  successors  gave 
a  strong  impulse  to  geographical  studies,  and  called  forth 
several  editions  of  the  work  of  Ptolemy  the  famous  Alex- 
andrian geographer  and  astronomer  of  the  second  century .2 
The  edition  of  Villeneuve  is  based  upon  that  of  Pirkheimer 
of  Niirnberg,  which  appeared  at  Strassburg,  1525,  with  fifty 
charts,  but  contains  considerable  improvements,  and  gave  to 
the  author  great  reputation.  It  is  a  very  remarkable  work, 
considering  that  Servetus  was  then  only  twenty-six  years  of 
age.  A  year  later  Calvin  astonished  the  world  with  an 
equally  precocious  and  far  more  important  and  enduring 
work  —  the  Institutes  of  the  Christian  Religion. 

The  most  interesting  features  in  the  edition  of  Villeneuve 

^  The  following  is  the  full  title  of  the  second  edition  which  I  found  (to- 
gether with  a  copy  of  the  first)  in  the  library  of  the  American  Geographical 
Society  at  New  York  :  — 

"  Claudii  |  Ptolem.ei  |  Alexan  |  drini  |  Geographinc  Enarrationis,  \  Libri 
Octo.  I  Ex  B'tlihaldi  Pircke  j  ymlieri  tralatione,  sed  ad  Graeca  et  prisca  exem- 
plaria  a  Michaele  Villanouano  |  secundu  recogniti,  et  locis  innumeris  denuo 
castigati.  Adiecta  insuper  ab  eodem  scho  |  lia,  quibus  et  difficilis  ille  Primus 
Liber  nunc  primum  explicatur,  et  exoleta  Urbium  |  nomina  ad  nostri  seculi 
morem  exponuntur.  Quinquaginta  ilia?  quoque  cum  ueterum  turn  |  rcccntium 
Tabulae  adnectuntur,  variisque  incolentium  ritus  et  mores  explicantur.  .  .  . 
Prostant  Lugduni  apud  Hugonem  a  Porta.  |  MDXLI."  fol.  Dedicited  "  Am- 
plissimo  illustrissimoque  ac  reverend issimo  D.  Dno  Petro  Palmerio,  Archiepiscopo 
et  Comiti  Viennensi  Michael  Villanouahus  Medicus  G.  D."  Dated  "Viennse- 
pridie  Cal.  Martii,  MDXLI."  The  last  page  has  the  imprimatur  of  Caspar 
Trechsel,  Viennae,  1541.  The  work  is  illustrated  with  fifty  maps.  Willis 
(pp.  86  sqq.)  gives  condensed  translations  of  some  passages,  which  I  have 
used,  and  compared  with  the  original.  Tollin  represents  Servetus  as  a  fore- 
runner of  Karl  Ritter  in  comparative  geography,  Michael  Servet  als  Geograph, 
1875  (pp. 182). 

2  Editions  were  published  at  Rome,  Bologna,  Strassburg  (1523  and  1525), 
Basel  (1533,  with  a  preface  of  Erasmus;  1546),  Venice  (1558).  The  last  and 
best  Grffico-Latin  edition  of  Ptolemy  is  by  Carl  Miiller,  Paris,  1883  sqq. 


722         THE    REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

are  his  descriptions  of  countries  and  nations.  The  following 
extracts  give  a  fair  idea,  and  have  some  bearing  on  the  church 
history  of  the  times  :  — 

"  The  Spaniard  is  of  a  restless  disposition,  apt  enough  of  understanding, 
but  learning  imperfectly  or  amiss,  so  that  you  shall  find  a  learned  Spaniard 
almost  anywhere  sooner  than  in  Spain. ^  Half-informed,  he  thinks  himself 
brimful  of  information,  and  always  pretends  to  more  knowledge  than  he  has 
in  fact.  He  is  much  given  to  vast  projects  never  realized ;  and  in  conversa- 
tion he  delights  in  subtleties  and  sophistry.  Teachers  commonly  prefer  to 
speak  Spanish  rather  than  Latin  in  the  schools  and  colleges  of  the  country ; 
but  the  people  in  general  have  little  taste  for  letters,  and  produce  few  books 
themselves,  mostly  procuring  those  they  want,  from  France.  .  .  .  The  people 
have  many  barbarous  notions  and  usages,  derived  by  implication  from  their 
old  Moorish  conquerors  and  fellow-denizens.  .  .  .  The  women  have  a  custom, 
that  would  be  held  barbarous  in  France,  of  piercing  their  ears  and  hanging 
gold  rings  in  them,  often  set  with  precious  stones.  They  besmirch  their 
faces,  too,  with  minium  and  ecruse  —  red  and  white  lead  —  and  walk  about 
on  clogs  a  foot  or  a  foot  and  a  half  high,  so  that  they  seem  to  walk  above 
rather  than  on  the  earth.  The  people  are  extremely  temperate,  and  the 
women  never  drink  wine.  .  .  .  Spaniards  are  notably  the  most  superstitious 
people  in  the  world  in  their  religious  notions  ;  but  they  are  brave  in  the  field, 
of  signal  endurance  under  privation  and  difficulty,  and  by  their  voyages  of 
■discovery  have  spread  their  name  over  the  face  of  the  globe." 

"  England  is  wonderfully  well-peopled,  and  the  inhabitants  are  long- 
lived.  Tall  in  stature,  they  are  fair  in  complexion,  and  have  blue  eyes. 
They  are  brave  in  war,  and  admirable  bowmen.  .  .   ." 

"The  people  of  Scotl.\nd  are  hot-tempered,  prone  to  revenge,  and  fierce 
in  their  anger ;  but  valiant  in  war,  and  patient  beyond  belief  of  cold,  hunger, 
and  fatigue.  They  are  handsome  in  person,  and  their  clothing  and  language 
are  the  same  as  those  of  the  Irish;  their  tunics  being  dyed  yellow,  their  legs 
bare,  and  their  feet  protected  by  sandals  of  undressed  hide.  They  live 
mainly  on  fish  and  flesh.     They  are  not  a  particularly  religious  people.  .  .  ." 

"The  Italians  make  use  in  their  everyday  talk  of  the  most  horrid  oaths 
and  imprecations.  Holding  all  the  rest  of  the  world  in  contempt,  and  calling 
them  barbarians,  they  themselves  have  nevertheless  been  alternately  the  prey 
of  the  French,  the  Spaniards,  and  the  Germans.  .  .  ."  ^ 

"  Germany  is  overgrown  by  vast  forests,  and  defaced  by  frightful  swamps. 
Its  climate  is  as  insufferably  hot  in  summer  as  it  is  bitterly  cold  in  winter.  .  .  . 

1  "  Ut  alibi  potius  quam  in  ipsa  Hispania  Hispanum  doctum  invenias." 

2  "  Zrrident  Neapolitani  Calabros,  Calabri  Appulos,  hos  autem  omnes  Romani, 
Romanos  Hetrusci,  quos  et  alii  vicissim  irrident :  quin  et  mortales  cceteros  omnes 
irrident  I  tali,  contemnunt  et  bai'baros  appellant :  cum  sint  ipsi  tainen  nunc  Hispa- 
nis,  7iunc  Gallis,  nunc  Germanis  prcedce  expositi.  .  .  .  Italia  in  universum  magis 
adhuc  mperstitiosa  gens  quam  pugnat.  Superba  Ro7tia,  gentium  imperio  viduata, 
sedes  facta  summi  pontijicis." 


§  143.     SERVETUS   AS   A   PHYSICIAN.  723 

Hungary  is  commonly  said  to  produce  oxen;  Bavaria,  swine;  Franconia, 
onions,  turnips,  and  licorice;  Swabia,  harlots;  Bohemia,  heretics;  Switzer- 
land, butchers;  Westphalia,  cheats;  and  the  whole  country  gluttons  and 
drunkards.  .  .  .  The  Germans,  however,  are  a  religious  people ;  not  easily 
turned  from  opinions  they  have  once  espoused,  and  not  readily  persuaded  to 
concord  in  matters  of  schism ;  every  one  valiantly  and  obstinately  defending 
the  heresy  he  has  himself  adopted."  i 

This  unfavorable  account  of  Germany,  borrowed  in  part 
from  Tacitus,  was  much  modified  and  abridg-ed  in  the  second 
edition,  in  which  it  appears  as  "a  pleasant  country  with 
a  temperate  climate."  Of  the  Swabians  he  speaks  as  a 
singularly  gifted  people.^  The  fling  at  the  ignorance  and 
superstition  of  the  Spaniards,  his  own  countrymen,  was  also 
omitted. 

The  most  interesting  part  of  this  geographical  work  on 
account  of  its  theological  bearing,  is  the  description  of  Pales- 
tine. He  declared  in  the  first  edition  that  "it  is  mere  boast- 
ing and  untruth  when  so  much  of  excellence  is  ascribed 
to  this  land ;  the  experience  of  merchants  and  travellers  who 
have  visited  it,  proving  it  to  be  inhospitable,  barren,  and 
altogether  without  amenity.  Wherefore  you  may  say  that 
the  land  was  promised  indeed,  but  is  of  little  promise  when 
spoken  of  in  everyday  terms."  He  omitted  this  passage  in 
the  second  edition  in  deference  to  Archbishop  Palmier. 
Nevertheless,  it  was  made  a  ground  of  accusation  at  the  trial 
of  Servetus,  for  its  apparent  contradiction  with  the  Mosaic 
account  of  the  land  "  flowing  with  milk  and  honey." 

§  143.    Servetus  as  a  Phi/sician,  Scientist,  and  Astrologer. 

Being  supplied  with  the  necessary  funds,  Servetus  returned 
to  Paris  in  1536  and  took  his  degrees  as  magister  and  doctor 
of  medicine.     He  acquired  great  fame  as  a  ph3\sician. 

1  "  Sunt  eniin  Germani  in  Dei  cultum  propensi,  semel  tomen  Imhutas  opiniones 
non  facile  deserunt,  nee  in  schismate  queiint  ad  concordiam  leduci,  sed  hwresim 
quisque  suam  valide  tuetur." 

2  "  Suabia,  ingenio  singulari  prw.dita,  prmstantissima  Germanice  a  Plutarcho 
dicta." 


724        THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

The  medical  world  was  then  divided  into  two  schools,  - — 
the  Galenists,  who  followed  Hippocrates  and  Galen,  and 
the  Averrhoists,  who  followed  Averrhoes  and  Avicenna. 
Servetus  was  a  pupil  of  Champier,  and  joined  the  Greek 
school,  but  had  an  open  eye  to  the  truth  of  the  Arabians. 

He  published  in  1537  a  learned  treatise  on  Syrups  and 
their  use  in  medicine.  .  It  is  his  most  popular  book,  and 
passed  through  four  editions  in  ten  years .^ 

He  discovered  the  pulmonary  circulation  of  the  blood  or 
the  passage  of  the  blood  from  the  right  to  the  left  chamber 
of  the  heart  through  the  lungs  by  the  pulmonary  artery  and 
vein.  He  published  it,  not  separately,  but  in  his  work  on 
the  Restitution  of  Christianity,  as  a  part  of  his  theological 
speculation  on  the  vital  spirits.  The  discovery  was  burnt 
and  buried  with  this  book ;  but  nearly  a  hundred  years 
later  William  Harvey  (1578-1658),  independently,  made  the 
same  discovery .^ 

Servetus  lectured  in  the  University  on  geography  and 
astrology,  and  gained  much  applause,  but  excited  also  the 
envy  and  ill-will  of  his  colleagues,  whom  he  treated  with 
overbearing  pride  and  contempt. 

He  wrote  an  "  Apologetic  Dissertation  on  Astrology,"  ^ 
and  severely  attacked  the  physicians  as  ignoramuses,  who 
in  return  denounced  him  as  an  impostor  and  wind-bag.     The 

^  Syroporum  universa  Ratio  ad  Galeni  censnram  diligenter  exposita,  etc.  Pari- 
siis  ex  officina  Simonis  Colinaji,  1537  ;  Venetiis,  1545  and  1548,  and  Lugduni, 
1546  and  1547.  Comp.  Willis,  ch.  XI.  Ill  sq. ;  v.  d.  Linde,  pp.  53  sqq.  (with 
the  full  title  on  p.  54). 

2  Restit.  Christ.,  bk.  V.  p.  170.  See  G.  Sigmond,  The  unnoticed  Theories  of 
Servetus,  London,  1826;  Flourens,  Histoire  de  la  d^couverte  de  la  circulation 
du  sanr/,  Paris,  1854;  sec.  ed.  1857;  ToUin,  Die  Entdeckung  des  Blutkreislaufs 
durch  Michael  Servet,  Jena,  1876  (comp.  his  Kritische  Bemerkungen  iiber  Harvey 
und  seine  Vorganger,  1882)  ;  Willis  (who  is  a  doctor  of  medicine),  pp.  210 
sqq. ;  and  v.  d.  Linde,  pp.  123  sqq.  Harvey  probably  never  saw  the  Restitutio, 
and  is  therefore  as  much  entitled  to  the  merit  of  an  original  discovery  as 
Columbus,  who  was  ignorant  of  the  expeditions  of  the  Norsemen  to  North 
America. 

3  Reprinted  in  Berlin,  1880. 


§  144.    SERVETUS   AT    VIENNE.  725 

senate  of  the  University  sided  with  the  physicians,  and  the 
Parliament  of  Paris  forbade  him  to  lecture  on  astrology 
and  to  prophesy  from  the  stars  (1538).i 

He  left  Paris  for  Charlieu,  a  small  town  near  Lyons,  and 
practised  medicine  for  two  or  three  years. 

At  his  thirtieth  year  he  thought  that,  after  the  example 
of  Christ,  he  should  be  rebaptized,  since  his  former  baptism 
was  of  no  value.  He  denied  the  analogy  of  circumcision. 
The  Jews,  he  says,  circumcised  infants,  but  baptized  only 
adults.  This  was  the  practice  of  John  the  Baptist;,  and 
Christ,  who  had  been  circumcised  on  the  eighth  day,  was 
baptized  when  he  entered  the  public  ministry.  The  promise 
is  given  to  believers  only,  and  infants  have  no  faith.  Bap- 
tism is  the  beginning  of  regeneration,  and  the  entrance  into 
the  kingdom  of  heaven.  He  wrote  two  letters  to  Calvin  on 
the  subject,  and  exhorted  him  to  follow  his  example.^ 

His  arrogance  made  him  so  unpopular  that  he  had  to  leave 
Charlieu.-^ 

§  144.    Servetus  at  Vienne.     His  Annotations  to  the  Bible. 

Villeneuve  now  repaired  to  Vienne  in  Dauphin^  and  settled 
down  as  a  physician  under  the  patronage  of  Pierre  Palmier, 
one  of  his  former  hearers  in  Paris,  and  a  patron  of  learning, 
who  had  been  appointed  archbishop  of  that  see.  He  was  pro- 
vided with  lodgings  in  the  archiepiscopal  palace,  and  made 
a  comfortable  living  by  his  medical  practice.  He  spent 
thirteen  years  at  Vienne,  from  1540  to  1553,  which  were 
probably  the  happiest  of  his  fitful  life.  He  conformed  to 
the  Catholic  religion,  and  was  on  good  terms  with  the  higher 

1  V.  d.  Linde,  pp.  65  sqq.  In  this  respect  Servetus  was  behind  Calvin, 
who  boldly  attacked  the  superstition  of  astrology  (see  above,  §  135,  pp.  076 
sqq.);  but,  strange  to  say,  even  in  our  days  the  "  Vox  Stellarum"  is  regularly 
printed  in  England  and  finds  thousands  of  readers.     Willis,  p.  125. 

2  Ep.  XV.  and  XVI.  ad  Calv.,  in  Christianismi  Restitutio,  pp.  613-619. 

3  Bolsec  (p.  18  sq.)  reports  that  Servetus  was  "  constrainct  de  se  partir  de 
Charlieu  pour  les  folies  lesquelles  il  faisoil." 


726         THE   REFORMATION    IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

clergy.  Nobody  suspected  his  heresy,  or  knew  anything  of 
his  connection  with  the  work  on  the  "  Errors  of  the  Trinity." 

He  devoted  his  leisure  to  his  favorite  literary  and  theo- 
logical studies,  and  kej)t  the  publishers  of  Lyons  busy.  We 
have  already  mentioned  the  second  edition  of  his  "  Ptol- 
emy," which  he  dedicated  to  Palmier  with  a  complimentary- 
preface. 

A  year  afterwards  (1542)  he  published  a  new  and  elegant 
edition  of  the  Latin  Bible  of  Santes  Pagnini,  a  learned 
Dominican  monk  and  pupil  of  Savonarola,  but  an  enemy  of 
the  Reformed  religion.^  He  accompanied  it  with  explana- 
tory notes,  aiming  to  give  "the  old  historical  but  hitherto 
neglected  sense  of  the  Scriptures."  He  anticipated  modern 
exegesis  in  substituting  the  typical  for  the  allegorical  method 
and  giving  to  the  Old  Testament  prophecies  an  immediate 
bearing  on  their  times,  and  a  remote  bearing  on  Christ. 
Thus  he  refers  Psalms  IL,  VIH.,  XXH.,  and  CX.  to  David, 
as  the  type  of  Christ.  It  is  not  likely  that  he  learned  this 
method  from  Calvin,  and  it  is  certain  that  Calvin  did  not 
learn  it  from  him.  But  Servetus  goes  further  than  Calvin, 
and  anticipates  the  rationalistic  explanation  of  Deutero- 
Isaiah  by  referring  "  the  servant  of  Jehovah"  to  Cyrus  as  the 
anointed  of  the  Lord.  Rome  put  his  comments  on  the  Index 
(1559).  Calvin  brought  them  up  against  him  at  the  trial, 
and,  without  knowing  that  the  text  of  the  book  was  literally 
taken  from  another  edition  without  acknowledgment,  said 
that  he  dexterously  filched  five  hundred  livres  from  the  pub- 
lisher in  payment  for  the  vain  trifles  and  impious  follies  with 
which  he  had  encumbered  almost  every  page  of  the  book.^ 

1  The  first  edition  of  Pagnini  had  appeared  at  Lyons,  1528.  The  transla- 
tion of  the  Old  Testament  rests  on  a  good  knowledge  of  Hebrew,  and  was 
much  used  by  Protestants,  e.g.  Robert  Olivetan  in  his  French  version. 

2  Willis  (p.  142)  charges  Servetus  with  gross  plagiarism,  since  his  edition 
is  a  literal  reprint  of  the  edition  of  Melchior  Novesianus  of  Cologne,  1541, 
while  he  declared  in  the  preface  that  his  text  was  corrected  in  numberless 
places  by  himself. 


§   145.     COllEESPONDENCE    OF    SERVETUS.  727 

§  145.    Correspondence  of  Servetus  tvith  Calvin  and  Foupin. 

While  engaged  in  the  preparation  of  his  last  work  at 
Vienne,  Servetus  opened  a  correspondence  with  Calvin 
through  Jean  Frellon,  a  learned  publisher  at  Lyons  and 
a  personal  friend  of  both.^  He  sent  him  a  copy  of  his  book 
as  far  as  then  finished,  and  told  him  that  he  would  find  in  it 
" stupendous  things  never  heard  of  before."  ^  He  also  proposed 
to  him  three  questions :  1)  Is  the  man  Jesus  Christ  the  Son 
of  God,  and  how  ?  2)  Is  the  kingdom  of  God  in  man,  when 
does  man  enter  into  it,  and  when  is  he  born  again?  3)  Must 
Christian  baptism  presuppose  faith,  like  the  Lord's  Supper, 
and  to  what  end  are  both  sacraments  instituted  in  the  New 
Testament  ?  ^ 

Calvin  seems  to  have  had  no  time  to  read  the  whole  manu- 
script, but  courteously  answered  the  questions  to  the  effect, 
1)  that  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God  both  according  to  his  divine 
nature  eternally  begotten,  and  according  to  his  human  nature 
as  the  Wisdom  of  God  made  flesh ;  2)  that  the  kingdom  of 
God  begins  in  man  when  he  is  born  again,  but  that  the 
process  of  regeneration  is  not  completed  in  a  moment,  but 
goes  on  till  death;  3)  that  faith  is  necessary  for  baptism, 
but  not  in  the  same  personal  way  as  in  the  Lord's  Supper; 
for  according  to  the  type  of  circumcision  the  promise  was 
given  also  to  the  children  of  the  faithful.  Baptism  and  the 
Lord's  Supper  are  related  to  each  other  as  circumcision  and 
the  passover.  He  referred  to  his  books  for  details,  but 
was  ready  to  give  further  explanation  if  desired.* 

1  Frellon  employed  Servetus  as  an  editor  and  translator,  and  was  proba- 
bly a  Protestant,  as  we  may  infer  from  his  friendly  relation  to  Calvin.  But 
Henry  (III.  129)  supposes  that  he  was  a  Catholic.  Henry  (III.  129)  thinks 
that  the  correspondence  began  as  early  as  1540. 

2  See  the  letter  of  Calvin  to  Farel,  quoted  on  p.  692. 

*  Calvin  gives  the  questions  and  answers  in  his  Refulatio  Errorum  Mich. 
Serveti,  Opera,  VIII.  482-484.     Servetus  omits  them  in  the  Restitutio. 

*  "  Sed  quia  mihi  videor  omnibus  objectis  alibi  satis/ecisse,  fnsiorem  erplica- 
tionem  inde  peti  melim.  Si  quid  deest,  paratus  sum  adjicere,  sifuero  admonitus." 
Opera,  VIII.  484. 


12S        THE  REFORMATION  IN  FRENCH  SWITZERLAND. 

Servetus  was  by  no  means  satisfied  with  the  answer,  and 
wrote  back  that  Calvin  made  two  or  three  Sons  of  God ;  that 
the  Wisdom  of  God  spoken  of  by  Solomon  was  allegorical  and 
impersonal ;  that  regeneration  took  place  in  the  moment  of 
baptism  by  water  and  the  spirit,  but  never  in  infant  baptism. 
He  denied  that  circumcision  corresponded  to  baptism.  He 
put  five  new  theological  questions  to  Calvin,  and  asked  him 
to  read  the  fourth  chapter  on  baptism  in  the  manuscript  of 
the  Restitutio  which  he  had  sent  him.^ 

To  these  objections  Calvin  sent  another  and  more  lengthy 
response.^  He  again  offered  further  explanation,  though  he 
had  no  time  to  write  whole  books  for  him,  and  had  discussed 
all  these  topics  in  his  Institutes.^ 

So  far  there  is  nothing  to  indicate  any  disposition  in 
Calvin  to  injure  Servetus.  On  the  contrary  we  must  admire 
his  patience  and  moderation  in  giving  so  much  of  his  precious 
time  to  the  questions  of  a  troublesome  stranger  and  pro- 
nounced opponent.  Servetus  continued  to  press  Calvin  \vith 
letters,  and  returned  the  copy  of  the  Institutes  with  copious 
critical  objections.  "  There  is  hardly  a  page,"  says  Calvin, 
"  that  is  not  defiled  by  his  vomit."  ^ 

1  "  Roqo  te  per  Deum,  postquam  poUicitus  es  te  paratum  reliqua  adjicere,  si 
fueris  admonitus,  doce  me  prima  quce  est  vera  fides,  et  qualiter  ilia  a  spiritu  regene- 
rationis  vivificetur.  Secundo,  an  sine  promissione  possit  qiiis  justificari.  Tertio, 
qualis  sit  internits  homo,  non  ex  sanguinihus  genitus,  sed  ex  Deo.  Quarto,  quis  est 
homo  ille  qui  a  C/iristo  alitur  in  ccena,  an  vere,  an  imaginarie.  Quinto,  quae  sit 
gratia  adventus  Christi.  Annon  eousque  regnavit  tnors  ?  annon  patres  omnes 
fuerunt  antea  in  inferno?  Demum  te  pi-ecor,  ne  graveris  iterum  legere  quartum 
librum  de  Baptismo  [in  the  printed  Restitutio  it  is  entitled  De  Regeneratione 
superna,  et  de  regno  Antichristi,  pp.  355-576].  Nam  videris  eum  nondum  legisse. 
Deus  misereatur  nostri.     Amen."     Opera,  VIII.  486. 

2  VIII.  487-495. 

^  "  Quod  me  rogas  tihi  de  aliis  quoque  capitibus  respondeam,  id  facerem,  si 
possem  breviter.  Neque  enim  satis  divino  quid  proprie  desideres.  Magis  autem 
sum  occupatus  quam  ut  tibi  uni  vacet  libi-os  integros  scribere.  Delude  nihil  quceris 
quod  non  reperias  in  mea  Institutione,  si  illinc  petere  libeat.  Quanquam  labori  non 
parcerem,  si  mihi  notus  esset  scopus  quo  tendis."     P.  494. 

*  "  Quoscunque  ineos  libros  nancisci  potuit,  non  destitit  insulsis  conviciis  farcire, 
ut  nullam  paginam  a  suo  vomitu  puram  relinqueref."  P.  481.  Comp.  the  French 
in  the  fifth  footnote. 


§  145.  CORRESPONDENCE  OF  SERVETUS.       729 

Calvin  sent  a  final  answer  to  the  questions  of  Servetiis, 
which  is  lost,  together  with  a  French  letter  to  Frellon,  which 
is  preserved.!.  This  letter  is  dated  Feb.  13,  1546,  under  his 
well-known  pseudonym  of  Charles  Despeville,  and  is  as 
follows :  — 

"  Seigneur  Jehan,  As  your  last  letter  was  brought  to  me  on  my  departure, 
I  had  no  leisure  to  reply  to  the  enclosure  it  contained.  After  my  return 
I  use  the  first  moment  of  my  leisure  to  comply  with  your  desire;  not  indeed 
that  I  have  any  great  hope  of  proving  serviceable  to  such  a  man,  seeing  him 
disposed  as  I  do.  But  I  will  try  once  more,  if  there  be  any  means  left  of 
bringing  him  to  reason,  and  this  will  happen  when  God  shall  have  so  wrougiit 
in  him  that  he  has  become  altogether  another  man.  Since  he  has  written  to 
me  in  so  proud  a  spirit,  I  have  been  led  to  write  to  him  more  sharply  than 
is  my  wont,  being  minded  to  take  liim  down  a  little  in  his  presumption.- 
But  I  could  not  do  otherwise.  For  I  assure  you  there  is  no  lesson  he  needs 
so  much  to  learn  as  humility.  Tiiis  must  come  to  him  through  the  grace  of 
God,  not  otherwise.  But  we,  too,  ought  to  lend  a  helping  hand.  If  God  give 
such  grace  to  him  and  to  us  that  the  present  answer  will  turn  to  his  profit, 
I  shall  have  cause  to  rejoice.  If  he  persists,  however,  in  the  style  he  has 
hitherto  seen  fit  to  use,  you  will  only  lose  your  time  in  soliciting  me  further 
in  his  behalf ;  for  I  have  other  affairs  that  concern  me  more  nearly,  and 
I  shall  make  it  a  matter  of  conscience  not  to  busy  myself  further,  not  doubt- 
ing that  he  is  a  Satan  who  would  divert  me  from  more  profitable  studies. 
Let  me  beg  of  you,  therefore,  to  be  content  with  what  I  have  already  done, 
unless  you  see  occasion  for  acting  differently." 

Frellon  sent  this  letter  to  Villeneuve  by  a  special  messen- 
ger, together  with  a  note  in  which  he  addresses  him  as  his 
"dear  brother  and  friend."^ 

On  the  same  day  Calvin  wrote  the  famous  letter  to  Farel 
already  quoted.     He  had  arrived  at  the  settled  conviction 

1  Calvin's  letter  to  Jean  Frellon  and  Frellon's  letter  to  Servetus,  both  in 
French,  found  their  way  into  the  judicial  archives  of  the  archbishop  of 
Vienne,  and  were  first  published  by  the  Abbe'  d'Artigny,  Paris,  1749  (in  Nou- 
veaux  Me'moires  (Vhi^toire,  tom.  II.  70),  and  independently  from  a  copy  of  the 
original,  by  Mosheim,  Helmstadt,  1750  (in  his  Nem  Nnchrichten  von  Mich. 
Serveto,  pp.  89,00).  They  are  reprinted  in  Henry,  III.  132,  and  in  Calvin's 
Opera,  VIII.  83?>  sq. 

2  "Je  Ihij  a;i  blen  imdu  rahhatre  un  petit  de  son  orgneil,  parlant  a  lit;/  plus  dnre- 
ment  que  ma  coustume  ne  parte" 

3  On  the  envelope  is  written:  "A  mon  bon  frere  et  amy  maistre  Michel 
Villanovanus  Docteur  en  Medicine  soi/l  donne'e  resfe  presents  a  Vienne." 


730         THE    KEFOKMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

that  Servetus  was  an  incorrigible  and  dangerous  heretic,  who 
deserved  to  die.^  But  he  did  nothing  to  induce  him  to  come 
to  Geneva,  as  he  wished,  and  left  him  severely  alone.  In 
1548  he  wrote  to  Viret  that  he  would  have  nothing  more 
to  do  with  this  desperately  obstinate  heretic,  who  shall  force 
no  more  letters  from  him.^ 

Servetus  continued  to  trouble  Cahdn,  and  j)ublished  in  his 
Restitutio  no  less  than  thirty  letters  to  him,  but  without 
dates  and  without  replies  from  Calvin.'^  They  are  conceived 
in  a  haughty  and  self-sufificient  spirit.  He  writes  to  the 
greatest  divine  of  the  age,  not  as  a  learner,  or  even  an  equal, 
but  as  a  superior.  In  the  first  of  these  printed  letters  he 
charges  Calvin  with  holding  absurd,  confused,  and  contra- 
dictory opinions  on  the  sonship  of  Christ,  on  the  Logos,  and 
on  the  Trinity.  In  the  second  letter  he  tells  him :  "  You 
make  three  Sons  of  God :  the  human  nature  is  a  son  to  you, 
the  divine  nature  is  a  son,  and  the  whole  Christ  is  a  son.  .  .  . 
All  such  tritheistic  notions  are  a  three-headed  illusion  of 
the  Dragon,  which  easily  crept  in  among  the  sophists  in  the 
present  reign  of  Antichrist.  Or  have  you  not  read  of  the 
spirit  of  the  dragon,  the  spirit  of  the  beast,  the  spirit  of 
the  false  prophets,  three  spirits?  Those  who  acknowledge 
the  trinity  of  the  beast  are  possessed  by  tlu^ee  spirits  of 
demons.     These  thi-ee  spirits  incite  war  against  the  immacu- 


^  See  p.  692.  Bolsec  speaks  of  a  similar  letter  to  Viret,  from  which  he 
quotes  this  passage  :  "  Servetus  cupit  hue  venire,  sed  a  me  accessitus.  Ego  autem 
nunquam  commitlam,  ut  fidem  meam  eotenus  ohstrictam  habeat.  lam  enim  constitu- 
tum  habeo,  si  veniat,  nunquam  pati,  ut  salvus  exeat."  But  no  such  letter  has 
been  found.  Perhaps  it  was  the  same  as  the  letter  to  Farel,  which  may  have 
been  sent  first  to  Viret,  as  Farel  was  at  that  time  in  Metz  (Henry,  III.  133). 
Bolsec  asserts  also  (p.  21)  that  Calvin  informed  the  Cardinal  de  Tournon  of 
the  heresy  of  Servetus,  but  that  the  Cardinal  laughed  at  the  idea  of  one 
heretic  accusing  another. 

2  "A  me  nihil posthac  extorquebit."     See  Henry,  II.  460;  III.  1.34. 

3  Restit.  pp.  577-664 ;  reprinted  in  Calvin's*  Opera,  VIIT.  645-714,  from 
Chr.  Theoph.  de  Murr's  ed.,  with  marginal  variations  of  the  Paris  copy.  The 
manuscripts  are  not  extant. 


§  145.  CORRESPONDENCE  OF  SEKVETUS.       731 

late  Laiiib,  Jesvis  Cluist  (Apoc.  16).  False  are  all  the  invis- 
ible gods  of  the  Trinitarians,  as  false  as  the  gods  of  the 
Babylonians.  Farewell."  ^  He  begins  the  third  letter  with 
the  oft-repeated  warning  (^scejnus  te  monui)  not  to  admit  that 
impossible  monster  of  three  things  in  God.  In  another  letter 
he  calls  him  a  reprobate  and  blasphemer  (improhus  et  hlan- 
phemuH)  for  calumniating  good  works.  He  charges  him 
with  ignorance  of  the  true  nature  of  faith,  justification, 
regeneration,  baptism,  and  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

These  are  fair  specimens  of  the  arrogant,  irritating,  and  even 
insulting  tone  of  his  letters.  At  last  Servetus  himself  broke 
off  his  correspondence  with  Calvin,  who,  it  seems,  had  long 
ceased  to  answer  them,  but  he  now  addressed  his  colleagues. 
He  wrote  three  letters  to  Abel  Poupin,  who  was  minister  at 
Geneva  from  1543  to  1556,  when  he  died.  The  last  is  pre- 
served, and  was  used  in  evidence  at  the  trial.^  It  is  not 
dated,  but  must  have  been  written  in  1548  or  later.  Servetus 
charges  the  Reformed  Christians  of  Geneva  that  they  had 
a  gosj)el  without  a  God,  without  true  faith,  without  good 
works ;  and  that  instead  of  the  true  God  they  worshipped 
a  three-headed  Cerberus.  "  Your  faith  in  Christ,"  he  con- 
tinues, "  is  a  mere  pretence  and  without  effect ;  your  man 
is  an  inert  trunk,  and  your  God  a  fabulous  monster  of 
the  enslaved  will.     You  reject  baptismal  regeneration  and 


1  "  Draconis  fiiit  kcec  triceps  tUusio,  qua  in  sophistas  facile  irrepsit,  instante 
regno  Antichristi.  An  non  legisti  ibi  spiritum  draconis,  spiritum  bestice,  et  spiritum 
pseudoprophetce  tres  spiritus?  Tres  sunt  vere  doiinoniorum  spiritus,  a  quibus  occu- 
pati  tenentur,  qui  bestice  trinitatem  agnoscimt.  Orbem  hi  tres  spiritus  concitant  contra 
agnum  immaculatum  lesum  Christum,  Jilium  Dei,  apo.  16.  Falsi  ergo  sunt  trinita- 
riorum  invisibiles  dii,  adeo  falsi,  sicut  dii  Babyloniorum  :  cum  prcesertim  dii  illi 
in  Babylone  colantur.      Vale."     Restil.  pp.  580,  581. 

2  It  was  not  signed,  but  written  very  legibly  by  his  own  hand,  and  was 
acknowledged  as  his.  Henry  gives  a  facsimile  of  it  at  the  end  of  his  third 
volume,  from  the  archives  of  Geneva.  It  is  reprinted  in  Opera,  VIII.  750  sq. 
"  Every  line  of  this  letter,"  as  Dyer  (p.  309)  well  says,  "  betrays  the  heated 
and  fanatical  imagination  of  the  writer,  and  his  hatred  of  Calvin  and  the 
Genevese  Church." 


732         THE   REFORMATION   IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

shut  the  kingdom  of  heaven  against  men.     Woe  unto  you, 
woe,  woe  ! "  ^ 

He  concludes  this  remarkable  letter  with  the  prediction 
that  he  would  die  for  this  cause  and  become  like  unto  his 
Master.2 

§  146.    "  The  Restitution  of  Christianity ^ 

During  his  sojourn  at  Vienne,  Servetus  prepared  his  chief 
theological  work  under  the  title,  "  The  Restitution  of  Christi- 
anity." He  must  have  finished  the  greater  part  of  it  in  manu- 
script as  early  as  1546,  seven  years  before  its  publication  in 
print;  for  in  that  year,  as  we  have  seen,  he  sent  a  copy  to 
Calvin,  which  he  tried  to  get  back  to  make  some  corrections, 
but  Calvin  had  sent  it  to  Viret  at  Lausanne,  where  it  was 
detained.  It  was  afterwards  used  at  the  trial  and  ordered 
by  the  Council  of  Geneva  to  be  burnt  at  the  stake,  together 
with  the  printed  volume.^ 

^  "  Evangelium  vestrmn  est  sine  uno  Deo,  sine  fide  vera,  sine  bonis  operibus. 
Pro  uno  Deo  habetis  tricipitem  cerberum,  pro  fide  vera  habetis  fatale  somnium,  et 
opera  bona  dicitis  esse  inanes  picturas.  Christi  fides  est  vobis  merus  fucus,  nihil 
efficiens ;  homo  est  vobis  iners  truncus,  et  Deus  est  vobis  servi  arbitrii  chimcera. 
Regenerationem  ex  aqua  coelestem  non  agnoscitis,  sed  velut  fabulam  habetis,  Regnum 
coelorum  clauditis  ante  homines,  ut  rem  imaginariam  a  riobis  excludendo.  Vce 
vobis,  vce,  vce  !  " 

^  "  Mihi  ob  earn  rem  moriendum  esse  certo  scio,  sed  non  propterea  animo  deficior, 
ut  fiam  discipulus  similis  proiceptori.  Hoc  doleo,  quod  per  vos  non  licuit  mihi 
emendare  locos  aliquot  in  scriptis  meis,  quce  sunt  apud  Calvinum.  Vale,  et  a  me 
non  amplius  literas  exspecta.  Super  custodiam  meam  stabo,  contemplabor,  et 
videbo  quid  sit  dicturus.     Nam  veniet,  certe  veniet,  et  non  tardabit." 

3  He  declared  at  the  trial  in  Geneva,  Aug.  17,  1553,  that  he  sent  a  copy 
to  Calvin  about  six  years  before,' in  order  to  get  his  judgment  ("  il  y  a  environ 
six  ans,  pour  en  avoir  son  jugement").  Opera,  VIII.  734.  Calvin  informed 
Farel,  Feb.  13,  1546,  that  Servetus  had  sent  him  a  large  volume  of  ravings, 
which  must  be  the  Restitutio. 

Baron  F.  de  Schickler,  President  of  the  "  Socie'te'  de  I'Histoire  du  Protes- 
tantism fran^ais,"  informs  me  (June  3,  1892)  that  the  library  of  this  society 
(52  rue  des  Saint  Peres,  Paris)  possesses  a  manuscript  copy  of  the  Restitutio, 
which  was  made  with  great  accuracy,  as  he  thinks,  in  1613,  from  a  copy  that 
existed  at  that  time  in  the  library  of  Cassel.  But  it  seems  that  it  was  tran- 
scribed from  a  printed  copy,  for  on  the  first  page  of  the  MS.  is  written : 
"  Hie  liber  erat  in  octavo  (ui  loquuntur)  impressus,  et  paginas  continebat  734  [the 


§  146.     "THE   RESTITUTION   OF   CHRISTIANITY."        733 

The  proud  title  indicates  the  pretentious  and  radical  char- 
acter of  the  book.  It  was  chosen,  probably,  with  reference  to 
Calvin's  "  Institution  of  the  Christian  Religion."  In  opposi- 
tion to  the  great  Reformer  he  claimed  to  be  a  Restorer.  The 
Hebrew  motto  on  the  title-page  was  taken  from  Dan.  12:1: 
"  And  at  that  time  shall  Michael  stand  up,  the  great  prince  " ; 
the  Greek  motto  from  Rev.  12:7:  "And  there  was  war  in 
heaven,"  which  is  followed  by  the  words,  "Michael  and 
his  angels  going  forth  to  war  with  the  dragon;  and  the 
dragon  warred,  and  his  angels;  and  they  prevailed  not, 
neither  was  their  place  found  any  more  in  heaven.  And  the 
great  dragon  was  cast  down,  the  old  serpent,  he  that  is 
called  the  Devil  and  Satan,  the  deceiver  of  the  whole  world." 

The  identity  of  the  Christian  name  of  the  author  with  the 
name  of  the  archangel  is  significant.  Servetus  fancied  that 
the  great  battle  with  Antichrist  was  near  at  hand  or  had 
already  begun,  and  that  he  was  one  of  Michael's  warriors, 
if  not  Michael  himself  .^ 

His  "  Restitution  of  Christianity  "  was  a  manifesto  of  war. 
The  woman  in  the  twelfth  chapter  of  Revelation  he  under- 
stood to  be  the  true  Church;  her  child,  whom  God  saves, 
is  the  Christian  faith ;  the  great  red  dragon  with  seven  heads 
and  horns  is  the  pope  of  Rome,  the  Antichrist  predicted  by 
Daniel,  Paul,  and  John.  At  the  time  of  Constantino  and 
the  Council  of  Nicsea,  which  divided  the  one  God  into  three 
parts,  the  dragon  began  to  drive  the  true  Church  into  the 
wilderness,  and  retained  his  power  for  twelve  hundred  and 
sixty  prophetic  days  or  years ;  but  now  his  reign  is  approach- 
ing to  a  close. 

number  of  tlie  printed  pages].  Pertinebat  ad  Mauricii  ilhistratissimi  HessicB 
principis  ac  Dom.  bibliothecam  qua-.  Cisellis  est,  urbe  illius  reaionis  metropoli  et 
principis  sede." 

1  In  the  first  Dialogue  on  the  Trinity  between  Peter  and  Michael,  Peter 
says:  "En  adest,  Servetus  est,  quern  er/o  qucrrebam."  Reslit.  p.  100.  This  is  a 
direct  assertion  of  his  authorship  which  he  concealed  on  the  title-page,  and 
only  intimated  on  the  last  page  by  the  initials  "  M.  S.  V." 


734         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

He  was  fully  conscious  of  a  divine  mission  to  overthrow 
the  tyranny  of  the  papal  and  Protestant  Antichrist,  and  to 
restore  Christianity  to  its  primitive  purity.  "  The  task  we 
have  undertaken,"  he  says  in  the  preface,  "is  sublime  in 
majesty,  easy  in  perspicuity,  and  certain  in  demonstration ; 
for  it  is  no  less  than  to  make  God  known  in  his  substantial 
manifestation  by  the  Word  and  his  divine  communication 
by  the  Spirit,  both  comprised  in  Christ  alone,  through  whom 
alone  do  we  plainly  discern  how  the  deity  of  the  Word  and 
the  Spirit  may  be  apprehended  in  man.  .  .  .  We  shall  now 
see  God,  unseen  before,  with  his  face  revealed,  and  behold 
him  shining  in  ourselves,  if  we  open  the  door  and  enter  in. 
It  is  high  time  to  open  this  door  and  this  way  of  the  light, 
without  which  no  one  can  read  the  sacred  Scriptures,  or 
know  God,  or  become  a  Christian."  Then  he  gives  a  brief 
summary  of  topics,  and  closes  the  preface  with  this  prayer :  — 

"  O  Christ  Jesus,  Son  of  God,  who  hast  been  given  to  us  from  heaven,  who 
in  thyself  makest  the  Deity  visibly  manifest,  open  thyself  to  thy  servant  that 
so  great  a  manifestation  may  be  truly  understood.  Grant  unto  me  now,  who 
entreats  tliee,  thy  good  Spirit,  and  the  efficacious  word ;  direct  my  mind  and 
my  pen  that  I  may  declare  the  glory  of  thy  divinity  and  give  expression  to 
the  true  faith  concerning  thee.  The  cause  is  thine,  and  it  is  by  a  certain 
divine  impulse  that  I  am  led  to  treat  of  thy  glory  from  the  Father,  and  the 
glory  of  tliy  Spirit.  I  once  began  to  treat  of  it,  and  now  I  am  constrained  to 
do  so  again;  for  the  time  is,  in  truth,  completed,  as  I  shall  now  show  to  all 
the  pious,  from  the  certainty  of  the  thing  itself  and  from  the  manifest  signs 
of  the  times.  Thou  hast  taught  us  that  a  lamp  must  not  be  hidden.  Woe 
unto  me  if  I  do  not  preach  the  gospel.  It  concerns  the  common  cause  of  all 
Christians,  to  which  we  are  all  bound." 

He  forwarded  the  manuscript  to  a  publisher  in  Basel, 
Marrinus,  who  declined  it  in  a  letter,  dated  April  9,  1552, 
because  it  could  not  be  safely  published  in  that  city  at 
that  time.  He  then  made  an  arrangement  with  Balthasar 
Arnoullet,  bookseller  and  publisher  at  Vienne,  and  Guillaume 
Gu^roult,  his  brother-in-law  and  manager  of  his  printing 
establishment,  who  had  run  away  from  Geneva  for  bad 
conduct.     He  assured  them  that  there  were  no  errors  in  the 


§  146.     "THE   KESTITUTIOX    OF    CHRISTIANITY."         735 

book,  and  that,  on  the  contrary,  it  was  directed  against  the 
doctrines  of  Luther,  Calvin,  Melanchthon,  and  other  heretics. 
He  agreed  to  withhold  his  and  their  names  and  the  name  of 
the  place  of  publication  from  the  title-page.  He  assumed 
the  whole  of  the  expense  of  publication,  and  paid  them  in 
advance  the  sum  of  one  hundred  gold  dollars.  No  one 
in  France  knew  at  that  time  that  his  real  name  was  Serve- 
tus,  and  that  he  was  the  author  of  the  work,  "  On  the  Errors 
of  the  Trinity." 

The  "  Restitution  "  was  secretly  printed  in  a  small  house, 
away  from  the  known  establishment,  within  three  or  four 
months,  and  finished  on  the  third  of  January,  1553.  He 
corrected  the  proofs  himself,  but  there  are  several  typograph- 
ical errors  in  it.  The  whole  impression  of  one  thousand 
copies  was  made  up  into  bales  of  one  hundred  copies  each ; 
five  bales  were  sent  as  white  paper  to  Pierre  Martin,  type- 
founder of  Lyons,  to  be  forwarded  by  sea  to  Genoa  and 
Venice  ;  another  lot  to  Jacob  Bestet,  bookseller  at  Chatillon  ; 
and  a  third  to  Frankfort.  Calvin  obtained  one  or  more 
copies,  probably  from  his  friend  Frellon  of  Lyons. ^ 

The  first  part  of  the  "  Restitution "  is  a  revised  and  en- 
larged edition  of  the  seven  books  "  On  the  Errors  of  the 
Trinity."  The  seven  books  are  condensed  into  five ;  and 
these  are  followed  by  two  dialogues  on  the  Trinity  between 
Michael  and  Peter,  Avhich  take  the  place  of  the  sixth  and 
seventh  books  of  the  older  work.  The  other  part  of  the 
"  Restitution,"  which  covers  nearly  two-thirds  of  the  volume 
(pp.  287-734),  is  new,  and  embraces  three  books  on  Faith 
and  the  Righteousness  of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  (287-354), 
four  books  on  Regeneration  and  the  Reign  of  Antichrist 
(355-576),  thirty  letters  to  Calvin  (577-664),  Sixty  Signs 
of  Antichrist  (664-670),  and  the  Apology  to  Melanchthon 
on  the  Mystery  of  the  Trinity  and  on  Ancient  Discipline 

1  These  facts  came  out  at  the  trial  of  Vienne.  On  the  few  rcmainiug 
copies  of  the  original  edition  of  the  Restitutio  see  above,  §  136,  p.  682. 


736         THE   EEFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

(671-734).  Calvin  and  Melanchthon  are  the  two  surviving 
Reformers  whom  he  confronts  as  the  representatives  of 
orthodox  Protestantism.^ 

§  147.    The  Theological  System  of  Servetus. 

Calvin,  in    his    Refutatio   Errorum   Mich.    Served,   Opera,  vol.  VIII.  501-644, 
presents  the  doctrines  of  Servetus  from  his  writings,  in  thirty-eight  arti- 
cles, the  response  of  Servetus,  the  refutation  of  the  response,  and  then 
a  full  examination  of  his  whole  system.  —  H.  Tollin  :    Das  Lehrsystem 
Michael  Servefs  genetisch   dargestellt.     Giitersloh,  1878,  3  vols.  8°.     The 
most  complete  exposition  of  the  theological  opinions  of  Servetus. 
Calvin  and   Tollin  represent  two  opposite  extremes  in  the  doctrinal  and 
personal  estimate  of  Servetus :  Calvin  is  wholly  polemical,  and  sees  in  the 
Restitutio  a  volume  of  ravings  ("  volumen  delirioruni  ")  and  a  chaos  of  blas- 
phemies (^" prodigiosuni  blasphemiarum  chaos")  ;    Tollin  is  wholly  apologetical 
and  eulogistic,  and  admires  it  as  an  anticipation  of  reverent,  Christocentric 
theology ;  neither  of  them  is  strictly  historical. 

Trechsel's  account  (I.  119-144)  is  short,  but  impartial.  —  Baur,  in  his 
"  History  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity  and  the  Incarnation"  (Tubingen, 
1843,  3  vols.)  devotes,  with  his  usual  critical  grasp  and  speculative 
insight,  fifty  pages  to  Servet's  views  on  God  and  Christ  (1.54-103). — 
DoRNER,  in  his  great  "  History  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Person  of  Christ" 
(Berlin,  1853),  discusses  his  Christology  profoundly,  but  rather  briefly 
(II.  649-656).  Both  recognize  the  force  of  his  arguments  against  the 
dyophysitism  of  the  Chalcedonian  Christology,  and  compare  his  Chris- 
tology with  that  of  Apollinaris. 

Before  we  proceed  to  the  heresy  trial,  we  must  give  a 
connected  statement  of  the  opinions  of  Servetus  as  expressed 
in  his  last  and  most  elaborate  work. 

To  his  contemporaries  the  Restitutio  appeared  to  be  a 
confused  compound  of  Sabellian,  Samosatenic,  Arian,  ApoUi- 
narian,  and  Pelagian  heresies,  mixed  with  Anabaptist  errors 
and  Neo-platonic,  pantheistic  speculations.  The  best  judges 
—  Calvin,  Saisset,  Trechsel,  Baur,  Dorner,  Harnack  —  find 
the  root  of  his  system  in  pantheism.  Tollin  denies  his  pan- 
theism, although  he  admits  the  pantheistic  coloring  of  some 
of  his  expressions ;  he  distinguishes  no  less  than  five  phases 

'  Zwingli,  CEcolampadius,  Capito,  Luther,  and  Bucer  had  died  (in  this 
order)  before  1552. 


§  147.     THE   THEOLOGICAL   SYSTE.M   OF   SERVETUS.      737 

in  his  theology  before  it  came  to  its  full  maturity,  and 
characterizes  it  as  an  "intensive,  extensive,  and  protensive 
Panchristism,  or  'Christocentricism.'  "  ^ 

Servetus  was  a  mystic  theosophist  and  Christopantheist. 
Far  from  being  a  sceptic  or  ra.tionalist,  he  had  very  strong, 
positive  convictions  of  the  absolute  truth  of  the  Christian 
religion.  He  regarded  the  Bible  as  an  infallible  source  of 
truth,  and  accepted  the  traditional  canon  without  dispute. 
So  far  he  agreed  with  evangelical  Protestantism;  but  he 
differed  from  it,  as  well  as  from  Romanism,  in  principle  and 
aim.  He  claimed  to  stand  above  both  parties  as  the  restorer 
of  primitive  Christianity,  which  excludes  the  errors  and 
combines  the  truths  of  the  Catholic  and  Protestant  creeds. 

The  evangelical  Reformation,  inspired  by  the  teaching  of 
St.  Paul  and  Augustin,  was  primarily  a  practical  movement, 
and  proceeded  from  a  deep  sense  of  sin  and  grace  in  opposi- 
tion to  prevailing  Pelagianism,  and  pointed  the  people 
directly  to  Christ  as  the  sole  and  sufficient  fountain  of 
pardon  and  peace  to  the  troubled  conscience ;  but  it  retained 
all  the  articles  of  the  Apostles'  Creed,  and  especially  the 
doctrines  of  the  Trinity  and  Incarnation.  It  should  be 
noticed,  however,  that  Melanchthon,  in  the  first  edition  of 
his  Loci  (1521),  omitted  these  mysteries  as  objects  of  adora- 
tion rather  than  of  speculation,^  and  that  Calvin,  in  the  con- 
troversy with  Caroli,  spoke  lightly  of  the  Nicene  and 
Athanasian  terminology,  which  was  derived  from  Greek 
philosophy  rather  than  from  the  Bible. 

1  He  calls  it  "  Christocentrik,"  III.  Preface,  xiii.  "  Was  den  Servet  zum 
Servet  machte,"  he  says,  "ist  seine  Lehre  von  Chrislo."  Comp.  II.  151-159. 
He  assumes  that  Servetus  composed  the  seven  books  on  the  "  Errors  of  the 
Trinity  "  at  different  times :  books  I.  and  II.  at  Toulouse  in  1528,  while  yet 
a  student  of  seventeen  (!)  ;  books  III.  and  IV.  at  Basel  in  1531;  the  last 
three  books  at  Strassburg;  and  that  the  two  Dialogues  on  the  Trinity  repre- 
sent the  fourth,  and  the  "  Restitution  "  the  fifth,  phase  of  his  theology. 

2  In  the  editions  after  1543  he  discussed  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  and 
of  the  person  of  Christ  and  opposed  Servetus.  See  Baur,  III.  19  sqq.,  and 
Dorner,  II.  613  sqq. 


738         THE   REFORMATION   IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Servetus,  with  the  Bible  as  his  guide,  aimed  at  a  more 
radical  revolution  than  the  Reformers.  He  started  with  a 
new  doctrine  of  God  and  of  Christ,  and  undermined  the  very 
foundations  of  the  Catholic  creed.  The  three  most  promi- 
nent negative  features  of  his  system  are  three  denials :  the 
denial  of  the  orthodox  dogma  of  the  Trinity,  as  set  forth  in 
the  Nicene  Creed ;  the  denial  of  the  orthodox  Christology, 
as  determined  by  the  Oecumenical  Council  of  Chalcedon ; 
and  the  denial  of  infant  baptism,  as  practised  everywhere  ex- 
cept by  the  Anabaptists.  From  these  three  sources  he  derived 
all  the  evils  and  corruptions  of  the  Church.  The  first  two 
denials  were  the  basis  of  the  theoretical  revolution,  the  third 
was  the  basis  of  the  practical  revolution  which  he  felt  himself 
providentially  called  to  effect  by  his  anonymous  book. 

Those  three  negations  in  connection  with  what  appeared 
to  be  shocking  blasphemy,  though  not  intended  as  such, 
made  him  an  object  of  horror  to  all  orthodox  Christians  of 
his  age,  Protestants  as  well  as  Roman  Catholic,  and  led 
to  his  double  condemnation,  first  at  Vienne,  and  then  at 
Geneva.  So  far  he  was  perfectly  understood  by  his  contem- 
poraries, especially  by  Calvin  and  Melanchthon.  But  the 
positive  features,  which  he  substituted  for  the  Nicene  and 
Chalcedonian  orthodoxy,  were  not  appreciated  in  their  origi- 
nality, and  seemed  to  be  simply  a  repetition  of  old  and  long- 
condemned  heresies. 

There  were  Antitrinitarians  before  Servetus,  not  only  in 
the  ante-Nicene  age,  but  also  in  the  sixteenth  century,  espe- 
cially among  the  Anabaptists  —  such  as  Hetzer,  Denck, 
Campanus,  Melchior  Hoffmann,  Reed,  Martini,  David  Joris.^ 
But  he  gathered  their  sporadic  ideas  into  a  coherent  original 
system,  and  gave  them  a  speculative  foundation.^ 

1  For  an  account  of  their  opinions  see  Trechsel,  I.  13-55,  and  the  great 
works  of  Baur  and  Dorner,  above  quoted. 

2  Baur  (I.e.,  III.  54)  says:  "Die  in  den  genannten  Irdehrern  oder  Schwarm- 
(jeistern,  wie  Luther  sie  treffend  nannte,  gleich  Feuerfunken  nusgestreuten  und  bald 


§  147.     THE   THEOLOGICAL   SYSTEM   OF   SERVETUS.     739 

1.   Christology. 

Servetus  begins  the  "  Restitution,"  as  well  as  his  first  book 
against  the  Trinity,  with  the  doctrine  of  Christ.  He  rises 
from  the  humanity  of  the  historical  Jesus  of  Nazareth  to 
his  Messiahship  and  Divine  Soulship,  and  from  this  to  his 
divinity.^  This  is,  we  may  say,  the  view  of  the  Synoptical 
Gospels,  as  distinct  from  the  usual  orthodox  method  which, 
with  the  Prologue  of  the  fourth  Gospel,  descends  from 
his  divinity  to  his  humanity  through  the  act  of  the  incar- 
nation of  the  second  person  of  the  Trinity.  In  this  respect 
he  anticipates  the  modern  humanitarian  Christology.  Jesus 
is,  according  to  Servetus,  begotten,  not  of  the  first  person  of 
God,  but  of  the  essence  of  the  one  undivided  and  indivisible 
God.  He  is  born,  according  to  the  flesh,  of  the  Virgin  Mary 
by  the  overshadowing  cloud  of  the  Spirit  (Matt.  1:18,  20, 
23 ;  Luke  1 :  32,  35).  The  whole  aim  of  the  gospel  is  to  lead 
men  to  believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God 
(comp.  John  20  :  31).^  But  the  term  "  Son  of  God  "  is  in  the 
Scriptures  always  used  of  the  man  Jesus,  and  never  of  the 
Logos.^  He  is  the  one  true  and  natural  son  of  God,  born 
of  the  substance  of  God ;  we  are  sons  by  adoption,  by  an  act 
of  grace.     We  are  made  sons  of  God  by  faith  (John  1:12; 

da  bald  dort  an  einen  entzundbaren  Stoff  sich  ansezenden  Ideen  erhiellen  erst 
in  dem  Spanier  Michael  Servet,  welchen  der  Zug  seines  Geistes  demselben 
Kreise  zufiihrte,  eine  festere  Consistenz  und  Haltung.  Diess  ist  es,  was  Servet 
seine  historische  Bedeutung  gibt.  Er  wurde  der  Mittelpunct,  in  welchem  jene 
vereinzelten,  noch  formlosen  Elemente  sich  zur  Einheit  zusammenschlossen  und 
durch  die  Energie  seines  Geistes  sich  zu  eitier  in  sich  zusammenhangenden  Theorie 
ausbildeten." 

1  "  Ipse  homo  lesus  esj.  ostium  et  via,  a  quo  et  merito  exordium  sumam.  .  .  . 
Pronomine  ad  sensum  demonstrante  ipsum  hominem,  verberibus  ccesum  et  flagellatum, 
concedam  hccc  tria  simpliciter  vera  esse.  Prima,  hie  est  lesus  Christus.  Secundo, 
hie  estfitius  Dei.      Tertio,  hie  est  Deus."     Rest.  p.  5. 

2  "Semper  dixi,  et  dico,  et  dicam,  esse  omnia  scripta,  ut  credamus,  hunc  lesum 
essejilium  Dei."     Rest.  293. 

3  «  Ne  unus  quidem  dari  potest  in  scripturis  locus,  in  quo  ponatur  vox  Jilins 
quae  non  accipiatur  pro  homine  filio."     Rest.  689. 


740        THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

Gal.  3  :  26  ;  Rom.  8  :  23 ;  Eph.  1:5).  He  is,  moreover,  truly 
and  veritably  God.  The  whole  essence  of  God  is  manifest 
in  him ;  God  dwells  in  him  bodily .^ 

To  his  last  breath  Servetus  worshipped  Jesus  as  the  Son 
of  the  eternal  God.  But  he  did  not  admit  him  to  be  the 
eternal  Son  of  God  except  in  an  ideal  and  pantheistic  sense, 
in  which  the  whole  world  was  in  the  mind  of  God  from 
eternity,  and  comprehended  in  the  Divine  Wisdom  (Sophia) 
and  the  Divine  Word  (Logos). 

He  opposed  the  Chalcedonian  dualism  and  aimed  (like 
Apollinaris)  at  an  organic  unity  of  Christ's  j)erson,  but  made 
him  a  full  human  personality  (while  Apollinaris  substituted 
the  divine  Logos  for  the  human  spirit,  and  thus  made  Christ 
only  a  half  man).  He  charges  the  scholastic  and  orthodox 
divines,  whom  he  calls  sophists  and  opponents  of  the  truth, 
with  making  two  Sons  of  God  —  one  invisible  and  eternal, 
another  visible  and  temporal.  They  deny,  he  says,  that 
Jesus  is  truly  man  by  teaching  that  he  has  two  distinct 
natures  with  a  communication  of  attributes.^  Christ  does 
not  consist  of,  or  in,  two  natures.  He  had  no  previous 
personal  pre-existence  as  a  second  hypostasis  :  his  personality 
dates  from  his  conception  and  birth.  But  this  man  Jesus 
is,  at  the  same  time,  consubstantial  with  God  (^oixoovo-los:^. 
As  man  and  wife  are  one  in  the  flesh  of  their  son,  so  God 


^  "  Christus  est  Deus.  Dicitur  vere  Deus,  substantialiter  Deus,  cum  in  e.o  sit 
deltas  corporaliter"  (p.  14).  He  quotes  in  proof  Isa.  9:6;  45:3;  John  20;28; 
Rom.  9:5;  Phil.  2:5-11. 

2  "  Negant,  hominem  esse  hominem  et  concedunt,  Deum  esse  asinum.  .  .  .  Ad 
eundem  modum  concedunt  fieri  posse,  ut  Deus  sit  asinus,  et  spiritus  sanctus  sit  muhis, 
sustentans  nudum"  (p.  15).  The  same  profane  and  offensive  comparisons 
occur  in  his  first  book,  and  among  niedigeval  schoolmen,  who  illustrated  the 
relations  of  the  Trinity  by  the  analogy  of  horse,  ass,  and  mule  (in  mulo 
equus  et  asinus;  in  spiritu  pater  etfilius).  They  also  raised  such  foolish  ques- 
tions as,  whether  God  might  not  have  become  an  ass  or  a  cucumber  as  well 
as  a  man,  and  what  effect  the  sacrament  would  have  upon  a  dog  or  a  mouse. 
From  reverence  to  profanity,  as  from  the  sublime  to  the  ridiculous,  there 
is  only  one  step. 


§  147.    THE   THEOLOGICAL   SYSTEM   OF   SERVETUS.      741 

and  man  are  one  in  Christ.^  The  flesh  of  Christ  is  heavenly 
and  born  of  the  very  substance  of  God. 2  By  the  deification 
of  the  flesh  of  Christ  he  materialized  God,  destroyed  the 
real  humanity  of  Christ,  and  lost  himself  in  the  maze  of  a 
pantheistic  mysticism. 

2.   Theology. 

The  fundamental  doctrine  of  Servetus  was  the  absolute 
unity,  simplicity,  and  indivisibility  of  the  Divine  being,  in 
opposition  to  the  tripersonality  or  threefold  hypostasis  of 
orthodoxy.3  In  this  respect  he  makes  common  cause  with 
the  Jews  and  Mohammedans,  and  approvingly  quotes  the 
Koran.  He  violently  assails  Athanasius,  Hilary,  Augustin, 
John  of  Damascus,  Peter  the  Lombard,  and  other  champions 
of  the  dogma  of  the  Trinity.^  But  he  claims  the  ante-Nicene 
Fathers,  especially  Justin,  Clement  of  Alexandria,  Irenseus, 
and  TertuUian,  for  his  view.  He  calls  all  Trinitarians  "  tri- 
theists"  and  "atheists."^     They  have  not  one  absolute  God, 

^  "  Deus  et  homo  unum  sunt  in  Christo,  quo  vir  et  uxor  unum  sunt  in  una  filii 
came.  .  .  .  Magnum  est  mysterium,  quod  caro  ilia  Jit  Deo  homusios  l_homousios'], 
in  itnam  hypostasim  ei  connexa.  Ita  Deus  coaluit  cum  humana  natura,  ut  ilium 
extolleret  Jilium  sibi  hominem  generando.  .  .  .  Deus  et  homo  unum  in  ipso  sunt." 
Rest.  269. 

2  "Caro  ipsa  Christi  est  ccelestis  de  substantia  Dei  genita."  Rest.  74;  conip. 
48,  50,  72,  77. 

3  ToUin  (Thomas  Aquinas,  der  Lehrer  Seroet's,  in  Hilgenfeld's  "Zeitschrift 
fiir  wissenschaftliche  Theologie,"  1892)  tries  to  show  that  Servetus  only 
followed  out  consistently  the  view  of  Thomas  Aquinas,  who  proved  the  sim- 
plicity of  the  divine  essence  from  reason,  but  the  Trinity  only  from  the  faith 
of  the  Church. 

•*  He  calls  Athanasius  and  Augustin  worshippers  of  the  beast  and  of 
images  ("  Athanasium  imaginum  cultorem  cum  charactere  ftes^w,"  p.  702 ;  comp. 
p.  398).  He  probably  confounded  the  first  Council  of  Nicaea  (325),  where 
Athanasius  was  present,  with  the  second  Council  of  Nic«a  (787),  which  sanc- 
tioned the  worship  of  images.  For  this  historical  blunder  Calvin  takes 
Servetus,  who  set  himself  up  as  "temporum  omnium  censor,"  severely  to  task 
(Opera,  VUI.  591  sq.). 

5  "  Veri  ergo  hi  sunt  tritoitce  [for  tritheitce'],  et  veri  sunt  athei,  qui  Deum  unum 
non  habent,  nisi  tripartitum  et  aggregativum."     Rest.  30;  comp.  34. 


742        THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

but  a  three-parted,  collective,  composite  God  —  that  is,  an 
unthinkable,  impossible  God,  which  is  no  God  at  all.  They 
worship  three  idols  of  the  demons, — a  three-headed  monster, 
like  the  Cerberus  of  the  Greek  mythology.^  One  of  their 
gods  is  unbegotten,  the  second  is  begotten,  the  third  pro- 
ceeding. One  died,  the  other  two  did  not  die.  Why  is  not 
the  Spirit  begotten,  and  the  Son  proceeding?  By  distin- 
guishing the  Trinity  in  the  abstract  from  the  three  persons 
separatel}^  considered,  they  have  even  four  gods.  The  Tal- 
mud and  the  Koran,  he  thinks,  are  right  in  opposing  such 
nonsense  and  blasphemy. 

He  examines  in  detail  the  various  patristic  and  scholastic 
proof  texts  for  the  Trinity,  as  Gen.  18  :  2 ;  Ex.  3 :  6  ;  Ps.  2 :  7  ; 
110:1;  Isa.  7:14;  John  1 : 1 ;  3:13;  8:58;  10:18;  14:10; 
Col.  1 :  15  ;  2:9;  1  Pet.  3  :  19  ;  Heb.  1 :  2. 

Yet,  after  all,  he  taught  himself  a  sort  of  trinity,  but  substi- 
tutes the  terms  "dispositions,"  "dispensations,"  "economies," 
for  hypostases  and  persons.  In  other  words,  he  believed,  like 
Sabellius,  in  a  trinity  of  revelation  or  manifestation,  but  not 
in  a  trinity  of  essence  or  substance.  He  even  avowed,  during 
the  trial  at  Geneva,  a  trinity  of  persons  and  the  eternal  per- 
sonality of  Christ ;  but  he  understood  the  term  "  person  "  in 
the  original  sense  of  a  mask  used  by  players  on  the  stage, 
not  in  the  orthodox  sense  of  a  distinct  hypostasis  or  real 
personality  that  had  its  own  proper  life  in  the  Divine  essence 
from  eternity,  and  was  manifested  in  time  in  the  man  Jesus.^ 

1  Rest.  59,  119,  etc.  On  these  expressions,  which  shocked  the  pious  feel- 
ings of  all  Christendom,  see  above,  §  141,  p.  719. 

2  In  his  last  reply  to  Calvin  (0/)e?-a,  VIII.  536),  he  tells  him:  " Mentiris. 
Trinitatem  ego  voco,  et  doceo,  verissimam  trinitatem.  .  .  .  Reals  discrimen  tollo, 
non  personale.  .  .  .  Realem  in  Deo  distinctionem  ego  repudio."  Calvin,  in  his 
Institutes  (I.  ch.  XIII.  §  22)  gives  the  following  account  of  the  trinity  of 
Servetus :  "  The  word  Trinity  was  so  odious  and  even  detestable  to  Servetus, 
that  he  asserted  all  Trinitarians,  as  he  called  them,  to  be  atheists.  I  omit 
his  impertinent  and  scurrilous  language,  but  this  was  the  substance  of  his 
speculations:  That  it  is  representing  God  as  consisting  of  three  parts,  when 
three  persons  are  said  to  subsist  in  his  essence,  and  that  this  triad  is  merely 


§  147.    THE   THEOLOGICAL   SYSTEM   OF   SERVETUS.      743 

Servetus  distinguished  —  with  Plato,  Philo,  the  Neo-Plato- 
nists,  and  several  of  the  Greek  Fathers — between  an  ideal, 
invisible,  uncreated,  eternal  world  and  the  real,  visible,  created, 
temporal  world.  In  God,  he  says,  are  from  eternity  the  ideas 
or  forms  of  all  things  :  these  are  called  "  Wisdom  "  or  "  Logos," 
"the  Word"  (John  1:1).  He  identifies  this  ideal  world 
with  "  the  Book  of  God,"  wherein  are  recorded  all  things  that 
happen  (Deut.  32 :  32  ;  Ps.  139 :  16  ;  Rev.  5  : 1),  and  with  the 
living  creatures  and  four  whirling  wheels  full  of  eyes,  in 
the  vision  of  Ezekiel  (1:5;  10:12).  The  eyes  of  God  are 
living  fountains  in  which  are  reflected  all  things,  great  and 
small,  even  the  hairs  of  our  head  (Matt.  10 :  30),  but  partic- 
ularly the  elect,  whose  names  are  recorded  in  a  special  book. 

The  Word  or  Wisdom  of  God,  he  says,  was  the  seed  out 
of  which  Christ  was  born,  and  the  birth  of  Christ  is  the 
model  of  all  births.^  The  Word  may  be  called  also  the  soul 
of  Christ,  which  comprehends  the  ideas  of  all  things.  In 
Christ  was  the  life,  and  the  life  was  the  light  of  the  world 
(John  1 :  4  sqq.).  He  goes  here  into  speculations  about  the 
nature  of  light  and  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  and  ventilates  his 
Hebrew  learning.  He  distinguishes  three  heavens — the  two 
material  heavens  of  water  and  air,  spoken  of  by  Moses  in 

imaginary,  being  repugnant  to  the  divine  unity.  At  the  same  time  he  main- 
tained the  persons  to  be  certain  external  ideas,  which  have  no  real  subsistence 
in  the  divine  essence,  but  give  us  a  figurative  representation  of  God  under 
this  or  the  other  form ;  and,  that  in  the  beginning  there  was  no  distinction  in 
God,  because  the  Word  was  once  the  same  as  the  Spirit;  but  that  after 
Christ  appeared  God  of  God,  there  emanated  from  him  another  God,  even 
the  Spirit.  Though  he  sometimes  glosses  over  his  impertinencies  with  alle- 
gories, as  when  he  says  that  the  eternal  Word  of  God  was  the  Spirit  of 
Christ  with  God,  and  the  reflection  of  his  image,  and  that  the  Spirit  was 
a  shadow  of  the  Deity;  yet  he  afterwards  destroys  the  deity  of  both,  assert- 
ing that  according  to  the  mode  of  dispensation  there  is  a  part  of  God  in  both 
the  Son  and  the  Spirit;  just  as  the  same  Spirit  substantially  diffused  in  us, 
and  even  on  wood  and  stones,  is  a  portion  of  the  Deity." 

1  "  Verbum  ipsum  Dei  quod  erat  semen  generationis  Christi.  .  .  .  Ipsa  Christi 
generatio  sit  aliornm  generationnm  omnium  specimen  et  prototi/pus.  .  .  .  Vere  fmt 
in  Deo  snhstnntiale  semen  Christi,  et  in  eo  rerum  omnium  seminales  rationes,  et 
exemplares  formce.''^     Rest.  p.  140. 


744         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

the  account  of  creation,^  and  a  third,  spiritual  heaven  of  fire, 
the  heaven  of  heavens,  to  which  Paul  was  elevated  (2  Cor. 
12 :  2),  in  which  God  and  Christ  dwell,  and  which  gives 
splendor  to  the  angels.  Christ  has  revealed  the  true  heaven 
to  us,  which  was  unknown  to  the  Jews. 

All  things  are  one  in  God,  in  Avhom  they  consist.^  There 
is  one  fundamental  ground  or  principle  and  head  of  all 
things,  and  this  is  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.^ 

In  the  fifth  book,  Servetus  discusses  the  doctrine  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  He  identifies  him  with  the  Word,  from  which 
he  differs  only  in  the  form  of  existence.  God  is,  figuratively 
speaking,  the  Father  of  the  Spirit,  as  he  is  the  Father  of 
Wisdom  and  the  Word.  The  Spirit  is  not  a  third  metaphysi- 
cal being,  but  the  Spirit  of  God  himself.  To  receive  the 
Holy  Spirit  means  to  receive  the  anointing  of  God.  The 
indwelling  of  the  Spirit  in  us  is  the  indwelling  of  God 
(1  Cor.  3:16;  6:19;  2  Cor.  6:16;  Eph.  2:22).  He  who 
lies  to  the  Holy  Spirit  lies  to  God  (Acts  5:4).  The  Spirit 
is  a  modus,  a  form  of  divine  existence.  He  is  also  called  the 
Spirit  of  Christ  and  the  Spirit  of  the  Son  (Gal.  4:6;  Rom. 
8:9;  1  Pet.  1:11).  The  human  spirit  is  a  spark  of  the 
Divine  Spirit,  an  image  of  the  Wisdom  of  God,  created,  yet 
similar.  God  breathes  his  Spirit  into  man  in  his  birth,  and 
again  in  regeneration. 

In  connection  with  this  subject,  Servetus  goes  into  an 
investigation  of  the  vital  spirits  in  man,  and  gives  a  minute 
description  of  the  lesser  circulation  of  the  blood,  which,  as 
we  have  seen,  he    first   discovered.*     He   studied   theology 

^  D''S5tr,  the  dual.  "Duos  coelos  ad  literam  accipimus  aerium  et  aqueum," 
p.  157.  He  regards  the  Hebrew  word  as  a  contraction  of  DtT  and  D'la,  and 
equivalent  to  "  waters  "  (p.  155)  ;  while  it  is  derived  from  ni2C',  to  be  high. 

^  "  Omnia  sunt  unuin  in  Deo,  in  quo  uno  consistunt."     Rest.  161. 

^  "  Clntcum  est  principium,  unica  verbi  lux,  lux  omniformis,  et  caput  omnium, 
lesus  Christus  dominus  noster,  principium  creaturarum  Dei."     Rest.  162. 

*  Rest.  169 :  "  Ut  vera  totam  animce  et  spiritus  rationem  habeas,  lector,  divinam 
hie  philosophiam  adjungam,  quam  facile  intelligis,  si  in  anatome  fueris  exercitatus," 
etc.     See  above,  §  143,  p.  724. 


§  147.    THE   THEOLOGICAL   SYSTEM    OF   SERVETUS.      745 

as   a   physician   and    surgeon,    and    studied    medicine    as   a 
theologian. 

He  discusses  also  the  procession  of  the  Spirit,  which  he 
regards  not  as  a  metaphysical  and  eternal  process,  but  as 
a  historical  manifestation,  identical  with  the  mission.  Herein 
he  differs  from  both  the  Greek  and  the  Latin  theories,  but 
unjustly  charges  the  Greeks  (who  distinguish  the  procession 
from  the  Father  alone,  and  the  mission  from  the  Father  and 
the  Son)  with  error  in  denying  the  Filioque.  The  Spirit, 
he  says,  proceeds  from  the  Father  and  the  Son,  and  he  pro- 
ceeds from  the  Father  through  the  Son,  who  is  the  proper 
fountain  of  the  Spirit.  But  he  dates  this  procession  from 
the  day  of  Pentecost.  In  the  Old  Testament  the  Holy  Spirit 
was  unknown,  which  he  proves  from  John  7:39  and  Acts 
19 : 2  (but  contrary  to  such  passages  as  Ps.  51 :  13  ;  1  Sam. 
10  :  6  ;  16  :  13  ;  Isa.  11  :  2  ;  61 :  1 ;  1  Pet.  1 :  11).  The  spirit 
in  the  Old  Testament  was  only  a  spirit  of  servitude  and  fear, 
not  of  adoption  and  love  (Rom.  8:15;  Gal.  4:6).  Christ 
calls  us  friends  and  brethren  (John  15  :  15  ;  20  :  17).  The 
Jews  knew  only  a  sanctification  of  the  flesh  and  external 
things,  not  of  the  spirit.  The  anointing  we  receive  from 
Christ  is  the  anointing  of  the  Spirit  (2  Cor.  1 :  21 ;  1  John 
2:20,  27).  The  Holy  Spirit  becomes  ours  in  regeneration. 
We  are  deified  or  made  partakers  of  the  divine  nature  by 
Christ. 

3.   Christopantheism. 

The  premises  and  conclusions  of  the  speculations  of 
Servetus  are  pantheistic.  He  adopts  the  conception  of  God 
as  the  all-embracing  substance.  "All  is  one  and  one  is 
all,  because  all  things  are  one  in  God,  and  God  is  the  sub- 
stance of  all  things."  ^  "  As  the  Word  of  God  is  essentially 
man,  so  the  Spirit  of  God  is  essentially  the  spirit  of  man. 

1  "  Ultimo  ex  prcemissis  comprobatur  vetus  ilia  sententia,  omnia  esse  unum, 
quia  omnia  sunt  unum  in  Deo,  in  quo  vno  consistunt."     Rest.  161. 


746         THE   REFORMATION    IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

By  the  power  of  the  resurrection  all  the  primitive  elements 
of  the  body  and  spirit  have  been  renewed,  glorified,  and 
immortalized,  and  all  these  are  communicated  to  us  by 
Christ  in  baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper.  The  Holy  Spirit 
is  the  breath  from  the  mouth  of  Christ  (John  20 :  22).  As 
God  breathes  into  man  the  soul  with  the  air,  so  Christ 
breathes  into  his  disciples  the  Holy  Spirit  with  the  air.  .  .  . 
The  deity  in  the  stone  is  stone,  in  gold  it  is  gold,  in  the  wood 
it  is  wood,  according  to  the  proper  ideas  of  things.  In  a 
more  excellent  way  the  deity  in  man  is  man,  in  the  spirit 
it  is  spirit."  ^  "  God  dwells  in  the  Spirit,  and  God  is  Spirit. 
God  dwells  in  the  fire,  and  God  is  fire ;  God  dwells  in  the 
light,  and  God  is  light ;  God  dwells  in  the  mind,  and  he  is 
the  mind  itself."  In  one  of  his  letters  to  Calvin  he  says : 
"Containing  the  essence  of  the  universe  in  himself,  God  is 
everywhere,  and  in  everything,  and  in  such  wise  that  he 
shows  himself  to  us  as  fire,  as  a  flower,  as  a  stone."  God 
is  always  in  the  process  of  becoming.^  Evil  as  well  as  good 
is  comprised  in  his  essence.  He  quotes  Isa.  45 :  7  :  "I  form 
the  light,  and  create  darkness ;  I  make  peace,  and  create 
evil ;  I  am  the  Lord,  that  doeth  all  these  things."  The  evil 
differs  from  the  good  only  in  the  direction. 

When  Calvin  charged  him  with  pantheism,  Servetus 
restated  his  view  in  these  words :  "  God  is  in  all  things 
by  essence,  presence,  and  power,  and  himself  sustains  all 
things."  ^  Calvin  admitted  this,  but  denied  the  inference 
that  the  substantial  Deity  is  in  all  creatures,  and,  as  the 
latter  confessed  before  the  judges,  even  in  the  pavement  on 
which  they  stand,  and  in  the  devils.*     In  his  last  reply  to 

^  "  Deltas  in  lapide  est  lapis,  in  auro  est  aurum,  in  li(/no  lignum,  secundum  pro- 
prias  ideas.  Excellentiore  iterum  modo^  deitas  in  homine  est  homo,  in  spiritu  est 
spiritus  :  sicid  adjectio  hominis  in  Deo  est  Deus,  et  adjectio  spintus  hominis  in  eo 
est  spiritus  sanctus."     Rest.  182. 

-  "Semper  est  Deus  injieri."  ^  Calv.  Opera,  VIII.  518,  art.  XXXIV. 

*  Ibid.  550 :  "  Sed  hinc  non  sequitur  in  omnibus  creaturis  substantialem  esse 
deitatem.      MuUo  minus,  quod  ipse  coram  judicibus  conjessus  est,  pavimentum,  quod 


§  147.    THE   THEOLOGICAL,  SYSTEM   OF   SERVETUS.      747 

Calvin  he  tells  him :  "  With  Simon  Magus  you  shut  up  God 
in  a  corner ;  I  say,  that  he  is  all  in  all  things ;  all  beings  are 
sustained  in  God."  ^ 

He  frequently  refers  with  approval  to  Plato  and  the  Neo- 
Platonists  (Plotin,  Jamblichus,  Proclus,  Porphyry ).2 

But  his  views  differ  from  the  ordinary  pantheism.  He 
substitutes  for  a  cosmopantheism  a  Christopantheism.  Instead 
of  saying,  The  world  is  the  great  God,  he  says,  Christ  is  the 
great  God.^  By  Christ,  however,  he  means  only  the  ideal 
Christ ;  for  he  denied  the  eternity  of  the  real  Christ. 

4.   Anthropology  and  Soteriology.* 

Servetus  was  called  a  Pelagian  by  Calvin.  This  is  true 
only  with  some  qualifications.  He  denied  absolute  predesti- 
nation and  the  slavery  of  the  human  will,  as  taught  first  by 
all  the  Reformers.  He  admitted  the  fall  of  Adam  in  conse- 
quence of  the  temptation  by  the  devil,  and  he  admitted  also 
hereditary  sin  (which  Pelagius  denied),  but  not  hereditary 
guilt.  Hereditary  sin  is  only  a  disease  for  which  the  child 
is  not  responsible.     (This   was  also  the  view  of  Zwingli.) 

pedibus  calcamus,  deitatis  esse  particeps,  et  in  diabolis  omnia  deorum  esse  plena." 
In  his  Institutes  (1.  I.  ch.  13,  §  22),  Calvin  calls  the  promiscuous  confusion  of 
the  Son  of  God,  and  the  Spirit  with  all  the  creatures,  "  the  most  execrable  " 
(^omnium  maxime  execrandum)  of  the  opinions  of  Servetus. 

^  "  Cum  Simone  Mago  tu  Deum  in  angido  recludis  :  ego  eum  dico  esse  omnia  in 
omnibus.  Entia  omnia  dico  in  Deo  sustineri."  In  his  abusive  notes  on  Calvin's 
articles,  written  in  prison.     Opera,  VIII.  548. 

2  He  also  quotes  for  the  same  purpose  Philo,  Plutarch,  Parmenides, 
Hermes  Trismegistus,  Zoroaster,  and  the  Jewish  rabbis,  Aben-Ezra  and 
Moses  Egyptius. 

3  "  Mundum  Zoroaster  et  Trismegistus  dixerunt,  esse  magnum  Deum.  Nos 
Christum  dicimus  esse  magnum  Deum,  mundi  dominum,  et  omnipotentem.  .  .  . 
lesus  Christus,  factor  mundi,  fuit  et  est  in  Deo  suhstantiallter,  verius  quam  mundus, 
et  per  ipsum  mundus  secundaria  in  Deo  consistlt."  liest.  213.  "  Unicum  est 
principium,  unica  verbi  lux,  lux  omniformis,  et  caput  omnium,  lesus  Christus 
dominus  noster,  principium  creaturarum  Dei."     P.  162. 

*  See  here  the  book  De  Regeneratione  superna,  et  de  regno  Antichristi,  in  the 
Bestit.,  pp.  355  sqq. 


748        THE    REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

There  is  no  guilt  without  knowledge  of  good  and  evil.^ 
Actual  transgression  is  not  possible  before  the  time  of  age 
and  responsibility,  that  is,  about  the  twentieth  year.^  He 
infers  this  from  such  passages  as  Ex.  30:14;  38:26;  Num. 
14:29;  32:11;  Deut.  1:39. 

The  serpent  has  entered  human  flesh  and  taken  pos- 
session of  it.  There  is  a  thorn  in  the  flesh,  a  law  of  the 
members  antagonistic  to  the  law  of  God;  but  this  does 
not  condemn  infants,  nor  is  it  taken  away  in  baptism  (as 
the  Catholics  hold),  for  it  dwells  even  in  saints,  and  the 
conflict  between  the  spirit  and  the  serpent  goes  on  through 
life.^  But  Christ  offers  his  help  to  all,  even  to  infants  and 
their  angels.^ 

In  the  fallen  state  man  has  still  a  free-will,  reason,  and 
conscience,  which  connect  him  with  the  divine  grace.  Man 
is  still  the  image  of  God.  Hence  the  punishment  of  murder, 
which  is  an  attack  upon  the  divine  majesty  in  man  (Gen. 
9 :  6).  Every  man  is  enlightened  by  the  Logos  (John  1 :  17). 
We  are  of  divine  origin  (Acts  17:29).  The  doctrine  of, the 
slavery  of  the  human  will  is  a  great  fallacy  Qnagna  fallacia)^ 
and  turns  divine  grace  into  a  pure  machine.  It  makes  men 
idle,  and  neglect  prayer,  fasting,  and  almsgiving.    God  is  free 

^  "  Nullum  est  penitus  nee  in  coelesti,  nee  nt  terrestri  justitia,  crimen,  sine  scientia 
boni  et  mali :  quanquam  sine  ea  sint  nune  infantium  animce  sub  tenebras  in  infernum 
deductce."     Best.  387. 

2  "  Circa  vicesimum  annum  incipit  vera  peecatorum  remissio,  sieut  tunc  incipi- 
unt  vera,  et  actualia  secundcB  mortis  peccata."  .  .  .  36.3.  "  Peccatum  mortale  non 
com  mitt  itur  ante  vicesi7nu7n  annum,  sicut  nee  crimen  corporali  justitia  capitale." 
363  sq. 

3  Rest.  366 :  "  Quamvis  autem  universce  carni  intrusus  nunc  sit  serpens,  et 
originalem  habeat  etiam  in  came  infantum  nidum  :  hoc  tamen  nee  infantes  illos 
damnat,  nee  tollitur  per  baptismum,  cum  Sanctis  etiam  insit.  N'ec  abjiciuntur 
carnis  sordes  in  baptismo,  nee  tollitur  lex  membrorum ,  nee  anyelus  Satance.  Per- 
petuo  m  nobis  ipsis  duos  habemus  pugnantes  prineipes,  Deum  in  spiritu  et  serpentem 
in  came."  He  calls  original  sin  "  serpentis  oecupatio,  inkabitatio  et  potestas,  ab 
ipso  Adam  ducens  originem." 

*  Rest.  369 :  "  Adventus  Christi  omnia  innovavit,  et  omnibus  opem  tulit,  etiam 
parvulis,  et  eorum  angelis.  Ccelestia,  terrestria,  et  in/ernalia,  adventum  Christi 
senserwit,  et  per  eum  sunt  immutata." 


§  147.    THE   THEOLOGICAL  SYSTEM   OF   SERVETUS.       749 

himself  and  gives  freedom  to  eveiy  man,  and  his  grace  works 
freely  in  man.  It  is  our  impiety  which  turns  the  gift  of 
freedom  into  slavery.^  The  Reformers  blaspheme  God  by 
their  doctrine  of  total  depravity  and  their  depreciation 
of  good  works.  All  true  philosophers  and  theologians  teach 
that  divinity  is  implanted  in  man,  and  that  the  soul  is  of  the 
same  essence  with  God.^ 

As  to  predestination,  there  is,  strictly  speaking,  no  before 
nor  after  in  God,  as  he  is  not  subject  to  time.  But  he  is 
just  and  merciful  to  all  his  creatures,  especially  to  the  little 
flock  of  the  elect.^  He  condemns  no  one  who  does  not 
condemn  himself. 

Servetus  rejected  also  the  doctrine  of  forensic  justifica- 
tion by  faith  alone,  as  injurious  to  sanctification.  He  held 
that  man  is  justified  hy  faith  and  good  works,  and  appealed 
to  the  second  chapter  of  James  and  the  obedience  of 
Abraham.  On  this  point  he  sympathized  more  with  the 
Roman  theory.  Justification  is  not  a  declaratory  act  of  im- 
putation, but  an  efficacious  act  by  which  man  is  changed 
and  made  righteous.  Love  is  greater  than  faith  and  knowl- 
edge, because  God  is  love.  It  embraces  all  good  works 
which  clothe,  preserve,  and  strengthen  faith  and  increase  the 
reward  of  future  glory.  He  who  loves  is  better  than  he 
who  believes.* 


^  Rest.  568  :   "  Tmpietas  nostra  facit  arhitrium  ex  lihero  servum." 

2  634  sq. :  "  Philosophi  veri,  ac  etiam  theologi  ajffirmant,  esse  menti  hominis 
insitam  divinitatem  esseque  animam  Deo  o/xooixriov,  consubstantialem." 

^  liest.  321 :  "  Concludendum  est  igitur,  veram  Dei  in  omnes  suas  creaturas 
esse  justitiam  et  misericordiam  :  at  in  pusillum  gregem  suum,  solum  sibi  pecuJiariter 
proedestinatum,  insignem  gratice  suhlimitatem."  Melanchthon  wrote  to  Camera- 
rius  that  Servetus  "  de  justijicatione  manifeste  delirat,"  but  Tollin  (III.  194) 
maintains  tliat  he  supplements  tlie  one-sided  forensic  view  of  the  Reformers. 
Comp.  also  Henry,  III.  267-272. 

*  See  the  chapter  De  Charitate,  quid  Jides  efficiat,  quid  ckaritas,  et  opera, 
pp.  342  sqq.,  and  the  letters  to  Calvin,  where  he  gives  ten  reasons  for  the 
utility  of  good  works,  and  the  letter  to  Poupin,  where  he  charges  the  Church 
of  Geneva  that  it  had  a  gospel  without  good  works. 


750        THE   REFOEMATION   IN    FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

5.   The  Sacraments. ^ 

Servetus  admitted  only  two  sacraments,  therein  agreeing 
with  the  Protestants,  but  held  original  views  on  both. 

(a)  As  to  the  sacrament  of  Baptism,  he  taught,  with  the 
Catholic  Church,  baptismal  regeneration,  but  rejected,  with 
the  Anabaptists,  infant  baptism. 

Baptism  is  a  saving  ordinance  by  which  we  receive  the 
remission  of  sins,  are  made  Christians,  and  enter  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  as  priests  and  kings,  through  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  who  sanctifies  the  water .^  It  is  the  death  of  the 
old  man  and  the  birth  of  the  new  man.  By  baptism  we  put 
on  Christ  and  live  a  new  life  in  him.^ 

But  baptism  must  be  preceded  by  the  preaching  of  the 
gospel,  the  illumination  of  the  Spirit,  and  repentance,  which, 
according  to  the  preaching  of  John  the  Baptist  and  of  Christ, 
is  the  necessary  condition  of  entering  the  kingdom  of  God. 
Therefore,  Servetus  infers,  no  one  is  a  fit  subject  for  baptism 
before  he  has  reached  manhood.  By  the  law  of  Moses  priests 
were  not  anointed  before  the  thirtieth  year  (Num.  4 :  3). 
Joseph  was  thirty  years  old  when  he  was  raised  from  the 
prison  to  the  throne  (Gen.  41:46).  According  to  the  rab- 
binical tradition  Adam  was  born  or  created  in  his  thirtieth 
year.  Christ  was  baptized  in  the  Jordan  when  he  was  thirty 
years  (Luke  3 :  21-23),  and  that  is  the  model  of  all  true 
Christian  baptism.*  He  was  circumcised  in  infancy,  but  the 
carnal  circumcision  is  the  type  of  the  spiritual  circumcision 

1  De  Circitmcisione  vera,  cum  reliquis  Christi  et  Antichristi  mysteriis,  in 
Best.  411  sqq.,  and  De  Baptismi  efficacia,  483  sqq. 

2  "  Baptismo  vere  adest  spiritus.  .  .  .  Per  operationem  spiritus  hahet  baptlsmus 
earn  efficaciam,  ut  vere  dicamus,  baptismum  nos  salvare,  ad  Tit.  3  et  I.  Pet.  3. 
Per  solam  enim  Jidem  sine  baptismo  7ion  complentur  orania  salutis  Christi  mi/steria. 
Baptismus  nos  salvat  et  lavat,  sicut  panis  coence  corpore  Christi  nos  cibat,  interna 
mysterio."     Rest.  497. 

3  Rest.  484  sq. 

*  "  Mysterium  magnum  est.  Triginta  annorum  Christus  baptismum  accepit, 
exemplum  nobis  dans,  ac  nos  ita  docens,  ante  earn  cetatem  Hon  esse  quern  satis  aptum 
ad  mysteria  repni  ccelorum  "  (p.  412), 


§  147.    THE   THEOLOGICAL   SYSTEM   OF   SERVETUS.      751 

of  the  heart,  not  of  water  baptism.^  Circumcision  was 
adapted  to  real  infants  who  have  not  yet  committed  actual 
transgression;  baptism  is  intended  for  spiritual  infants  — 
that  is,  for  responsible  persons  who  have  a  childlike  spirit 
and  begin  a  new  life. 

(ft)  Servetus  rejected  Infant  Baptism  as  irreconcilable 
with  these  views,  and  as  absurd.  He  called  it  a  doctrine  of 
the  devil,  an  invention  of  popery,  and  a  total  subversion 
of  Christianity .2  He  saw  in  it  the  second  root  of  all  the 
corruptions  of  the  Church,  as  the  dogma  of  the  Trinity  was 
the  first  root. 

By  his  passionate  opposition  to  infant  baptism  he  gave  as 
much  offence  to  Catholics  and  Protestants  as  by  his  opposi- 
tion to  the  dogma  of  the  Trinity.  But  while  on  this  point 
he  went  further  than  the  most  fanatical  Anabaptists,  he  did 
not  belong  to  their  society,  and  rejected  the  revolutionary 
opinions  concerning  obedience  to  government,  and  holding 
civil  and  military  offices. 

Children  are  unfit  to  perform  the  office  of  priests  which 
is  given  to  us  in  baptism.  They  have  no  faith,  they  cannot 
repent,  and  cannot  enter  into  a  covenant.  Moreover,  they 
do  not  need  the  bath  of  regeneration  for  the  remission  of 
sins,  as  they  have  not  yet  committed  actual  transgression. 

But  children  are  not  lost  if  they  die  without  baptism. 
Adam's  sin  is  remitted  to  all  by  the  merits  of  Christ.  They 
are  excluded  from  the  Church  on  earth ;  they  must  die  and 
go  to  Sheol ;  but  Christ  will  raise  them  up  on  the  resurrec- 
tion day  and  save  them  in  heaven.     The  Scripture  does  not 

^  "  Circumcisio  ilia  carnalis  fuit  typus  secundce  circumcisionis  spiritualis,  quae 
per  Christum  Jit,  Roma.  2.  et  Colossen.  2."     Best.  411. 

2  "  Pcedobaptismum  esse  dico  detestandam  ahominationem,  spiritus  sancti 
extinctionem,  ecclesice  Dei  desolationem,  tutius  professionis  Christiana:  con/usionem, 
innovationis,  per  Christum  facta,  abolitionem,  ac  totius  ejus  regni  conculcationem." 
Rest.  576.  ToUin  (III.  136)  is  certainly  mistaken  when  he  asserts  that 
Servet's  view  of  infant  baptism  was  an  exotic  plant,  foreign  to  his  system. 
It  is  inseparable  from  it,  and  one  of  his  fundamental  doctrines. 


752         THE    IIEFOKMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

condemn  the  Ismaelites  or  the  Ninevites  or  other  barbarians. 
Christ  gives  his  blessing  to  unbaptized  children.  How  could 
the  most  merciful  Lord,  who  bore  the  sins  of  a  guilty  world, 
condemn  those  who  have  not  committed  an  impiety  ?  ^ 

Serve  tus  agreed  with  Zwingli,  the  Anabaptists,  and  the 
Second  Scotch  Confession,  in  rejecting  the  'cruel  Roman 
dogma,  which  excludes  all  unbaptized  infants,  even  of  Chris- 
tian parents,  from  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

((?)  In  the  doctrine  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  Servetus  differs 
from  the  Roman  Catholic,  the  Lutheran,  and  the  Zwinglian 
theories,  and  approaches,  strange  to  say,  the  doctrine  of  his 
great  antagonist,  Calvin.^  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper 
represent  the  birth  and  the  nourishment  of  the  new  man. 
By  the  former  we  receive  the  spirit  of  Christ ;  by  the  latter 
we  receive  the  body  of  Christ,  but  in  a  spiritual  and  mystical 
manner.  Baptism  kindles  and  strengthens  faith  ;  the  eucha- 
rist  strengthens  love  and  unites  us  more  and  more  to  Christ. 
By  neglecting  this  ordinance  the  spiritual  man  famishes  and 
dies  away.  The  heavenly  man  needs  heavenly  food,  which 
nourishes  him  to  life  eternal  (John  6  :  53).-^ 

1  "  Parvulis,  non  baptizatis,  data  est  a  Christo  benedictio.  Clementissimus  ille 
et  misericors  dominus,  qui  impioriim  peccata  gratis  sustulit,  quomodo  eos,  qui  impie- 
tatem  non  commiserunt ,  tarn  rigide  damiiai-et  ?  "  P.  357.  A  noble  and  truly 
Christian  sentiment,  which  puts  to  shame  his  orthodox  opponents.  Calvin, 
however,  did  not  make  water  baptism  a  necessary  condition  of  salvation,  and 
left  the  way  open  for  the  doctrine  of  universal  infant  salvation  by  sovereign 
election. 

'^  De  Coena  Domini,  Rest.  502  sqq.  ToUin  (III.  136):  "In  keiner  Lekre 
Servet's  zeigt  sick  so  sehr  als  in  der  Abendmahlslehre  sein  vermittelnder  Stand- 
punkt.  Tritt  er  dock  wieder  als  Schiedsrichter  auf  zwischen  dein  magisch-mate- 
rialistischen  Katholicismus  und  dem  qudkerischen  Spiritismus,  zwischen  Realismus 
und  Idealismus,  zwischen  lutherischer  Mystik  und  zwingli' scher  Rationalistik.'" 
He  thinks  that  Servetus  anticipated  the  eucharistic  doctrine  of  Bucer  and 
Calvin;  but  Bucer  laid  it  down  in  the  Tetrapolitan  Confession  in  1530, 
before  he  knew  Servetus,  and  Calvin  in  his  tract  De  Coena  in  1540. 

^  "  Baptismus  et  ccena  Domini  sunt  vita  et  /omentum  ipsius  Jidei  :  sunt  vita, 
/omentum,  et  nutrimentum  interni  hominis,  per  fidem  ex  Deo  geniti.  Per  prcedica- 
tionem  evangelii  plantatur  fides,  quod  nee  sine  operatione  spiritus  fieri  potest.  .  .  . 
Per  coenam  Domini,  quce  baptismum  consequitur,  nutritur,  adolescit  et  incrementa 


§  147.     THE    THEOLOGICAL    SYSTEM    OF    SERVETUS.      753 

Servetus  distinguishes  three  false  theories  on  the  Lord's 
Supper,  and  calls  their  advocates  transuhstantiatores  (Roman- 
ists), impanatores  (Lutherans),  and  tropistce  (Zwinglians).i 

Against  the  first  two  theories,  which  agree  in  teaching 
a  carnal  presence  and  manducation  of  Christ's  body  and 
blood  by  all  communicants,  he  urges  that  spiritual  food 
cannot  be  received  by  the  mouth  and  stomach,  but  only  by 
the  spiritual  organs  of  faith  and  love.  He  refers,  like 
Zwingli,  to  the  passage  in  John  6  :  63,  as  the  key  for  under- 
standing the  words  of  institution  and  the  mysterious  discourse 
on  eating  the  flesh  and  drinking  the  blood  of  Christ. 

He  is  most  severe  against  the  papal  doctrine  of  transub- 
stantiation  or  transelementation,  because  it  turns  bread  into 
no-bread,  and  would  make  us  believe  that  the  body  of  Christ 
is  eaten  even  by  wild  beasts,  dogs,  and  mice.  He  calls  this 
dogma  a  Satanic  monstrosity  and  an  invention  of  demons.^ 

To  the  Tropists  he  concedes  that  bread  and  wine  are 
symbols,  but  he  objects  to  the  idea  of  the  absence  of  Christ 
in  heaven.  They  are  symbols  of  a  really  present,  not  of  an 
absent  Christ.'^  He  is  the  living  head  and  vitally  connected 
with  all  his  members.  A  head  cut  off  from  the  body  would 
be  a  monster.  To  deny  the  real  presence  of  Christ  is  to 
destroy  his  reign.*     He  came  to  us  to  abide  with  us  forever. 

vitCB  suscipit,  ille  in  bapiismo  genitus  noviis  homo.  Magis  et  magis  tunc  in  dies  in 
nobis  Christus  formatur,  et  nos  magis  et  magis  in  unum  Christi  corpus  cum  aliis 
membris  adijicamur  per  charitatem,  .  .  .  Charitatis  stjmbolum  est  coena.  .  .  .  Ita 
se  habet  coena  ad  charitatem,  sicut  baptismus  ad  Jidem.  Ccena  igitur  et  ckaritate 
neglectis,  recedit  a  nobis  Christus,  arescit  Jides,  evanescit  spiritus,  fame  contabescit 
et  moritur  homo  Christianus."     Rest.  501  sq. 

1  Transubstantiationists,  Consubstantiationists,  and  Tropists.  Tollin  in- 
vents three  corresponding  German  terms  :   Umsubstanzler,  Einbroter,  Figiirler. 

-  He  says  in  this  connection  (p.  510)  :  "  Papistica  omnia  dogmata  esse  doc- 
trinas  dcemoniorum  et  meras  illusiones,  2  Thess.  2  et  1  Tim.  4." 

8  "  Non  enim  absentis  rei  sunt  hcec  symhola,  ut  in  umbris  legis,  sed  est  visibile 
signum  rei  invisibilis,  et  externum  symbolum  rei  internee."     Best.  507  sq. 

*  "An  non  monstrum  erit,  Christum  vocari  caput,  si  suis  membris  non  jungitur  ? 
Hes  mortua  est  corpus  totum,  si  ab  eo  caput  separes.  Pernitiosus  admodum  est 
error,  et  ipsissima  regni  Christi  destructio,  negare  prccsentiam  ejus  in  nobis." 
Rest.  508. 


754         THE    EEFOKMATION    IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

He  withdrew  only  his  visible  presence  till  the  day  of  judg- 
ment, but  promised  to  be  with  us  invisibly,  but  none  the  less 
really,  to  the  end  of  the  world.^ 

6.    The  Kingdom  of  Christ,  and  the  Reign  of  Antichrist.^ 

We  have  already  noticed  the  apocalyptic  fancies  of 
Servetus.  He  could  not  find  the  kingdom  of  God  or  the 
kingdom-  of  heaven,  so  often  spoken  of  in  the  Gospels  (while 
Christ  speaks  only  twice  of  the  "  Church  "),  in  any  visible 
church  organization  of  his  day.  The  true  Church  flourished 
in  the  first  three  centuries,  but  then  fled  into  the  wilderness, 
pursued  by  the  dragon ;  there  she  has  a  place  prepared  by 
God,  and  will  remain  "  a  thousand  two  hundred  and  three- 
score prophetic  days  "  or  years  (Rev.  12  :  6)  —  that  is,  from 
325  till  1585. 

The  reign  of  Antichrist,  with  its  corruptions  and  abomina- 
tions, began  with  three  contemporaneous  events :  the  first 
(Ecumenical  Council  of  Nicsea  (325),  which  split  the  one 
Godhead  into  three  idols ;  the  union  of  Church  and  State 
under  Constantine,  when  the  king  became  a  monk ;  and  the 
establishment  of  the  papacy  under  Sylvester,  when  the  bishop 
became  a  king.^  From  the  same  period  he  dates  the  general 
practice  of  infant  baptism  with  its  destructive  consequences. 
Since  that  time  the  true  Christians  were  everywhere  perse- 
cuted and  not  allowed  to  assemble.  They  were  scattered  as 
sheep  in  the  wilderness. 

Servetus  fully  agreed  with  the  Reformers  in  opposition  to 

^  "  Non  dixit,  non  ero  vobiscum  ;  sed,  non  videbitis  me,  et  ego  vobiscuin  sum." 
Rest.  509. 

2  De  fide  et  justitia  regni  Christi.  Rest.  287  sqq.  Sigtia  sexaginta  Regni 
Christi  et  Antichristi  et  revelatio  eius  jam  nunc  prcesens,  664-670.  Comp.  above, 
§  146. 

2  "  Quamvis  post  Christum  max  ccepit  Antichristi  mysterium :  vere  tamen  emi- 
cuit  et  stabilitum  est  regnum  tempore  Sylvestri  et  Constantini.  Quo  tempore  est 
mox  cecumenico  concilio  a  nobis  ereptus  filius  Dei,  fugata  ecclesia,  et  abominationes 
omnes  legibus  decretoe.  Hinc  transierunt  tempus  et  tempora  et  dimidium  temporis, 
anni  mille  ducenti  sexaginta."     Rest.  666. 


§  147.    THE   THEOLOGICAL   SYSTEM   OF   SERVETUS.      755 

the  papacy  as  an  antichristiau  power,  but  went  much  furtlier, 
and  had  no  better  opinion  of  the  Protestant  churches.  He 
called  the  Roman  Church  "the  most  beastly  of  beasts  and 
the  most  impudent  of  harlots."  ^ 

He  finds  no  less  than  sixty  signs  or  marks  of  the  reign  of 
Antichrist  in  the  eschatological  discourses  of  Chi'ist,  in  Daniel 
(chs.  7  and  12),  in  Paul  (2  Thess.  2:3,  4;  1  Tim.  4:1),  and 
especially  in  the  Apocalypse  (clis.  13-18). 

But  this  reign  is  now  drawing  to  a  close.  The  battle  of 
Michael  with  Antichrist  has  already  begun  in  heaven  and 
on  earth,  and  the  author  of  the  "  Restitution  "  has  sounded 
the  trumpet  of  war,  which  will  end  in  the  victory  of  Christ 
and  the  true  Church.  Servetus  might  have  lived  to  see  the 
millennium  (in  1585),  but  he  expected  to  fall  in  the  battle, 
and  to  share  in  the  first  resurrection. 

He  concludes  his  eschatological  chapter  on  the  reign  of 
Antichrist  with  these  words :  "  Whosoever  truly  believes 
that  the  pope  is  Antichrist,  will  also  truly  believe  that  the 
papistical  trinity,  p?edobaptism,  and  the  other  sacraments  of 
popery  are  doctrines  of  the  daemons.  O  Christ  Jesus,  thou 
Son  of  God,  most  merciful  deliverer,  who  so  often  didst 
deliver  thy  people  from  distresses,  deliver  us  poor  sinners  from 
this  Babylonian  captivity  of  Antichrist,  from  his  hypocrisy, 
his  tyranny,  and  his  idolatry.     Amen."  ^ 

7.     ESCHATOLOGY. 

Servetus  was  charged  by  Calvin  and  the  Council  of  Geneva 
with  denying  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  This  was  a 
heresy  punishable  by  death.     Etienne   Dolet  was  executed 

^  Rest.  462  sq.  :  "  0  bestiam  hestiarum  sceleratissimani,  meretricuni  impuden- 
tiasimam.  .  .  .  Papa  est  Deus,  in  papatu  est  trinitas,  draconis  bestice  et  pseudo- 
prophetce.  Trinitatem  papisticam  faciunt  tres  realiter  distincti  spiritus,  qui  loanni 
dicuntur  tres  immundi  spiritus  ranarum,  multis  rationibus.  Quia  sunt  de  abyssi 
aquis  immundis,  sicut  ranee,"  etc.  Comp.  his  exposition  of  prophetic  passages, 
pp.  393  sqq.  and  666  sqq. 

2  "Libera  nos  miseros  ab  hac  Babylonica  Antichristi  captivitate,  ab  hi/pocrisi 
ejus,  tyrannide,  et  idololatria.     Amen."     liest.  670. 


756         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

on  the  place  Maubert  at  Paris,  Aug.  2,  1546,  for  this  denial.^ 
But  Servetus  denied  the  charge.  He  taught  that  the  soul 
was  mortal,  that  it  deserved  to  die  on  account  of  sin,  but 
that  Christ  communicates  to  it  new  life  by  grace.^  Christ 
has  brought  immortality  to  light  (2  Tim.  1 :  10  ;  1  Pet.  1 :  21- 
25).  This  seems  to  be  the  doctrine  of  conditional  immor- 
tality of  believers.  But  he  held  that  all  the  souls  of  the 
departed  go  to  the  gloomy  abode  of  Sheol  to  undergo  a 
certain  purification  before  judgment.  This  is  the  baptism 
of  blood  and  fire,  as  distinct  from  the  baptism  of  water  and 
spirit  (1  Cor.  3:11-15).  The  good  and  the  bad  are  sepa- 
rated in  death.  Those  who  die  without  being  regenerated 
by  Christ  have  no  hope.  The  righteous  progress  in  sanctifi- 
cation.  They  pray  for  us  (for  which  he  gives  six  reasons, 
and  quotes  Zach.  1 :  12,  13  ;  Luke  15  :  10  ;  16  :  27,  28;  1  Cor. 
13 :  18)  ;  but  we  ought  not  to  pray  for  them,  for  they  do  not 
need  our  prayers,  and  there  is  no  Scripture  precept  on  the 
subject.^ 

The  reign  of  the  pope  or  Antichrist  will  be  followed  by 
the  millennial  reign  of  Christ  on  earth  (Rev.  20 : 4-7). 
Then  will  take  place  the  first  resurrection. 

Servetus  was  a  chiliast,  but  not  in  the  carnal  Jewish  sense. 
He  blames  Melanchthon  for  deriding,  with  the  papal  crowd, 
all  those  as  chiliasts  who  believe  in  the  glorious  reign  of 
Christ  on  earth,  according  to  the  book  of  Revelation  and  the 
teaching  of  the  school  of  St.  John.* 

1  He  had  translated  the  words  of  Plato  :  20  yhp  ovk  effi) :  "  Apres  la  mart  tu 
ne  seras  plus  rien  du  tout,"  instead  of  "  Car  tu  ne  seras  phis,"  as  the  Sorbonne 
wanted.  Tollin,  III.  288,  mentions  this  fact  and  refers  to  Reg.  fac.  theol. 
Paris.  MM.  248  in  the  Paris  state  archives. 

■^  "  C/iristus  reparator  animas  nostras  reddidit  immortales,  et  vitalem  earum 
spiritum  incorruptibilem."  Best.  551.  He  distinguished  between  the  soul  and 
the  spirit,  according  to  the  Platonic  trichotomy.  After  the  death  of  the  body, 
the  soul  is  a  mere  shadow. 

3  Best.  718. 

*  "  Quamquam  tu  cum  vulgo  papistico  seniores  illos  omnes,  et  apostolicos  viros,  ut 
chiliastas  rideas."     Best.  719. 


§  148.    THE   TRIAL   OF    SERVETUS   AT    VIENNE.  757 

The  general  resurrection  and  judgment  follow  after  the 
millennium^  Men  will  be  raised  in  the  flower  of  manhood, 
the  thirtieth  year  —  the  year  of  baptismal  regeneration,  the 
year  in  which  Christ  was  baptized  and  entei-ed  upon  his 
public  ministry.!  "  Then  wilt  thou,"  so  he  addresses  Philip 
Melanchthon,  who,  next  to  Calvin,  was  his  greatest  enemy, 
"  with  all  thy  senses,  see,  feel,  taste,  and  hear  God  himself. 
If  thou  dost  not  believe  this,  thou  dost  not  believe  in  a 
resurrection  of  the  flesh  and  a  bodily  transformation  of  thy 
organs."  ^ 

After  the  general  judgment,  Christ  will  surrender  his 
mediatorial  reign  with  its  glories  to  the  Father,  and  God 
will  be  all  in  all  (Acts  3  :  21 ;  1  Cor.  15  :  24-28). 

§  148.    The  Trial  and  Conde^niiation  of  Servetus  at  Vienne. 

See    D'Artigny    in     Nouveaux   Memoires   d'histoire,    etc. ;    Mosheim's   Neue 
Nachrichten,  etc. ;  and  Calvin's  Opera,  VIII.  833-856. 

Shortly  after  the  publication  of  the  "  Restitution,"  the 
fact  was  made  known  to  the  Roman  Catholic  authorities  at 
Lyons  through  Guillaume  Trie,  a  native  of  Lyons  and  a 
convert  from  Romanism,  residing  at  that  time  in  Geneva. 
He  corresponded  with  a  cousin  at  Lyons,  by  the  name  of 
Arneys,  a  zealous  Romanist,  who  tried  to  reconvert  him  to 
his  religion,  and  reproached  the  Church  of  Geneva  with  the 
want  of  discipline.  On  the  26th  of  February,  1553,  he  wrote 
to  Arneys  that  in  Geneva  vice  and  blasphemy  were  pun- 
ished, while  in  France  a  dangerous  heretic  was  tolerated, 
who  deserved  to  be  burned  by  Roman  Catholics  as  well  as 
Protestants,  who  blasphemed  the  holy  Trinity,  called  Jesus 
Christ  an  idol,  and  the  baptism  of  infants  a  diabolic  inven- 
tion.    He  gave  his  name  as   Michael  Servetus,  who  called 

1  "Dies  baptismi  assimilatur  diei  resurrectionis."     Best.  413. 

2  "  Deum  ipsum  tu  beatus  corporeis  his  omnibus  tiiis  sensibus  videbis,  tanges, 
gustabis,  ol/acies  et  audies.  Si  hoc  non  credis,  non  credis  carnis  resurrectionem  et 
corporeum  tuorum  organorum  futuram  glorijicationem."     Best.  718. 


758         THE   REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

himself  at  present  Villeneuve,  a  practising  physician  at 
Vienne.  In  confirmation  he  sent  the  first  leaf  of  the  "  Res- 
titution," and  named  the  printer  Balthasar  Arnoullet  at 
Vienne.^ 

This  letter,  and  two  others  of  Trie  which  followed,  look 
very  much  as  if  they  had  been  dictated  or  inspired  by  Calvin. 
Servetus  held  him  responsible.^  But  Calvin  denied  the 
imputation  as  a  calumny.^  At  the  same  time  he  speaks 
rather  lightly  of  it,  and  thinks  that  it  would  not  have  been 
dishonorable  to  denounce  so  dangerous  a  heretic  to  the  proper 
authorities.  He  also  frankly  acknowledges  that  he  caused  his 
arrest  at  Geneva.*  He  could  see  no  material  difference  in 
principle  between  doing  the  same  thing,  indirectly,  at  Vienne 
and,  directly,  at  Geneva.  He  simply  denies  that  he  was  the 
originator  of  the  papal  trial  and  of  the  letter  of  Trie ;  but  he 
does  not  deny  that  he  furnished  material  for  evidence,  which 
was  quite  well  known  and  publicly  made  use  of  in  the  trial' 
where  Servetus's  letters  to  Calvin  are  mentioned  as  pieces  jus- 
tificatives.     There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Trie,  who  describes 

1  "  C'est  un  Espagnol  Portugallois  nomme  Michael  Servetus  de  son  propre  nom, 
viais  il  se  nomme  Villeneuve  a  present,  faisant  le  Me'decin.  II  a  demeure  quelque 
temps  a  Lyon,  maintenant  il  se  tient  a  Vienne,  ou  le  livre  dont  je  parle  a  €t^  imprime 
par  un  quidam  qui  a  la  dresse  imprimerie,  nomme  Balthazar d  Arnoullet.  Et  afin 
que  voHS  ne  pensiez  que  je  en  parle  a  cre'dit,je  votis  envoye  la  premiere  feuille  pour 
enseigne."  The  specimens  seemed  to  have  been  the  title-page,  the  index,  and, 
perhaps,  a  few  pages,  which  did  not  prove  the  authorship  of  Villeneuve,  nor 
his  identity  with  Servetus.  The  three  letters  of  Trie  are  published  in  French 
by  D'Artigny  (p.  79  sq.)  and  Mosheim  (p.  90),  and  in  Calvin's  Opera,  VIII. 
835-838,  840-844. 

2  This  was  also  the  opinion  of  Bolsec  and  the  pseudonymous  Martinus 
Bellius,  and  is  repeated  by  the  Abbe  d'Artigny,  Wallace,  Willis,  and  v.  d. 
Linde,  who  charge  Calvin  with  having  deliberately  and  dishonorably  betrayed 
Servetus.  But  this  cannot  be  proven,  and  would  involve  a  downright  false- 
hood, of  which  Calvin  was  incapable.  , 

^  He  calls  it  a  "futilis  calumnia,"  and  thinks  it  preposterous  to  suppose 
that  he  was  in  friendly  correspondence  with  the  popish  authorities.  "  Unde 
mihi  tanta  cum  papm  satellitio  repente  familiar itas?  unde  etiam  tanta  gratia?" 
Refut.  error.  Mich.  Serv.,  in  Opera,  VIII.  479. 

•*  "  Nee  sane  dissimulo,  mea  opera  consilioque  jure  in  carcerem  /uisse  conjec- 
tum."     Ibid.  VIII.  461. 


§  148.     THE    TRIAL    OF    SEKVETUS    AT    VIENNE.  759 

himself  as  a  comparatively  unlettered  man,  got  his  infor- 
mation about  Servetus  and  his  book  from  Calvin,  or  his 
colleagues,  either  directly  from  conversation,  or  from  pulpit 
denunciations.  We  must  acquit  Calvin  of  direct  agency,  but 
we  cannot  free  him  of  indirect  agency  in  this  denunciation.^ 

Calvin's  indirect  agency  in  the  first,  and  his  direct  agency 
in  the  second  arrest  of  Servetus  admit  of  no  proper  justifica- 
tion, and  are  due  to  an  excess  of  zeal  for  orthodoxy, 

Arneys  conveyed  this  information  to  the  Rom'an  Catholic 
authorities.  The  matter  was  brouofht  to  the  knowledge  of 
Cardinal  Thurnon,  at  that  time  archbishop  of  Lyons,  a  cruel 
persecutor  of  the  Protestants,  and  IMatthias  Ory,  a  regularly 
trained  inquisitor  of  the  Roman  see  for  the  kingdom  of 
France.     They  at  once  instituted  judicial  proceedings. 

Villeneuve  was  summoned  before  the  civil  court  of  Vienna 
on  the  16th  of  March.  He  kept  the  judges  waiting  for  two 
hours  (during  which  he  probably  destroyed  all  suspicious 
papers),  and  appeared  without  any  show  of  embarrassment. 
He  affirmed  that  he  had  lived  long  at  Vienne,  in  frequent 
company  with  ecclesiastics,  without  incurring  any  suspicion 

1  Trechsel  thinks  that  it  can  by  no  means  be  proven  that  Calvin  caused 
the  letter  of  Trie,  but  that  he  probably  gave  occasion  to  it  by  incidental  and 
unintentional  expressions.  "Weiin  auch  Calvin,"  he  says,  I.  144,  "  wahrschein- 
lich  dnrch  gelegentUche  und  imahsichtliche  Aeusserungen  zur  Entdeckung  Servets 
Anlass  gab,  so  isi  es  dock  durchaus  unerwiesen,  dass  er  Trie's  Brief  provocirt  oder 
gar  diciirt  hahe."  Dyer,  who  is  not  friendly  to  Calvin,  gives  as  the  result  of 
his  examination  of  the  case,  this  judgment  (p.  314):  "The  Abbe  d'Artigny 
goes  further  than  the  evidence  warrants,  in  positively  asserting  that  Trie's 
letter  was  written  at  Calvin's  dictation,  and  in  calling  it  Calvin's  letter 
in  the  name  of  Trie.  It  is  just  possible  that  Trie  may  have  written  the 
letter  without  Calvin's  knowledge,  and  the  latter  is  therefore  entitled  to 
the  benefit  of  the  doubt.  He  cannot  absolutely  be  proved  to  have  taken  the 
first  step  in  delivering  Servetus  into  the  fangs  of  the  Roman  Catholic  inquisi- 
tion ;  but  what  we  sliall  now  have  to  relate  will  show  that  he  at  least  aided 
and  abetted  it."  Principal  Cunningham  (The  Reformers,  pp.  323  sqq.)  goes 
into  an  elaborate  argument  to  vindicate  Calvin  from  the  charge  of  complicity, 
in  opposition  to  Principal  Tulloch,  who  denounces  the  conduct  of  Calvin, 
if  it  could  be  proven  (he  leaves  it  undecided),  as  "  one  of  the  blackest  pictures 
of  treachery."     An  evident  rhetorical  exaggeration. 


760         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND, 

for  heresy,  and  had  always  avoided  all  cause  of  offence.  His 
apartments  were  searched,  but  nothing  was  found  to  incrimi- 
nate him.  On  the  following  day  the  printing  establishment 
of  ArnouUet  was  searched  with  no  better  result.  On  the 
return  of  Arnoullet  from  a  journey  he  was  summoned  before 
the  tribunal,  but  he  professed  ignorance. 

Inquisitor  Ory  now  requested  Arneys  to  secure  additional 
proof  from  his  cousin  at  Geneva.  Trie  forwarded  on  the 
26th  of  March  several  autograph  letters  of  Servetus  which, 
he  said,  he  had  great  difficulty  in  obtaining  from  Calvin 
(who  ought  to  have  absolutely  refused).  He  added  some 
pages  from  Calvin's  Institutes  with  the  marginal  objections 
of  Servetus  to  infant  baptism  in  his  handwriting.  Ory,  not 
yet  satisfied,  despatched  a  special  messenger  to  Geneva  to 
secure  the  manuscript  of  the  Restitutio,  and  proof  that 
Villeneuve  was  Servetus  and  Arnoullet  his  printer.  Trie 
answered  at  once,  on  the  last  of  March,  that  the  manuscript 
of  the  Restitutio  had  been  at  Lausanne  for  a  couple  of  years 
(with  Viret),  that  Servetus  had  been  banished  from  the 
churches  of  Germany  (Basel  and  Strassburg)  twenty-four 
years  ago,  and  that  Arnoullet  and  Gu^roult  were  his  printers, 
as  he  knew  from  a  good  source  which  he  would  not  mention 
(perhaps  Frellon  of  Lyons). 

The  cardinal  of  Lyons  and  the  archbishop"  of  Vienne,  after 
consultation  with  Inquisitor  Ory  and  other  ecclesiastics,  now 
gave  orders  on  the  4th  of  April  for  the  arrest  of  Villeneuve 
and  Arnoullet.  They  were  confined  in  separate  rooms  in  tlje 
Palais  Delphinal.  Villeneuve  was  allowed  to  keep  a  servant, 
and  to  see  his  friends.  Ory  was  sent  forth,  hastened  to 
Vienne,  and  arrived  there  the  next  morning. 

After  dinner  Villeneuve,  having  been  sworn  on  the  Holy 
Gospels,  was  interrogated  as  to  his  name,  age,  and  course 
of  life.  In  his  answers  he  told  some  palpable  falsehoods  to 
mislead  the  judges,  and  to  prevent  his  being  identified  with 
Servetus,  the  heretic.     He  omitted  to  mention  his  residence 


§  148.     THE   TRIAL    OF    SEEVETUS    AT   VIENNE.  761 

in  Toulouse,  where  lie  had  been  known  under  his  real  name, 
as  the  books  of  the  University  would  show.  He  denied  that 
he  had  written  any  other  books  than  those  on  medicine  and 
geography,  although  he  had  corrected  many.  On  being 
shown  some  notes  he  had  written  on  Calvin's  Institutes  about 
infant  baptism,  he  acknowledged  at  last  the  authorship  of 
the  notes,  but  added  that  he  must  have  written  them  incon- 
siderately for  the  purpose  of  discussion,  and  he  submitted 
himself  entirely  to  his  holy  Mother,  the  Church,  from  whose 
teachings  he  had  never  wished  to  differ. 

At  the  second  examination,  on  the  sixth  day  of  April,  he 
was  shown  some  of  his  epistles  to  Calvin.  He  declared, 
with  tears  in  his  eyes,  that  those  letters  were  written  when 
he  was  in  Germany  some  twenty-five  years  ago,  when  there 
was  printed  in  that  country  a  book  by  a  certain  Servetus, 
a  Spaniard,  but  from  what  part  of  Spain  he  did  not  know ! 
At  Paris  he  had  heard  Mons.  Calvin  spoken  of  as  a  learned 
man,  and  had  entered  into  correspondence  with  him  from 
curiosity,  but  begged  him  to  keep  his  letters  as  confidential 
and  as  brotherly  corrections.^  Calvin  suspected,  he  con- 
tinued, that  I  was  Servetus,  to  which  I  replied,  I  was  not 
Servetus,  but  would  continue  to  personate  Servetus  in  order 
to  continue  the  discussion.  Finally  we  fell  out,  got  angry, 
abused  each  other,  and  broke  off  the  correspondence  about 
ten  years  ago.  He  protested  before  God  and  his  judges  that 
he  had  no  intention  to  dogmatize  or  to  teach  anything 
against  the  Church  or  the  Christian  religion.  He  told  simi- 
lar lies  when  other  letters  were  laid  before  him. 

Servetus  now  resolved  to  escape,  perhaps  with  the  aid  of 
some  friends,  after  he  had  secured  through  his  servant  a  debt 
of  three  hundred  crowns  from  the  Grand  Prior  of  the  monas- 
tery of  St.  Pierre.     On  the  7th  of  April,  at  four  o'clock  in 

1  "  Sub  sirjillo  aecreti  et  coinine  fraternelles  [s/c]  corrections."  He  himself, 
however,  published  in  the  Restitutio,  as  we  have  seen,  thirty  letters  of  Calvin 
without  his  permission. 


762         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

the  morning,  he  dressed  himself,  threw  a  night-gown  over 
his  clothes,  and  put  a  velvet  cap  upon  his  head,  and,  pretend- 
ing a  call  of  nature,  he  secured  from  the  unsuspecting  jailer 
the  key  to  the  garden.  He  leaped  from  the  roof  of  the 
outhouse  and  made  his  escape  through  the  court  and 
over  the  bridge  across  the  Rhone.  He  carried  with  him  his 
golden  chain  around  his  neck,  valued  at  twenty  crowns, 
six  gold  rings  on  his  fingers,  and  plenty  of  money  in  his 
pockets. 

Two  hours  elapsed  before  his  escape  became  known.  An 
alarm  was  given,  the  gates  were  closed,  and  the  neighboring 
houses  searched ;  but  all  in  vain. 

Nevertheless  the  prosecution  went  on.  Sufficient  evidence 
was  found  that  the  "  Restitution "  had  been  printed  in 
Vienne ;  extracts  were  made  from  it  to  prove  the  heresies 
contained  therein.  The  civil  court,  without  waiting  for  the 
judgment  of  the  spiritual  tribunal  (which  was  not  given 
until  six  months  afterwards),  sentenced  Servetus  on  the  17th 
of  June,  for  heretical  doctriiies,  for  violation  of  the  royal 
ordinances,  and  for  escape  from  the  royal  prison,  to  pay  a 
fine  of  one  thousand  livres  tournois  to  the  Dauphin,  to  be 
carried  in  a  cart,  together  with  his  books,  on  a  market-day 
through  the  principal  streets  to  the  place  of  execution,  and 
to  be  burnt  alive  by  a  slow  fire.^ 

On  the  same  day  he  was  burnt  in  effigy,  together  with  the 
five  bales  of  his  book,  which  had  been  consigned  to  Merrin 
at  Lyons  and  brought  back  to  Vienne. 

The  goods  and  chattels  of  the  fugitive  were  seized  and 
confiscated.  The  property  he  had  acquired  from  his  medical 
practice  and  literary  labors  amounted  to  four  thousand 
crowns.     The  king  bestowed  them  on  the  son  of  Monsieur 

1  "  Estre  hrusle  tout  vif  a  petit-fen,  teUement  que  son  corps  soit  mis  en  cendre." 
The  whole  sentence  of  the  tribunal  is  printed  in  Calvin's  Opera,  VIII.  784-787. 
It  was  communicated  to  the  Council  of  Geneva,  as  a  ground  for  demanding 
the  prisoner. 


§  149.     SEEVETUS    FLEES    TO    (lEXEVA.  763 

de  Montgiron,  lieutenant-general  of  Daupliind  and  presiding 
judge  of  the  court.^ 

Arnoullet  was  discharged  on  proving  that  he  had  been 
deceived  by  Gu^roult,  who  seems  to  have  escaped  by  flight. 
He  took  care  that  the  remaining  copies  of  the  heretical  book 
in  France  should  be  destroyed.  Stephens,  the  famous  pub- 
lisher, who  had  come  to  Geneva  in  1552,  sacrificed  the  copies 
in  liis  hands.  Those  that  had  been  sent  to  Frankfort  were 
burnt  at  the  instance  of  Calvin. 

On  the  23d  of  December,  two  months  after  the  execution 
of  Servetus,  the  ecclesiastical  tribunal  of  Vienne  pronounced 
a  sentence  of  condemnation  on  him.^ 

§  149.    Servetus  flees  to  G-eneva  and  is  arrested. 

E.1LLIET :  delation  du  proces,  etc.,  quoted  above,  p.  684.     (Tweedie's  transla- 
tion in  his  Calvin  and  Servetus,  pp.  62  sqq.)      Opera,  VIII.  725-856. 

Escaped  from  one  danger  of  death,  Servetus,  as  by  "  a  fatal 
madness,"  as  Calvin  says,  rushed  into  another.^  Did  he 
aspire  to  the  glory  of  martyrdom  in  Geneva,  as  he  seemed  to 
intimate  in  his  letter  to  Poupin  ?  But  he  had  just  escaped 
martyrdom  in  France.  Or  did  he  wish  to  have  a  personal 
interview  with  Calvin,  which  he  had  sought  in  Paris  in  1534, 
and  again  in  Vienne  in  1546  ?  But  after  publishing  his 
abusive  letters  and  suspecting  him  for  denunciation,  he  could 
hardly  entertain  such  a  wish.  Or  did  he  merely  intend  to 
pass  through  the  place  on  his  way  to  Italy?  But  in  this 
case  he  need  not  tarry  there  for  weeks,  and  he  might  have 
taken  another  route  through  Savoy,  or  by  the  sea.     Or  did 

1  See  Montgiron's  letter  to  the  Council  of  Geneva  in  Opera,  VIII.  791,  and 
in  Rilliet-Tweedie,  p.  156. 

2  Calvin's  Opera,  VIII.  851-856  (copied  from  d'Artigny,  II.  12.3,  and 
Mosheim,  Neue  Nachrichten,  etc.,  p.  100  sq.).  Villanovanus  is  therein  con- 
demned as  "  maximus  kcereticus,"  and  his  scripta  as  "  erronea,  nefanda,  impia, 
sacrilega,  et  plusquam  hatretica." 

3  "  Nescio  quid  dicam,  nisi  fatal i  vesania  fuisse  correptum  ut  se  prcEcipitem 
jaceret."     Calvin.     See  Henry,  III.  151. 


764         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

he  hope  to  dethrone  "the  pope  of  Geneva"  with  the  aid  of 
his  enemies,  who  had  just  then  the  political  control  of  the 
Republic  ?  ^ 

He  lingered  in  France  for  about  three  months.  He  in- 
tended, first,  as  he  declared  at  the  trial,  to  proceed  to  Spain, 
but  finding  the  journey  unsafe,  he  turned  his  eye  to  Naples, 
where  he  hoped  to  make  a  living  as  physician  among  the 
numerous  Spanish  residents.  This  he  could  easily  have 
done  under  a  new  name. 

He  took  his  way  through  Geneva.  He  arrived  there  after 
the  middle  of  July,  1553,  alone  and  on  foot,  having  left  his 
horse  on  the  French  border.  He  took  up  his  lodging  in  the 
Auberge  de  la  Rose,  a  small  inn  on  the  banks  of  the  lake. 
His  dress  and  manner,  his  gold  chain  and  gold  rings,  excited 
attention.  On  being  asked  b}^  his  host  whether  he  was 
married,  he  answered,  like  a  liglit-hearted  cavalier,  that 
women  enough  could  be  found  without  marrying.^  This 
frivolous  reply  provoked  suspicion  of  immorality,  and  was 
made  use  of  at  the  trial,  but  unjustly,  for  a  fracture 
disabled  him  for  marriage  and  prevented  libertinage.^ 

He  remained  about  a  month,  and  then  intended  to  leave 
for  Ziirich.  He  asked  his  host  to  hire  a  boat  to  convey  him 
over  the  lake  some  distance  eastward. 

But  before  his  departure  he  attended  church,  on  Sunday, 
the  13th  of  August.  He  was  recognized  and  arrested  by  an 
officer  of  the  police  in  the  name  of  the  Council.* 

1  Willis  (p.  284)  thinks  that  the  enemies  of  Calvin  detained  him  with  the 
view  to  make  political  capital  out  of  him.  He  infers  this  from  the  fact  that 
the  windows  of  his  room  were  nailed  up.  As  if  he  could  not  have  passed  out 
through  the  door!  Moreover,  it  was  not  the  windows  of  his  room  in  the 
tavern,  as  Willis  says,  but  the  windows  of  the  prison  that  were  nailed  up, 
as  Servetus  stated  at  the  trial,  to  prove  that  he  had  no  intercourse  with  out- 
siders.    See  Rilliet-Tweedie,  p.  154. 

2  "  On  trouve  bien  assez  rle  femmes  sans  se  marrier."     Comp.  Trechsel,  I.  306. 

3  He  declared,  Aug.  23,  that  he  was  impotent  on  account  of  a  rupture. 
Opera,  VHI.  769. 

*  The  following  is  an  extract  from  the  Registers  of  the  Company  of  Pastors 
sub.  Aug.  13  (in  Opera,  VIII.   725)  :  "  M.   Servetus  having  been  recognized 


§  149.  SERVETUS  FLEES  TO  GENEVA.        765 

Calvin  was  responsible  for  this  arrest,  as  he  frankly  and 
repeatedly  acknowledged.^  It  was  a  fatal  mistake.  Servetus 
was  a  stranger  and  had  committed  no  offence  in  Geneva. 
Calvin  ought  to  have  allowed  him  quietly  to  proceed  on  his 
intended  journey.  Why  then  did  he  act  otherwise  ?  Cer- 
tainly not  from  personal  malice,  nor  other  selfish  reasons ; 
for  he  only  increased  the  difficulty  of  his  critical  situation, 
and  ran  the  risk  of  his  defeat  by  the  Libertine  party  then  in 
power.  It  was  an  error  of  judgment.  He  was  under  the 
false  impression  that  Servetus  had  just  come  from  Venice, 
the  headquarters  of  Italian  humanists  and  sceptics,  to  propa- 
gate his  errors  in  Geneva,  and  he  considered  it  his  duty  to 
make  so  dangerous  a  man  harmless,  by  bringing  him  either 
to  conviction  and  recantation,  or  to  deserved  punishment. 
He  was  determined  to  stand  or  fall  with  the  principle  of 
purity  of  doctrine  and  discipline.  Rilliet  justifies  the  arrest 
as  a  necessary  measure  of  self-defence.  "  Under  pain  of 
abdication,"  he  says,  "  Calvin,  must  do  everything  rather  than 
suffer  by  his  side  in  Geneva  a  man  whom  he  considered  the 
greatest  enemy  of  the  Reformation ;  and  the  critical  position 
in  which  he  saw  it  in  the  bosom  of  the  Republic,  was  one 

by  some  brethren  (par  quelques  freres),  it  was  found  good  to  cause  him  to  be 
imprisoned,  that  he  might  no  longer  infect  the  world  with  his  blasphemies 
and  heresies ;  for  he  is  known  to  be  wholly  incorrigible  and  desperate  (du 
tout  incorrigible  et  desespere')." 

1  In  the  Eefutatio,  Opera,  VIII.  4G1,  725,  and  in  letters  to  Farel  (Aug.  20) 
and  Sulzer  (Sept.  8,  1553).  "  Servetus,"  he  wrote  to  Sulzer  in  Basel,  during 
the  trial,  "  escaped  from  prison  some  way  or  other,  and  wandered  in  Italy  for 
nearly  four  months.  At  length,  in  an  evil  hour,  he  came  to  this  place,  when, 
at  my  instigation,  one  of  the  Syndics  ordered  him  to  be  conducted  to  prison  ; 
for  I  do  not  disguise  it  that  I  considered  it  my  duty  to  put  a  check,  so  far  as 
I  could,  upon  this  most  obstinate  and  ungovernable  man,  that  his  contagion 
might  not  spread  farther.  We  see  with  what  wantonness  impiety  is  making 
progress  everywhere,  so  that  new  errors  are  ever  and  anon  breaking  forth ; 
we  see  how  very  inactive  those  are  whom  God  has  armed  with  the  sword  for 
the  vindication  of  the  glory  of  his  name."  The  reference  to  a  four  months' 
wandering  in  Italy  (per  Italiani  erravit  fere  quatuor  menses,  that  is,  from  April 
7th  to  the  end  of  July)  is  an  error.  Servetus  at  the  trial  denied  that  he  had 
been  in  Italy  at  that  time  or  at  Venice  at  any  time. 


766        THE   KEFOEMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

motive  more  to  remove,  if  it  was  possible,  the  new  element 
of  dissolution  which  the  free  sojourn  of  Servetus  would  have 
created.  ...  To  tolerate  Servetus  with  impunity  at  Geneva 
would  have  been  for  Calvin  to  exile  himself.  .  .  .  He  had 
no  alternative.  The  man  whom  a  Calvinist  accusation  had 
caused  to  be  arrested,  tried,  and  condemned  to  the  flames  in 
France,  could  not  find  an  asylum  in  the  city  from  which 
that  accusation  had  issued."  ^ 

§  150.    State  of  Political  Parties  at  G-eneva  in  1553. 

Calvin's  position  in  Geneva  at  that  time  was  very  critical. 
For  in  the  year  1553  he  was  in  the  fever-heat  of  the  struggle 
for  church  discipline  with  the  Patriots  and  Libertines,  who 
had  gained  a  temporary  ascendency  in  the  government. 
Amy  Perrin,  the  leader  of  the  patriotic  party,  was  then 
captain-general  and  chief  syndic,  and  several  of  his  kinsmen 
and  friends  were  members  of  the  Little  Council  of  Twenty- 
five.2  During  the  trial  of  Servetus  the  Council  sustained 
Philibert  Berthelier  against  the  act  of  excommunication  by 
the  Consistory,  and  took  church  discipline  into  its  own 
hands.  The  foreign  refugees  were  made  harmless  by  being 
deprived  of  their  arms.  Violence  was  threatened  to  the 
Reformer.  He  was  everywhere  saluted  as  "  a  heretic,"  and 
insulted  on  the  streets.  Beza  says :  "  In  the  year  1553,  the 
wickedness  of  the  seditions,  hastening  to  a  close,  was  so 
turbulent  that  both  Church  and  State  were  brought  into 
extreme  danger.  .  .  .  Everything  seemed  to  be  in  a  state 
of  preparation  for  accomplishing  the  plans  of  the  seditious, 
since  all  was  subject  to  their  power."  And  Calvin,  at  the 
close  of  that  year,  wrote  to  a  friend :  "  For  four  years  the 
factions  have  done  all  to  lead  by  degrees  to  the  overthrow 
of  this  Church,  already  very  weak.  .  .  .     Behold  two  years 

1  Translated  by  Tweedie,  p.  87. 

2  Pernet  de  Fosses,  Gaspard  Favre,  Claude  Vandel,  Pierre  Vandel,  and 
Baptiste  Sept.     See  Opera,  VIII.  737,  note  6. 


§  150.     STATE   OF   POLITICAI.   PARTIES   AT   GENEVA.      767 

of  our  life  have  passed  as  if  we  lived  among  the  avowed 
enemies  of  the  gospel." 

The  hostility  of  the  Council  to  Calvin  and  his  discipline 
continued  even  after  the  execution  of  Servetus  for  nearly 
two  more  years.  He  asked  the  assistance  of  Bullinger  and 
the  Church  of  Ziirich  to  come  to  his  aid  again  in  this 
struggle.^  He  wrote  to  Ambrose  Blaurer,  Feb.  6,  1554: 
"  These  last  few  years  evil  disposed  persons  have  not  ceased 
on  every  occasion  to  create  for  us  new  subjects  of  vexation. 
At  length  in  their  endeavors  to  render  null  our  excommuni- 
cation, there  is  no  excess  of  folly  they  have  left  unattempted. 
Everywhere  the  contest  was  long  maintained  with  much 
violence,  because  in  the  senate  and  among  the  people  the 
passions  of  the  contending  parties  had  been  so  much  inflamed 
that  there  was  some  risk  of  a  tumult."  ^ 

We  do  not  know  whether  Servetus  was  aware  of  this  state 
of  things.  But  he  could  not  have  come  at  a  time  more 
favorable  to  him  and  more  unfavorable  to  Calvin.  Among 
the  Libertines  and  Patriots,  who  hated  the  yoke  of  Calvin 
even  more  than  the  yoke  of  the  pope,  Servetus  found  natural 
supporters  who,  in  turn,  would  gladly  use  him  for  political 
purposes.  This  fact  emboldened  him  to  take  such  a  defiant 
attitude  in  the  trial  and  to  overwhelm  Calvin  with  abuse. 

The  final  responsibility  of  the  condemnation,  therefore, 
rests  with  the  Council  of  Geneva,  which  would  probably 
have  acted  otherwise,  if  it  had  not  been  strongly  influenced 
by  the  judgment  of  the  Swiss  Churches  and  the  government 
of  Bern.  Calvin  conducted  the  theological  part  of  the 
examination  of  the  trial,  but  had  no  direct  influence  upon 
the  result.  His  theory  was  that  the  Church  may  convict 
and  denounce  the  heretic  theologically,  but  that  his  condem- 
nation and  punishment  is  the  exclusive  function  of  the  State, 

1  Letters  of  Nov.  26  and  Dec.  30,  1553,  in  Bonnet-Constable,  II.  422-4.30. 

2  Ihid.  III.  17.  Comp.  also  his  letter  of  Oct.  15,  1554,  quoted  in  §  108,, 
p.  496,  and  his  letter  to  John  Wolf  of  Zurich,  Dec.  26, 1554. 


768         THE    REFORMATION   IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

and  that  it  is  one  of  its  most  sacred  duties  to  punish  attacks 
made  on  the  Divine  majesty. 

"From  the  time  Servetus  was  convicted  of  his  heresy," 
says  Calvin,  "  I  have  not  uttered  a  word  about  his  punish- 
ment, as  all  honest  men  will  bear  witness  ;  and  I  challenge 
even  the  malignant  to  deny  it  if  they  can."  ^  One  thing  only 
he  did :  he  expressed  the  wish  for  a  mitigation  of  his  punish- 
ment.2  And  this  humane  sentiment  is  almost  the  only  good 
thing  that  can  be  recorded  to  his  honor  in  this  painful  trial. 

§  151.    The  First  Act  of  the  Trial  at  Geneva. 

Servetus  was  confined  near  the  Church  of  St.  Pierre,  in 
the  ancient  residence  of  the  bishops  of  Geneva,  which  had 
been  turned  into  a  prison.  His  personal  property  consisted 
of  ninety-seven  crowns,  a  chain  of  gold  weighing  about 
twenty  crowns,  and  six  gold  rings  (a  laige  turquoise,  a  white 
sapphire,  a  diamond,  a  ruby,  a  large  emerald  of  Peru,  and 
a  signet  ring  of  coralline).  These  valuables  were  surren- 
dered to  Pierre  Tissot,  and  after  the  process  given  to  the 
hospital.  The  prisoner  was  allowed  to  have  paper  and  ink, 
and  such  books  as  could  be  procured  at  Geneva  or  Lyons 
at  his  own  expense.  Calvin  lent  him  Ignatius,  Polycarp, 
TertuUian,  and  Irenseus.  But  he  was  denied  the  benefit  of 
counsel,  according  to  the  ordinances  of  1543.  This  is  con- 
trary to  the  law  of  equity  and  is  one  of  the  worst  features 
of  the  trial.     He  was  not  subjected  to  the  usual  torture. 

The  laws  of  Geneva  demanded  that  the  accuser  should 
become  a  prisoner  with  the  accused,  in  order  that  in  the 
event  of  the  charge  proving  false,  the  former  might  undergo 

^  Opera,  VIII.  461 :  '^  Ex  quo  convictus  est,  me  nullum  de  poena  verhtim  fccisse, 
non  solum  boni  omnes  viri  mihl  testes  erunt  sed  mails  etiam  concede  ut  proferant 
si  quid  habent."  Servetus  complained  of  hard  treatment  in  prison,  but  for 
this  the  Council  and  the  jailer  alone  were  responsible. 

2  In  his  letter  to  Farel,  Aug.  20,  1553:  "  Sper-o  capitale  saltern  judicium 
fore;  pcenoe  vera  atrocitatem  remitti  cupio." 


§  151.     THE   FIRST    ACT    OF    THE   TRIAL.  769 

punishment  in  the  place  of  the  accused.  The  person  em- 
ployed for  this  purpose  was  Nicolas  de  la  Fontaine,  a  French- 
man, a  theological  student,  and  Calvin's  private  secretary. 
The  accused  as  well  as  the  accuser  were  foreigners.  Another 
law  obliged  the  Little  Council  to  examine  every  prisoner 
within  twenty-four  hours  after  his  arrest.  The  advocate  or 
"Speaker"  of  Nicolas  de  la  Fontaine  in  the  trial  was 
Germain  Colladon,  likewise  a  Frenchman  and  an  able  lawyer, 
who  had  fled  for  his  religion,  and  aided  Calvin  in  framing 
a  new  constitution  for  Geneva. 

The  trial  began  on  the  15th  of  August  and  continued,  with 
interruptions,  for  more  than  two  months.  It  was  conducted 
in  French  and  took  place  in  the  Bishop's  Palace,  according 
to  the  forms  prescribed  by  law,  in  the  presence  of  the  Little 
Council,  the  herald  of  the  city,  the  Lord-Lieutenant,  and 
several  citizens,  who  had  a  right  to  sit  in  criminal  processes, 
but  did  not  take  part  in  the  judgment.  Among  these  was 
Berthelier,  the  bitter  enemy  of  Calvin. 

Servetus  answered  the  preliminary  questions  as  to  his  name, 
age,  and  previous  history  more  truthfully  than  he  had  done 
before  the  Catholic  tribunal,  and  incidentally  accused  Calvin 
of  having  caused  the  prosecution  at  Vienne.  It  is  not  owing 
to  Calvin,  he  said,  that  he  was  not  burnt  alive  there. 

The  deed  of  accusation,  as  lodged  by  Nicholas  de  la 
Fontaine,  consisted  of  thirty-eight  articles  which  were  drawn 
up  by  Calvin  (as  he  himself  informs  us),  and  were  fortified 
by  references  to  the  books  of  Servetus,  which  were  produced 
in  evidence,  especially  the  "  Restitution  of  Christianity," 
both  the  manuscript  copy,  which  Servetus  had  sent  to  Calvin 
in  advance,  and  a  printed  copy.^ 

The  principal  charges  were,  that  he  had  published  heretical 
oi)inions  and  blasphemies  concerning  the  Trinity,  the  person 

1  The  articles  are  given  in  full  by  Rilliet,  and  in  Opera^  "VIII.  727-731. 
Calvin  mentions  forty  articles  in  a  letter  to  Farel  (Aug.  20),  but  they  are 
reduced  to  thirty-eight  by  the  notation. 


770         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

of  Christ,  and  infant  baptism.  He  gave  evasive  or  orthodox- 
sounding  answers.  He  confessed  to  believe  in  the  trinity  of 
persons,  but  understood  the  word  "person"  in  a  different 
sense  from  that  used  by  modern  writers,  and  appealed  to  the 
first  teachers  of  the  Church  and  the  disciples  of  the  apostles.^ 
He  denied  at  first  that  he  had  called  the  Trinity  three  devils 
and  Cerberus ;  ^  but  he  had  done  so  repeatedly  and  confessed 
it  afterwards.  He  professed  to  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  was 
the  Son  of  God  according  to  his  divinity  and  humanity ;  that 
the  flesh  of  Christ  came  from  heaven  and  of  the  substance  of 
God;  but  as  to  the  matter  it  came  from  the  Virgin  Mary. 
He  denied  the  view  imputed  to  him  that  the  soul  was  mortal. 
He  admitted  that  he  had  called  infant  baptism  "a  diabolical 
invention  and  infernal  falsehood  destructive  of  Christianity." 
This  was  a  dangerous  admission ;  for  the  Anabaptists  were 
suspected  of  seditious  and  revolutionary  opinions. 

He  was  also  charged  with  having,  "in  the  person  of  M. 
Calvin,  defamed  the  doctrines  of  the  gospel  and  of  the 
Church  of  Geneva."  To  this  he  replied  that  in  what  he  had 
formerly  written  against  Calvin,  in  his  own  defence,  he 
had  not  intended  to  injure  him,  but  to  show  him  his  errors 
and  faults,  which  he  was  ready  to  prove  by  Scripture  and 
good  reasons  before  a  full  congregation. 

This  was  a  bold  challenge.  Calvin  was  willing  to  accept 
it,  but  the  Council  declined,  fearing  to  lose  the  control  of  the 
affair  by  submitting  it  to  the  tribunal  of  public  opinion. 
The  friends  of  Servetus  would  have  run  the  risk  of  seeing 

1  "Respond  quit  croit  en  lessence  divine  en  troys  personnes  et  quil  na  point  dog- 
matise en  celle  sorte.  Vray  est  quil  prent  le  nom  de  personne  aultrement  que  les 
modernes  ne  le  prennent  et  quil  le  prent  comment  les  premiers  docteurs  de  leglise 
et  disciples  des  apotres  lont  prys."  Opera,  VIII.  738.  I  retain  the  ancient 
spelling. 

■^  "  Interroge  sil  entend  que  la  Trinite  soit  troys  diables  et  soit  troys  [uw]  Cerberus, 
respond  que  non,  et  quil  ne  la  point  diet  en  ceste  sorte  et  quil  ne  le  veult  point  mainte- 
nir."  Comp.  with  this  the  passage  in  his  letter  to  Poupin  which  was  after- 
wards produced  in  evidence  and  acknowledged  by  him  :  "  Pro  uno  Deo  habetis 
tricipitem  Cerberum." 


§  151.     THE    FIRST    ACT   OF   THE   TRIAL.  771 

him  defeated  in  public  debate.  That  charge,  however,  which 
seemed  to  betray  personal  ill-feeling  of  Calvin,  was  after- 
wards very  properly  omitted. 

On  the  following  day,  the  16th  of  August,  Berthelier,  then 
smarting  under  the  sentence  of  excommunication  by  the 
Consistory,  openly  came  to  the  defence  of  Servetus,  and  had 
a  stormy  encounter  with  Colladon,  which  is  omitted  in  the 
official  record,  but  indicated  by  blanks  and  the  abrupt  termi- 
nation: "Here  they  proceeded  no  further,  but  adjourned  till 
to-morrow  at  mid-day." 

On  Thursday,  the  17th  of  August,  Calvin  himself  appeared 
before  the  Council  as  the  real  accuser,  and  again  on  the  21st 
of  August.^  He  also  conferred  with  his  antagonist  in  writing. 
Servetus  was  not  a  match  for  Calvin  either  in  learning  or 
argument ;  but  he  showed  great  skill  and  some  force. 

He  contemptuously  repelled  the  frivolous  charge  that,  in 
his  Ptolemy,  he  had  contradicted  the  authority  of  Moses,  by 
describing  Palestine  as  an  unfruitful  country  (which  it  was 
then,  and  is  now).  He  wiped  his  mouth  and  said,  "  Let  us 
go  on  ;  there  is  nothing  wrong  there." 

The  charge  of  having,  in  his  notes  on  the  Latin  Bible, 
explained  the  servant  of  God  in  the  fifty-third  chapter  of 
Isaiah,  as  meaning  King  Cyrus,  instead  of  the  Saviour,  he 
disposed  of  by  distinguishing  two  senses  of  prophecy  —  the 
literal  and  historical  sense  which  referred  to  Cyrus,  and 
the  mystical  and  principal  sense  which  referred  to  Christ. 
He  quoted  Nicolaus  de  Lyra;  but  Calvin  showed  him  the 
error,  and  asserts  that  he  audaciously  quoted  books  which 
he  had  never  examined. 

As  to  his  calling  the  Trinity  "  a  Cerberus  "  and  "  a  dream 
of  Augustin,"  and  the  Trinitarians  "atheists,"  he  said  that 
he  did  not  mean  the  true  Trinity,  which  he  believed  himself, 

1  On  this  and  the  subsequent  encounter  we  have  also  an  account  from 
Calvin  in  his  "Defence,"  which  is  more  minute  than  the  official  report. 
Opera,  VIII.  743  sqq. 


772         THE   REFORMATION    IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

but  the  false  trinity  of  his  opponents ;  and  that  the  oldest 
teachers  before  the  Council  of  Nicsea  did  not  teach  that 
trinity,  and  did  not  use  the  word.  Among  them  he  quoted 
Ignatius,  Polycarp,  Clement  of  Rome,  Irenseus,  TertuUian, 
and  Clement  of  Alexandria.  Calvin  refuted  his  assertion  by 
quotations  from  Justin  Martyr,  TertuUian,  and  Origen.  On 
this  occasion  he  charges  him,  unjustly,  with  total  ignorance 
of  Greek,  because  he  was  embarrassed  by  a  Greek  quotation 
from  Justin  Martyr,  and  called  for  a  Latin  version.^ 

In  discussing  the  relation  of  the  divine  substance  to  that 
of  the  creatures,  Servetus  declared  that  "  all  creatures  are  of 
the  substance  of  God,  and  that  God  is  in  all  things."  Calvin 
asked  him:  "  How,  unhappy  man,  if  any  one  strike  the  pave- 
ment with  his  foot  and  say  that  he  tramples  on  thy  God, 
wouldst  thou  not  be  horrified  at  having  the  Majesty  of 
heaven  subjected  to  such  indignity  ? "  To  this  Servet 
replied :  "  I  have  no  doubt  that  this  bench,  and  this  buffet, 
and  all  you  can  show  me,  are  of  the  substance  of  God." 
When  it  was  objected  that  in  his  view  God  must  be  substan- 
tially even  in  the  devil,  he  burst  out  into  a  laugh,  and 
rejoined:  "Can  you  doubt  this?  I  hold  this  for  a  general 
maxim,  that  all  things  are  part  and  parcel  of  God,  and  that 
the  nature  of  things  is  his  substantial  Spirit."  ^ 

The  result  of  this  first  act  of  the  trial  was  unfavorable  to 
the  prisoner,  but  not  decisive. 

Calvin  used  the  freedom  of  the  pulpit  to  counteract  the 
efforts  of  the  Libertine  party  in  favor  of  Servetus. 

§  152.    The  Second  Act  of  the  Trial  at  Geneva. 

The  original  prosecution  being  discharged,  the  case  was 
handed  over  to  the  attorney-general,  Claude  Rigot,  in  com- 

1  "He  could  no  more  read  Greek,"  says  Calvin,  in  the  Befutatio,  "than 
a  boy  learning  his  A  B  C."     Opera,  VIII.  498. 

2  Opera,  VIII.  496:  "ex  traduce  Dei  orta  (or,  urie  partie  et  portion  de  Dieu) 
esse  omnia,  et  rerum  naturam  esse  substantialem  Dei  spirituin." 


§  152.     THE    SECOND    ACT    OF    THE   TRIAL.  773 

pliance  with  the  criminal  ordinance  of  1543.  Thus  the 
second  act  of  the  trial  began.  The  prisoner  was  examined 
again,  and  a  new  indictment  of  thirty  articles  was  prepared, 
which  bore  less  on  the  actual  heresies  of  the  accused  than  on 
their  dangerous  practical  tendency  and  his  persistency  in 
spreading  them.^ 

The  Council  wrote  also  to  the  judges  of  Vienne  to  procure 
particulars  of  the  charges  which  had  been  brought  against 
him  there. 

Serve tus  defended  himself  before  the  Council  on  the  23d 
of  August,  with  ingenuity  and  apparent  frankness  against 
the  new  charges  of  quarrelsomeness  and  immorality.  As  to 
the  latter,  he  pleaded  his  physical  infirmity  which  protected 
him  against  the  temptation  of  licentiousness.  He  had  always 
studied  the  Scripture  and  tried  to  lead  a  Christian  life.  He 
did  not  think  that  his  book  would  disturb  the  peace  of 
Christendom,  but  would  promote  the  truth.  He  denied  that 
he  had  come  to  Geneva  for  any  sinister  purpose ;  he  merely 
wished  to  pass  through  on  his  way  to  Ziirich  and  Naples. 

At  the  same  time  he  prepared  a  written  petition  to  the 
Council,  which  was  received  on  the  24th  of  August.  He 
demanded  his  release  from  the  criminal  charge  for  several 
reasons,  which  ought  to  have  had  considerable  weight :  that  it 
was  unknown  in  the  Christian  Church  before  the  time  of 
Constantine  to  try  cases  of  heresy  before  a  civil  tribunal ; 
that  he  had  not  offended  against  the  laws  either  in  Geneva 
or  elsewhere ;  that  he  was  not  seditious  nor  turbulent ;  that 
his  books  treated  of  abstruse  questions,  and  were  addressed 
to  the  learned ;  that  he  had  not  spoken  of  these  subjects  to 
anybody  but  Qilcolampadius,  Bucer,  and  Capito ;  that  he  had 
ever  refuted  the  Anabaptists,  who  rebelled  against  the  magis- 
trates and  wished  to  have  all  things  in  common.  In  case  he 
was   not   released,   he   demanded   the   aid    of    an    advocate 

1  Articles  du  procureur-ge'neral  in  Opera,  VIII.  763-766. 


774        THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

acquainted  with  the  laws  and  customs  of  the  country.  Cer- 
tainly a  very  reasonable  request.^ 

The  attorney-general  prepared  a  second  indictment  in 
refutation  of  the  arguments  of  Servetus,  who  had  studied 
law  at  Toulouse.  He  showed  that  the  first  Christian  empe- 
rors claimed  for  themselves  the  cognizance  and  trial  of 
heresies,  and  that  their  laws  and  constitutions  condemned 
antitrinitarian  heretics  and  blasphemers  to  death.  He 
charged  him  with  falsehood  in  declaring  that  he  had  written 
against  the  Anabaptists,  and  that  he  had  not  communicated 
his  doctrine  to  any  person  during  the  last  thirty  years.     The 

* 

counsel  asked  for  was  refused  because  it  was  forbidden  by 
the  criminal  statutes  (1543),  and  because  there  was  "not 
one  jot  of  apparent  innocence  which  requires  an  attorney." 
The  very  thing  to  be  proved ! 

A  new  examination  followed  which  elicited  some  points  of 
interest.  Servetus  stated  his  belief  that  the  Reformation 
would  progress  much  further  than  Luther  and  Calvin  in- 
tended, and  that  new  things  were  always  first  rejected,  but 
afterwards  received.  To  the  absurd  charge  of  making  use 
of  the  Koran,  he  replied  that  he  had  quoted  it  for  the 
glory  of  Christ,  that  the  Koran  abounds  in  what  is  good, 
and  that  even  in  a  wicked  book  one  may  find  some  good 
things. 

On  the  last  day  of  August  the  Little  Council  received 
answer  from  Vienne.  The  commandant  of  the  royal  palace 
in  that  city  arrived  in  Geneva,  communicated  to  them  a  copy 
of  the  sentence  of  death  pronounced  against  Villeneuve,  and 
begged  them  to  send  him  back  to  France  that  the  sentence 
might  be  executed  on  the  living  man  as  it  had  been  already 
executed  on  his  effigy  and  books.  The  Council  refused  to 
surrender  Servetus,  in  accordance  with  analogous  cases,  but 
promised  to  do  full  justice.  The  prisoner  himself,  who  could 
see  only  a  burning  funeral  pile  for  him  in  Vienne,  preferred 

1  Opera,  VIII.  797. 


§  152.     THE    SECOND    ACT    OF    THE    TRIAL.  775 

to  be  tried  in  Geneva,  where  he  had  some  chance  of  acquittal 
or  lighter  punishment.  He  incidentally  justified  his  habit  of 
attending  mass  at  Vienne  by  the  example  of  Paul,  who  went 
to  the  temple,  like  the  Jews ;  yet  he  confessed  that  in  doing 
so  he  had  sinned  through  fear  of  death.^ 

The  communication  from  Vienne  had  probably  the  influ- 
ence of  stimulating  the  zeal  of  the  Council  for  orthodoxy. 
They  wished  not  to  be  behind  the  Roman  Church  in  that 
respect.     But  the  issue  was  still  uncertain. 

The  Council  again  confronted  Servetus  with  Calvin  on 
the  first  day  of  September.  On  the  same  day  it  granted, 
in  spite  of  the  strong  protest  of  Calvin,  permission  to 
Philibert  Berthelier  to  approach  the  communion  table.  It 
thus  annulled  the  act  of  excommunication  by  the  Con- 
sistory, and  arrogated  to  itself  the  power  of  ecclesiastical 
discipline. 

A  few  hours  afterwards  the  investigation  was  resumed  in 
the  prison.  Perrin  and  Berthelier  were  present  as  judges, 
and  came  to  the  aid  of  Servetus  in  the  oral  debate  with 
Calvin,  but,  it  seems,  without  success ;  for  they  resorted  to 
a  written  discussion  in  which  Servetus  could  better  defend 
himself,  and  in  which  Calvin  might  complicate  his  already 
critical  position.  They  wished,  moreover,  to  refer  the  affair 
to  the  Churches  of  Switzerland  which,  in  the  case  of  Bolsec, 
had  shown  themselves  much  more  tolerant  than  Calvin. 
Servetus  demanded  such  reference.  Calvin  did  not  like  it, 
but  did  not  openly  oppose  it. 

The  Council,  without  entering  on  the  discussion,  decided 
that  Calvin  should  extract  in  Latin,  from  the  books  of  Serve- 
tus, the  objectionable  articles,  word  for  word,  contained 
therein ;  that  Servetus  should  write  his  answers  and  vindica- 
tions, also  in  Latin;  that  Calvin  should  in  his  turn  furnish 
his  replies ;  and  that  these  documents  be  forwarded  to  the 

1  Opera,  VIII.  789 :  "  Et  puys  apres  a  confess^  quil  avait  pech€  en  ce,  mats 
que  cestoit  par  crainte  de  la  mart. " 


776         THE    EEFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Swiss  Churches  as  a  basis  of  judgment.  All  this  was  fair 
and  impartial.^ 

On  the  same  day  Calvin  extracted  thirty-eight  propositions 
from  the  books  of  Servetus  with  references,  but  without 
comments. 

Then,  turning  with  astonishing  energy  from  one  enemy  to 
the  other,  he  appeared  before  the  Little  Council  on  the  2d 
of  September  to  protest  most  earnestly  against  their  protec- 
tion of  Berthelier,  who  intended  to  present  hiiiiself  on  the 
following  day  as  a  guest  at  the  Lord's  table,  and  by  the 
strength  of  the  civil  power  to  force  Calvin  to  give  him 
the  tokens  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ.  He  declared 
before  the  Council  that  he  would  rather  die  than  act  against 
his  conscience.  The  Council  did  not  yield,  but  resolved 
secretly  to  advise  Berthelier  to  abstain  from  receiving  the 
sacrament  for  the  present.  Calvin,  ignorant  of  this  secret 
advice,  and  resolved  to  conquer  or  to  die,  thundered  from 
the  pulpit  of  St.  Peter  on  the  3d  of  September  his  determina- 
tion to  refuse,  at  the  risk  of  his  life,  the  sacred  elements 
to  an  excommunicated  person.  Berthelier  did  not  dare  to 
approach  the  table.  Calvin  had  achieved  a  moral  victory 
over  the  Council.^ 

In  the  mean  time  Servetus  had,  within  the  space  of 
twenty-four  hours,  prepared  a  written  defence,  as  directed 
by  the  Council,  against  the  thirty-eight  articles  of  Calvin. 
It  was  both  apologetic  and  boldly  aggressive,  clear,  keen, 
violent,  and  bitter.  He  contemptuously  repelled  Calvin's 
interference  in  the  trial,  and  charged  him  with  presumption 
in  framing  articles  of  faith  after  the  fashion  of  the  doctors 
of  the  Sorbonne,  without  Scripture  proof.^     He  affirmed  that 

1  Opera,  VIII.  796.  The  Latin  text  of  the  three  documents  is  embodied 
in  Calvin's  Befutatio  Errorum,  ibid.  501-553. 

2  See  above,  §  109,  p.  513  sq. 

^  VIII.  507  :  "  Earn  sibi  jam  autoritatem  arrogat  Calvinus,  ut  instar  magistro- 
rum  Sorbonicorum  articulos  scribat,  et  guidvis  pro  sua  libidine  damnet,  nullam 
penitus  ex  sacris  [c?e  I'ecriture  sainte'\  adducens  rationem." 


§  152.     THE    SECOND    ACT    OF    THE    TRIAL.  777 

he  either  misunderstood  him  or  craftily  perverted  his  mean- 
ing. He  quotes  from  Tertullian,  Irenaeus,  and  pseudo- 
Clement  in  support  of  his  views.  He  calls  him  a  disciple 
of  Simon  Magus,  a  criminal  accuser,  and  a  homicide.^  He 
ridiculed  the  idea  that  such  a  man  should  call  himself  an 
orthodox  minister  of  the  Church. 

Calvin  replied  within  two  days  in  a  document  of  twenty- 
three  folio  pages,  which  were  signed  by  all  the  fourteen 
ministers  of  Geneva.^  He  meets  the  patristic  quotations  of 
Servetus  with  counter-quotations,  with  Scripture  passages 
and  solid  arguments,  and  charges  him  in  conclusion  with  the 
intention  "  to  subvert  all  religion."  ^ 

These  three  documents,  which  contained  the  essence  of  the 
doctrinal  discussion,  were  presented  to  the  Little  Council  on 
Tuesday  the  5th  of  September. 

On  the  15th  of  September  Servetus  addressed  a  petition 
to  the  Council  in  which  he  attacked  Calvin  as  his  persecutor, 
complained  of  his  miserable  condition  in  prison  and  want  of 
the  necessary  clothing,  and  demanded  an  advocate  and  the 
transfer  of  his  trial  to  the  Large  Council  of  Two  Hundred, 
where  he  had  reason  to  expect  a  majority  in  his  favor.*  This 
course  had  probably  been  suggested  to  him  (as  Rilliet  conjec- 
tures) by  Perrin  and  Berthelier  through  the  jailer,  Claude  de 
Geneve,  who  was  a  member  of  the  Libertine  party. 

On  the  same  day  the  Little  Council  ordered  an  improve- 
ment of  the  prisoner's  wardrobe  (which,  however,  was  delayed 
by  culpable  neglect),  and  sent  him  the  three  documents,  with 
permission  to  make  a  last  reply  to  Calvin,  but  took  no  action 
on  his  appeal  to  the  Large  Council,  having  no  disposition  to 
renounce  its  own  authority. 

^  VIII.  515 :  "  Simonis  Magi  discipulust  ,  .  .  accusator  criminalis,  et  homicida." 

2  Calvinus,  Poupinus,  Gallasius,  Bernardus,  Bourgoinus,  Malisianus, 
Calvetus,  Pyrerius,  Copus,  Baldinus,  J.  a  Sancto  Andrea,  Faber,  Macarius, 
Colladonus. 

^  "  Ut  luce  sance  docfrinoe  exstiyicta  totam  religionem  everteret." 

*  Opera,  VIII.  797,  and  Rilliet-Tweedie,  p.  182. 


778         THE   REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Servetus  at  once  prepared  a  reply  by  way  of  explana- 
tory annotations  on  the  margin  and  between  the  lines  of  the 
memorial  of  Calvin  and  the  ministers.  These  annotations 
are  full  of  the  coarsest  abuse,  and  read  like  the  production 
of  a  madman.  He  calls  Calvin  again  and  again  a  liar/  an 
impostor,  a  miserable  wretch  Qiehulo  pessimus),  a  hypocrite, 
a  disciple  of  Simon  Magus,  etc.  Take  these  specimens:  "Do 
you  deny  that  you  are  a  man-slayer  ?  I  will  prove  it  by  your 
acts.  You  dare  not  deny  that  you  are  Simon  Magus.  As 
for  me,  I  am  firm  in  so  good  a  cause,  and  do  not  fear  death. 
.  .  .  You  deal  with  sophistical  arguments  without  Scrip- 
ture. .  .  .  You  do  not  understand  what  you  say.  You  howl 
like  a  blind  man  in  the  desert.  .  .  .  You  lie,  you  lie,  you 
lie,  you  ignorant  calumniator.  .  .  .  Madness  is  in  you  when 
you  persecute  to  death.  ...  I  wish  that  all  your  magic 
were  still  in  the  belly  of  your  mother.  ...  I  wish  I  were 
free  to  make  a  catalogue  of  your  errors.  Whoever  is  not 
a  Simon  Magus  is  considered  a  Pelagian  by  Calvin.  All, 
therefore,  who  have  been  in  Christendom  are  damned  by 
Calvin ;  even  the  apostles,  their  disciples,  the  ancient  doctors 
of  the  Church  and  all  the  rest.  For  no  one  ever  entirely 
abolished  free-will  except  that  Simon  Magus.  Thou  liest, 
thou  liest,  thou  liest,  thou  liest,  thou  miserable  wretch." 

He  concludes  with  the  remark  that  "  his  doctrine  Avas  met 
merely  by  clamors,  not  by  argument  or  anj'  authority,"  and 
he  subscribed  his  name  as  one  who  had  Christ  for  his  certain 
protector.^ 

He  sent  these  notes  to  the  Council  on  the  18th  of  Sep- 
tember.    It  was  shown  to  Calvin,  but  he  did  not  deem  it 

1  "  Mentiris"  occurs  in  almost  every  sentence.  lie  naively  apologizes  for 
writing  on  Calvin's  own  paper,  because  there  were  many  little  words,  sucli  as 
"mentiris  "  which  would  not  be  otherwise  understood;  and  he  hopes  tliat 
Calvin  would  not  be  offended,  as  there  would  have  been  inextricable  confu- 
sion had  he  not  adopted  this  method. 

2  "Michael  Servetus  suhscribit  eolus  hie  quidem,  sed  qui  Christum  habet  pro- 
tectorem  certissinium."     From  the  MS.,  in  Opera,  VIII.  553,  note. 


§  153.     CONSULTATION   OF   THE   SWISS   CHURCHES. 


i  i 


expedient  to  make  a  reply.     Silence  in  this  case  was  better 
than  speech. 

The  debate,  therefore,  between  the  two  divines  was  closed, 
and  the  trial  became  an  affair  of  Protestant  Switzerland, 
which  should  act  as  a  jury. 

§  153.    Consultation  of  the  Swiss   Churches.      The  Defiant 
Attitude  of  Servetms. 

On  the  19th  of  September  the  Little  Council,  in  accord- 
ance with  a  resolution  adopted  on  the  4th,  referred  the  case 
of  Servetus  to  the  magistrates  and  pastors  of  the  Reformed 
Churches  of  Bern,  Ziirich,  Schaffhausen,  and  Basel  for  their 
judgment. 

Two  days  afterwards  Jaquemoz  Jernoz,  as  the  official 
messenger,  was  despatched  on  his  mission  with  a  circular 
letter  and  the  documents,  —  namely  the  theological  debate 
between  Calvin  and  Servetus,  —  a  copy  of  the  "  Restitution 
of  Christianity,"  and  the  works  of  Tertullian  and  Irenaeus, 
who  were  the  chief  patristic  authorities  quoted  by  both 
parties. 

On  the  result  of  this  mission  the  case  of  Servetus  was 
made  to  depend.  Servetus  himself  had  expressed  a  wish 
that  this  course  should  be  adopted,  hoping,  it  seems,  to  gain 
a  victory,  or  at  least  an  escape  from  capital 'punishment.  On 
the  22d  of  August  he  was  willing  to  be  banished  from 
Geneva ;  but  on  the  22d  of  September  he  asked  the  Council 
to  put  Calvin  on  trial,  and  handed  in  a  list  of  articles  on 
which  he  should  be  interrogated.  He  thus  admitted  the 
civil  jurisdiction  in  matters  of  religious  opinions  which  he 
had  formerly  denied,  and  was  willing  to  stake  his  life  on  the 
decision,  provided  that  his  antagonist  should  be  exposed  to 
the   same   fate.^     Among   the   four    "great   and   infallible" 

1  "  le  demand  que  mon  faulx  accusateur  soyt  puni  poena  talionis ;  et  que  soj/t 
detenu  prisonier  comme  moi/,  jusques  a  ce  que  la  cause  soi/t  definie  pour  mart  de  luy 
ou  de  moy  ou  aultre  poine."  The  petition  concludes  :  "  le  vous  demande  justice, 
messeigneurs,  justice,  justice,  justice."     Opera,  VIII.  805. 


780        THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

reasons  why  Calvin  should  be  condemned,  he  assigned  the 
fact  that  he  wished  to  "repress  the  truth  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  follow  the  doctrines  of  Simon  Magus,  against  all  the 
doctors  that  ever  were  in  the  Church."  He  declared  in  his 
petition  that  Calvin,  like  a  magician,  ought  to  be  extermi- 
nated, and  his  goods  be  confiscated  and  given  to  Servetus,  in 
compensation  for  the  loss  he  had  sustained  through  Calvin. 
"  To  dislodge  Calvin  from  his  position,"  says  Rilliet,  "  to 
expel  him  from  Geneva,  to  satisfy  a  just  vengeance  —  these 
were  the  objects  toward  which  Servetus  rushed." 

But  the  Council  took  no  notice  of  his  petition. 

On  the  10th  of  October  he  sent  another  letter  to  the 
Council,  imploring  them,  for  the  love  of  Christ,  to  grant  him 
such  justice  as  they  would  not  refuse  to  a  Turk,  and  com- 
plaining that  nothing  had  been  done  for  his  comfort  as  prom- 
ised, but  that  he  was  more  wretched  than  ever.  The  peti- 
tion had  some  effect.  The  Lord  Syndic,  Darlod,  and  the 
Secretary  of  State,  Claude  Roset,  were  directed  to  visit  his 
prison  and  to  provide  some  articles  of  dress  for  his  relief. 

On  the  18th  of  October  the  messenger  of  the  State  returned 
with  the  answers  from  the  four  foreign  churches.  They  were 
forthwith  translated  into  French,  and  examined  by  the 
magistrates.  We  already  know  the  contents.^  The  churches 
were  unanimous  in  condemning  the  theological  doctiines  of 
Servetus,  and  in  the  testimony  of  respect  and  affection  for 
Calvin  and  his  colleagues.  Even  Bern,  which  was  not  on 
good  terms  with  Calvin,  and  had  two  years  earlier  counselled 
toleration  in  the  case  of  Bolsec,  regarded  Servetus  a  much 
more  dangerous  heretic  and  advised  to  remove  this  "pest." 
Yet  none  of  the  Churches  consulted  expressly  suggested  the 
death  penalty.  They  left  the  mode  of  punishment  with  the 
discretion  of  a  sovereign  State.  Haller,  the  pastor  of  Bern, 
however,  wrote  to  Bullinger  of  Ziirich  that,  if  Servetus  had 

1  See  above,  pp.  708  sqq.,  and  Calvin's  Opera,  VIII.  806  sq. 


§  154.    CONDEMNATION    OF   SERVETUS.  781 

fallen  into  the  hands  of  Bernese  justice,  he  would  undoubt- 
edly have  been  condemned  to  the  flames. 

§  154.    Condemnation  of  Servetus. 

On  the  23d  of  October  the  Council  met  for  a  careful  exam- 
ination of  the  replies  of  the  churches,  but  could  not  come 
to  a  decision  on  account  of  the  absence  of  several  mem- 
bers, especially  Perrin,  the  Chief  Syndic,  who  feigned  sick- 
ness. Servetus  had  failed  to  excite  any  sympathy  among  the 
people,  and  had  injured  his  cause  by  his  obstinate  and  defiant 
conduct.  The  Libertines,  who  wished  to  use  him  as  a  tool 
for  political  purposes,  were  discouraged  and  intimidated  by 
the  counsel  of  Bern,  to  which  they  looked  for  protection 
against  the  hated  regime  of  Calvin. 

The  full  session  of  the  Council  on  the  26th,  to  which  all 
counsellors  were  summoned  on  the  faith  of  their  oath, 
decided  the  fate  of  the  unfortunate  prisoner,  but  not  without 
a  stormy  discussion.  Amy  Perrin  presided  and  made  a  last 
effort  in  favor  of  Servetus.  He  at  first  insisted  upon  his 
acquittal,  which  would  have  been  equivalent  to  the  expulsion 
of  Calvin  and  a  permanent  triumph  of  the  party  opposed  to 
him.  Being  baffled,  he  proposed,  as  another  alternative,  that 
Servetus,  in  accordance  with  liis  own  wishes,  be  transferred 
to  the  Council  of  the  Two  Hundred.  But  this  proposal  was 
also  rejected.  He  was  influenced  by  political  passion  rather 
than  by  sympathy  with  heresy  or  love  of  toleration,  which 
had  very  few  advocates  at  that  time.  When  he  perceived 
that  the  majority  of  the  Council  was  inclined  to  a  sentence 
of  death,  he  quitted  the  Senate  House  with  a  few  others. 

The  Council  had  no  doubt  of  its  jurisdiction  in  the  case ; 
it  had  to  respect  the  unanimous  judgment  of  the  Churches, 
the  public  horror  of  heresy  and  blasphemy,  and  the  imperial 
laws  of  Christendom,  which  were  appealed  to  by  the  attorney- 
general.     The  decision  was  unanimous.     Even  the  wish  of 


782         THE   REFORMATIOlSr   IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Calvin  to  substitute  the  sword  for  the  fire  was  overruled, 
and  the  papal  practice  of  the  auto-da-fe  followed,  though 
Avithout  the  solemn  mockery  of  a  religious  festival. 

The  judges,  after  enumerating  the  crimes  of  Servetus, 
in  calling  the  holy  Trinity  a  monster  with  three  heads, 
blaspheming  the  Son  of  God,  denying  infant-baptism  as  an 
invention  of  the  devil  and  of  witchcraft,  assailing  the 
Christian  faith,  and  after  mentioning  that  he  had  been  con- 
demned and  burned  in  effigy  at  Vienne,  and  had  during  his 
residence  in  Geneva  persisted  in  his  vile  and  detestable 
errors,  and  called  all  true  Christians  tritheists,  atheists,  sor- 
cerers, putting  aside  all  remonstrances  and  corrections  with 
a  malicious  and  perverse  obstinacy,  pronounced  the  fearful 
sentence :  — 

"  We  condemn  thee,  Michael  Servetus,  to  be  bound,  and  led  to  the  place 
of  Champel,  there  to  be  fastened  to  a  stake  and  burnt  alive,  together  with 
thy  book,  as  well  the  one  written  by  tliy  hand  as  the  printed  one,  even  till 
thy  body  be  reduced  to  ashes ;  and  thus  shalt  thou  finish  thy  days  to  furnish 
an  example  to  others  who  might  wish  to  commit  the  like. 

"  And  we  command  our  Lieutenant  to  see  that  this  our  present  sentence 
be  executed."  ^ 

Rilliet,  who  published  the  official  report  of  the  trial  in  the 
interest  of  history,  without  special  sympathy  with  Calvin, 
says  that  the  sentence  of  condemnation  is  "  odious  before  our 
consciences,  but  was  just  according  to  the  law."  Let  us 
thank  God  that  those  unchristian  and  barbarous  laws  are 
abolished  forever. 

Calvin  communicated  to  Farel  on  the  26th  of  October 
a  brief  summary  of  the  result,  in  which  he  says :  "  The  mes- 
senger has  returned  from  the  Swiss  Churches.  They  are 
unanimous  in  pronouncing^  that  Servetus  has  now  renewed 
those  impious  errors  with  which  Satan  formerly  disturbed 
the  Church,  and  that  he  is  a  monster  not  to  be  borne.     Those 

1  Opera,  VIII.  827-830.     See  also  Rilliet,  and  Henry  (III.,  Beilage,  pp.  75 
sqq.).     The  sentence  was  in  the  usual  legal  form,  like  that  of  Vienne. 
^  "  Uno  consensu  pronunciant  omnes,"  etc.     Opera,  XIV.  657. 


§  155.     EXECUTION    OF    SERVETUS.  783 

of  Basel  are  judicious.  The  Ziirichers  are  the  most  vehe- 
ment of  all.  .  .  .  They  of  Schaffhausen  agree.  To  an 
appropriate  letter  from  the  Bernese  is  added  one  from  tlie 
Senate  in  which  they  stimulate  ours  not  a  little.  Casar, 
the  comedian  [so  he  sarcastically  called  Perrin],  after  feign- 
ing illness  for  three  days,  at  length  went  up  to  the  assembly 
in  order  to  free  that  wretch  [Servetus]  from  punishment. 
Nor  was  he  ashamed  to  ask  that  the  case  be  referred  to 
the  Council  of  the  Two  Hundred.  However,  Servetus  was 
without  dissent  condemned.  He  will  be  led  forth  to  punish- 
ment to-morrow.  We  endeavored  to  alter  the  mode  of  his 
death,  but  in  vain.  Why  we  did  not  succeed,  I  defer  for 
narration  until  I  see  you." 

This  letter  reached  Farel  on  his  way  to  Geneva,  where  he 
arrived  on  the  same  day,  in  time  to  hear  the  sentence  of  con- 
demnation. He  had  come  at  the  request  of  Calvin,  to  per- 
form the  last  pastoral  duties  to  the  prisoner,  which  could 
not  so  well  be  done  by  any  of  the  pastors  of  Geneva. 

§  155.    Execution  of  Servetus.      Oct.  27,  1553. 

Farel,  in  a  letter  to  Ambrosius  Blaarer,  December,  1553,  preserved  in  the 
library  of  St.  Gall,  and  copied  in  the  Thesaurus  Holtinyerianus  of  the  city 
library  of  Ziirich,  gives  an  account  of  the  last  moments  and  execution 
of  Servetus.  See  Henry,  vol.  III.  Beilage,  pp.  72-75.  Calvin,  at  the 
beginning  of  his  "Defence,"  Opera,  VIII.  460,  relates  his  own  last  inter- 
view with  Servetus  in  prison  on  the  day  of  his  death. 

When  Servetus,  on  the  folloyving  morning,  heard  of  the 
unexpected  sentence  of  death,  he  was  horror-struck  and 
behaved  like  a  madman.  He  uttered  groans,  and  cried  aloud 
in  Spanish,  "  Mercy,  mercy  !  " 

The  venerable  old  Farel  visited  him  in  the  prison  at  seven 
in  the  morning,  and  remained  with  him  till  the  hour  of  his 
death.  He  tried  to  convince  him  of  his  error.  Servetus 
asked  him  to  quote  a  single  Scripture  passage  where  Christ 
was  called  "Son  of  God"  before  his  incarnation.  Farel 
could  not  satisfy  him.     He  brought  about  an  interview  with 


784         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Calvin,  of  which  the  latter  gives  us  an  account.  Servetus, 
proud  as  he  was,  humbly  asked  his  pardon.  Calvin  protested 
that  he  had  never  pursued  any  personal  quarrel  against  him. 
"  Sixteen  years  ago,"  he  said,  "  I  spared  no  pains  at  Paris 
to  gain  you  to  our  Lord.  You  then  shunned  the  light.  I 
did  not  cease  to  exhort  you  by  letters,  but  all  in  vain.  You 
have  heaped  upon  me  I  know  not  how  much  fury  rather 
than  anger.  But  as  to  the  rest,  I  pass  by  what  concerns 
myself.  Think  rather  of  crying  for  mercy  to  God  whom  you 
have  blasphemed."  This  address  had  no  more  effect  than 
the  exhortation  of  Farel,  and  Calvin  left  the  room  in  obedi- 
ence, as  he  says,  to  St.  Paul's  order  (Tit.  3 :  10,  11),  to  with- 
draw from  a  self-condemned  heretic.  Servetus  appeared  as 
mild  and  humble  as  he  had  been  bold  and  arrogant,  but  did 
not  change  his  conviction. 

At  eleven  o'clock  on  the  27th  of  October,  Servetus  was 
led  from  the  prison  to  the  gates  of  the  City  Hall,  to  hear  the 
sentence  read  from  the  balcony  by  the  Lord  Syndic  Darlod. 
When  he  heard  the  last  words,  he  fell  on  his  knees  and 
exclaimed :  "  The  sword !  in  mercy  I  and  not  fire !  Or 
I  may  lose  my  soul  in  despair."  He  protested  that  if  he 
had  sinned,  it  was  through  ignorance.  Farel  raised  him  up 
and  said :  "  Confess  thy  crime,  and  God  will  have  mergy 
on  your  soul."  Servetus  replied  :  "  I  am  not  guilty  ;  I  have 
not  merited  death."  Then  he  smote  his  breast,  invoked  God 
for  pardon,  confessed  Christ  as  his  Saviour,  and  besought 
God  to  pardon  his  accusers.^ 

On  the  short  journey  to  the  place  of  execution,  Farel 
again  attempted  to  obtain  a  confession,  but  Servetus  was 
silent.  He  showed  the  courage  and  consistency  of  a  martyr 
in  these  last  awful  moments. 

Champel  is  a  little  hill  south  of  Geneva  with  a  fine  view 

1  "  Ut  Deus  accusatoribus  esset  propitius."  Farel.  This  is  certainly  a  Chris- 
tian act.  Henry  (III.  191)  admits  that  Servetus  in  his  last  moments  showed 
some  noble  traits  towards  his  enemies. 


§  155.    EXECUTION   OF   SERVETUS.  785 

on  one  of  the  loveliest  paradises  of  nature. i  There  was 
prepared  a  funeral  pile  hidden  in  part  by  the  autumnal  leaves 
of  the  oak  trees.  The  Lord  Lieutenant  and  the  herald  on 
horseback,  both  arrayed  in  the  insignia  of  their  office,  arrive 
with  the  doomed  man  and  the  old  pastor,  followed  by  a 
small  procession  of  spectators.  Farel  invites  Servetus  to 
solicit  the  prayers  of  the  people  and  to  unite  his  prayers 
with  theirs.  Servetus  obeys  in  silence.  The  executioner 
fastens  him  by  iron  chains  to  the  stake  amidst  the  fagots, 
puts  a  crown  of  leaves  covered  with  sulphur  on  his  head, 
and  binds  his  book  by  his  side.  The  sight  of  the  flaming 
torch  extorts  from  him  a  piercing  shriek  of  "  misericordias  " 
in  his  native  tongue.  The  spectators  fall  back  with  a 
shudder.  The  flames  soon  reach  him  and  consume  his 
mortal  frame  in  the  forty-fourth  year  of  his  fitful  life.  In 
the  last  moment  he  is  heard  to  pray,  in  smoke  and  agony, 
with  a  loud  voice :  "  Jesus  Christ,  thou  Son  of  the  eternal 
God,  have  mercy  upon  me  !  "  ^ 

This  was  at  once  a  confession  of  his  faith  and  of  his  error. 
He  could  not  be  induced,  says  Farel,  to  confess  that  Christ 
was  the  eternal  Son  of  God. 

The  tragedy  ended  when  the  clock  of  St.  Peter's  struck 
twelve.  The  people  quietly  dispersed  to  their  homes. 
Farel  returned  at  once  to  Neuchatel,  even  without  calling 
on  Calvin.     The  subject  was  too  painful  to  be  discussed. 

^  It  is  now  covered  by  a  beautiful  villa,  gardens,  and  vineyards.  The 
pleasant  road  of  half  an  hour  from  the  city  to  Champel  is  called  "  the 
Philosophers'  Way,"  on  which  Arminius,  when  a  student  of  Beza,  is  said  to 
have  begun  his  meditations  on  the  mysteries  of  predestination  and  free-will, 
which  immortalized  his  name.  So  Henry  reports  in  his  small  biography  of 
Calvin,  p.  346,  and  in  his  large  work,  III.  198,  note  1. 

■^  Farel  does  not  mention  this,  nor  some  other  circumstances  which  are 
more  or  less  apocryphal  (and  omitted  by  Rilliet)  :  for  instance,  that  the  exe- 
cutioner did  not  understand  his  business,  and  piled  up  green  oak-wood ;  that 
many  threw  dry  bundles  into  the  slow-burning  fire,  and  that  Servetus  suffered 
nearly  half  an  hour.  See  the  anonymous  Hisloria  de  Morte  Serveti,  ascribed 
to  a  Genevese,  who  was  an  enemy  of  Calvin.     Henry,  III.  200  sq. 


786         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

The  conscience  and  piety  of  that  age  approved  of  the 
execution,  and  left  little  room  for  the  emotions  of  compas- 
sion. But  two  hundred  years  afterwards  a  distinguished 
scholar  and  minister  of  Geneva  echoed  the  sentiments  of  his 
fellow-citizens  when  he  said :  "  Would  to  God  that  we  could 
extinguish  this  funeral  pile  with  our  tears."  ^  Dr.  Henrj'^, 
the  admiring  biographer  of  Calvin,  imagines  an  impartial 
Christian  jury  of  the  nineteenth  century  assembled  on 
Champel,  which  would  pronounce  the  judgment  on  Calvin, 
"  Not  guilty "  ;  on  Serve tus,  "  Guilty,  with  extenuating 
circumstances."  ^ 

The  flames  of  Champel  have  consumed  the  intolerance  of 
Calvin  as  well  as  the  heresy  of  Servetus. 

§  156.    The  Character  of  Servetus. 

Servetus  —  theologian,  philosopher,  geographer,  physician, 
scientist,  and  astrologer  —  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
men  in  the  history  of  heresy.  He  Avas  of  medium  size,  thin 
and  pale,  like  Calvin,  his  eyes  beaming  with  intelligence, 
and  an  expression  of  melancholy  and  fanaticism.  Owing  to 
a  physical  rupture  he  was  never  married.  He  seems  never 
to  have  had  any  particular  friends,  and  stood  isolated  and 
alone. 

His  mental  endowments  and  acquirements  were  of  a  high 
order,  and  placed  him  far  above  the  heretics  of  his  age  and 
almost  on  an  equality  with  the  Reformers.^     His  discoveries 

1  Jean  Senebier  (b.  at  Geneva,  1742;  d.  1809),  Hist,  litter,  de  Geneve  (Gen. 
1786,  3  vols.),  I.  215:  "//  seroit  a  souhaiter  que  7ios  larmes  eussent  pu  eteindre 
le  bucher  de  cet  infortune'."     Quoted  by  Henry,  III.  207. 

2  Leben  Joh.  Calvin's,  III.  209  sq. 

3  Mosheim  compares  him  with  Calvin  in  genius,  yet  calls  his  method 
"a  model  of  confusion."  Stiihelin  (I.  428)  likewise  thinks  that  in  intellectual 
endowment  he  was  equal  {ebenbiirtig)  to  the  greatest  men  of  his  great  century, 
even  to  Calvin,  but  that  he  lacked  the  chief  qualification  of  a  reformer  — 
moral  character.  Tollin  puts  him  on  a  par  with  Calvin  and  Luther.  But 
such  exaggeration  is  refuted  by  history.  The  fruits  are  the  test  of  a  man's 
true  greatness. 


§  156.     THE    CHARACTER    OF    SERVETUS.  787 

have  immortalized  his  name  in  the  history  of  science,  lie 
knew  Latin,  Hebrew,  and  Greek  (though  Calvin  depreciates 
his  knowledge  of  Greek),  as  well  as  Spanish,  French,  and 
Italian,  and  was  Avell  read  in  the  Bible,  the  early  fathers,  and 
the  schoolmen.  He  had  an  original,  speculative,  and  acute 
mind,  a  tenacious  memory,  ready  wit,  a  tiery  imagination, 
ardent  love  of  learning,  and  untiring  industry.  He  antici- 
pated the  leading  doctrines  of  Socinianism  and  Unitarianism, 
but  in  connection  with  mystic  and  pantheistic  speculations, 
which  his  contemporaries  did  not  understand.  He  ha<l  much 
uncommon  sense,  but  little  practical  common  sense.  He 
lacked  balance  and  soundness.  There  was  a  streak  of  fanat- 
icism in  his  brain.  His  eccentric  genius  bordered  closely  on 
the  line  of  insanity.     For 

"  Great  wits  are  sure  to  madness  near  allied, 
And  thin  partitions  do  their  bounds  divide." 

His  style  is  frequently  obscure,  inelegant,  abrupt,  diffuse, 
and  repetitious.  He  accumulates  arguments  to  an  extent 
that  destroys  their  effect.  He  gives  eight  arguments  to 
prove  that  the  saints  in  heaven  pray  for  us ;  ten  arguments 
to  show  that  Melanchthon  and  his  friends  were  sorcerers, 
blinded  by  the  devil ;  twenty  arguments  against  infant  bap- 
tism ;  twenty -five  reasons  for  the  necessity  of  faith  before 
baptism ;  and  sixty  signs  of  the  apocalyptic  beast  and  the 
reign  of  Antichrist.^ 

In  thought  and  style  he  was  the  opposite  of  the  clear- 
headed, well-balanced,  methodical,  logical,  and  thoroughly 
sound  Calvin,  who  never  leaves  the  reader  in  doubt  as  to 
his  meaning. 

The  moral  character  of  Servetus  was  free  from  immorality 
of  which  his  enemies  at  first  suspected  him  in  the  common 
opinion  of  the  close  connection  of  heresy  with  vice.  But  he 
was  vain,  proud,  defiant,  quarrelsome,  revengeful,  irreverent 

1  Restit.  pp.  564,  570,  586,  664,  700,  718. 


788        THE   REFOBMATION   IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

in  the  use  of  language,  deceitful,  and  mendacious.  He 
abused  popery  and  the  Reformers  with  unreasonable  violence. 
He  conformed  for  years  to  the  Catholic  ritual  which  he 
despised  as  idolatrous.  He  defended  his  attendance  upon 
mass  by  Paul's  example  in  visiting  the  temple  (Acts  21 :  26), 
but  afterwards  confessed  at  Geneva  that  he  had  acted  under 
compulsion  and  sinned  from  fear  of  death.  He  concealed 
or  denied  on  oath  facts  which  he  had  afterwards  to  admit.^ 
At  Vienne  he  tried  to  lie  himself  out  of  danger,  and  escaped ; 
in  Geneva  he  defied  his  antagonist  and  did  his  best,  with  the 
aid  of  the  Libertines  in  the  Council,  to  ruin  him. 

The  severest  charge  against  him  is  blasphemy.  BuUinger 
remarked  to  a  Pole  that  if  Satan  himself  should  come  out 
of  hell,  he  could  use  no  more  blasphemous  language  against 
the  Trinity  than  this  Spaniard ;  and  Peter  Martyr,  who  was 
present,  assented  and  said  that  such  a  living  son  of  the  devil 
ought  not  to  be  tolerated  anywhere.  We  cannot  even  now 
read  some  of  his  sentences  against  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity 
without  a  shudder.  Servetus  lacked  reverence  and  a  decent 
regard  for  the  most  sacred  feelings  and  convictions  of  those 
who  differed  from  him.  But  there  was  a  misunderstanding 
on  both  sides.  He  did  not  mean  to  blaspheme  the  true  God 
in  whom  he  believed  himself,  but  only  the  three  false  and 
imaginary  gods,  as  he  wrongly  conceived  them  to  be,  while 
to  all  orthodox  Christians  they  were  the  Father,  the  Son,  and 
the  Holy  Spirit  of  the  one  true,  eternal,  blessed  Godhead. 

He  labored  under  the  fanatical  delusion  that  he  was  called 
by  Providence  to  reform  the  Church  and  to  restore  the  Chris- 
tian religion.  He  deemed  himself  wiser  than  all  the  fathers, 
schoolmen,  and  reformers.  He  supported  his  delusion  by 
a  fanciful  interpretation  of  the  last  and  darkest  book  of  the 
Bible. 

^  ToUin  {Charakterbild,  p.  38)  defends  Servetus's  veracity  by  resolving  his 
contradictory  statements  into  innocent  errors  of  memory  and  comparing  them 
to  the  variations  in  the  four  Gospel  narratives ! 


§  157.     CALVIN'S    DEFENCE    OF    THE    PENALTY.  789 

Calvin  and  Farel  saw,  in  his  refusal  to  recant,  only  the 
obstinacy  of  an  incorrigible  heretic  and  blasphemer.  We 
must  recognize  in  it  the  strength  of  his  conviction.  He 
forgave  his  enemies;  he  asked  the  pardon  even  of  Calvin. 
Why  sliould  we  not  forgive  him?  He  had  a  deeply  religious 
nature.  We  must  honor  his  enthusiastic  devotion  to  the 
Scriptures  and  to  the  person  of  Christ.  From  the  prayers 
and  ejaculations  inserted  in  his  book,  and  from  his  dying 
cry  for  mercy,  it  is  evident  that  he  worshipped  Jesus  Christ 
as  his  Lord  and  Saviour.^ 

§  157.    Calvhis  Defence  of  the  Death  Penalty  for  Heretics. 

The  public  sentiment,  Catholic  and  Protestant,  as  we 
have  seen,  approved  of  the  traditional  doctrine,  that  obsti- 
nate heretics  should  be  made  harmless  by  death,  and  con- 
tinued unchanged  down  to  the  close  of  the  seventeenth 
century. 

But  there  were  exceptions.  As  in  the  case  of  the  execu- 
tion of  the  Spanish  Priscillianists  in  the  fourth  century, 
the  genuine  spirit  of  Christianity  and  humanity  raised  a 
cry  of  indignation  and  horror  through  the  mouths  of  St. 
Ambrose  of  Milan,  and  St.  Martin  of  Tours ;  so  there  were 
not  a  few  in  the  sixteenth  century  who  protested  against 
the  burning  of  Servetus.  Most  of  these  —  Lelio  Socino, 
Renato,  Curio,  Biandrata,  Alciati,  Gribaldo,  Gentile,  Ochino, 
and  Castellio  —  were  Italian  refugees  and  free-thinkers  who 
sympathized  more  or  less  with  his  heretical  opinions.  It  was 
especially  three  professors  in  the  University  of  Basel  — 
Borrhaus  (Cellarius),  Curio,  and  Castellio  —  who  were  sus- 

'^  Best.  p.  356  :  "  0  Christe  Jesu,  domine  Deus  noster,  adesto,  veni,  vide,  et 
pugna  pro  7iobis."  P.  576:  "0  pater  omnipotens,  pater  misericordia,  eripe  nos 
tniseros  ab  his  tenebris  mortis,  per  nomen  Jilii  tui  Jesu  Christi  domini  nostri. 
0  Jili  Dei,  Jesu  Christe,  qui  pro  nobis  mortuus  es,  ne  moreremur,  succitrre,  iie 
moriamnr,"  etc.  Comp.  also  the  prayer  at  the  beginning  of  his  book,  quoted 
above  in  §  146. 


790         THE   REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

pectecl  at  Geneva  of  being  followers  of  Servetus.  For  the 
same  reason  some  Anabaptists,  like  David  Joris,  who  lived 
at  that  time  in  Basel  under  the  assumed  name  of  John 
von  Bruck,  took  his  part.  Anonymous  libels  in  prose  and 
verse  appeared  against  Calvin.  He  was  denounced  as  a 
new  pope  and  inquisitor,  and  Geneva,  heretofore  an  asylum 
of  religious  liberty,  as  a  new  Rome.^  A  hundred  Servetuses 
seemed  to  arise  from  the  ashes  at  Champel ;  but  they  were 
all  inferior  men,  and  did  not  understand  the  speculative 
views  of  Servetus,  who  had  exhausted  the  productive  powers 
of  antitrinitarianism.2 

Not  only  dissenters  and  personal  enemies,  but  also,  as  Beza 
admits,  some  orthodox  and  pious  people  and  friends  of 
Calvin  were  dissatisfied  with  the  severity  of  the  punishment, 
and  feared,  not  without  reason,  that  it  would  justify  and 
encourage  the  Romanists  in  their  cruel  persecution  of 
Protestants  in  France  and  elsewhere. 

Under  these  circumstances  Calvin  felt  it  to  be  his  dis- 
agreeable duty  to  defend  his  conduct,  and  to  refute  the 
errors  of  Servetus.  He  was  urged  by  Bullinger  to  do  it. 
He  completed  the  work  in  a  few  months  and  published 
it  in  Latin  and  French  in  the  beginning  of  1554.-^     It  had  an 

^  The  Sicilian,  Caraillo  lienato  wrote  a  long  poem,  De  injusto  Serveti  incen- 
dio,  which  is  copied  by  Trechsel,  I.  321-28,  from  the  Simler  collection  in 
Ziirich.     Several  poems  came  from  Italian  refugees  in  the  Orisons. 

2  On  these  later  Antitrinitarians,  see  the  preceding  chapter.  They  were 
deistic ;  Servetus  pantheistic.  Trechsel  says  (I.  269)  :  "  In  Servet  schien  sich 
die  produktive  Kraft  des  Antitrinitarianismus  erschopft  zu  haben.  Von  der  Hoke 
der  Genialitdt  und  speculativer  Welthetrachtung  sank  er  zu  der  Stufe  des  trivialen 
ohnmdchtigen  Zweifels  hinunter,  und  die  jugendliche  Frische  und  Fiille,  die  sich  in 
den  Ideen  des  spanischen  Arztes  offenharte,  wich  einem  altklugen,  verstdndelnden, 
halbaufgekldrten  Wesen,  das  sich  in  einer  Fluth  von  suhjektiven  Meinungen  ohne 
Halt  und  innere  Bedeutung  zu  erkennen  gab.  Nicht  ivenig  ivurde  der  kirchlichen 
Parthei  und  Calvin  an  ihrer  Spitz  durch  die  geistige  Bedeutungslosigkeit  ihrer 
Gegner  der  Kampf  und  Widerstand  erieichtert,  und  dock  dauerte  er  nock  dreizehn 
lahre  und  endigte  mit  einer  dhnlichen  gewaltsamen  Katastrophe,  wie  diejenige,  mit 
welcker  er  begonnen  hatte."     He  means  the  execution  of  Gentile  at  Bern,  1566. 

^  Zerkinden  in  Bern  received  a  copy  Feb.  10,  1554 ;  Sulzer  in  Basel, 
Feb.  26. 


§  157.   Calvin's  defence  of  the  penalty.        791 

official  character  aiul  was  signed  by  all  the  fifteen  ministers 
of  Geneva.^ 

Beza  aided  him  in  this  controversy  and  undertook  to 
refute  the  pamphlet  of  Bellius,  and  did  so  with  great  ability 
and  eloquence.^ 

Calvin's  work  against  Servetus  gave  complete  satisfaction 
to  Melanchthon.  It  is  the  strongest  refutation  of  the  errors 
of  his  opponent  which  his  age  produced,  but  it  is  not  free 
from  bitterness  against  one  who,  at  last,  had  humbly  asked 
his  pardon,  and  who  had  been  sent  to  the  judgment  seat  of 
God  by  a  violent  death.  It  is  impossible  to  read  without 
pain  the  following  passage:  "Whoever  shall  now  contend 
that  it  is  unjust  to  put  heretics  and  blasphemers  to  death  will 
knowingly  and  willingly  incur  their  very  guilt.  This  is  not 
laid  down  on  human  authority;  it  is  God  who  speaks  and 
prescribes  a  perpetual  rule  for  his  Church.  It  is  not  in  vain 
that  he  banishes  all  those  human  affections  which  soften  our 
hearts ;  that  he  commands  paternal  love  and  all  the  benevo- 
lent feelings  between  brothers,  relations,  and  friends  to  cease ; 
in  a  word,  that  he  almost  deprives  men  of  their  nature  in 
order  that  nothing  may  hinder  their  holy  zeal.  Why  is  so 
implacable  a  severity  exacted  but  that  we  may  know  that 
God  is  defrauded  of  his  honor,  unless  the  piety  that  is  due 
to  him  be  preferred  to  all  human  duties,  and  that  when  his 

^  Defensio  orthodoxce  Jidei  de  sacra  Trinitate,  contra  prodigiosos  errores 
Michaelis  Serveti  Hispani :  uhi  ostenditur  hoereticos  jure  gladii  coercendos  esse, 
et  nominatini  de  homine  hoc  tarn  impio  jxiste  et  meri'to  sumptuni  Genevan  fuisse  sup- 
plicium.  Per  Johannem  Calvinum.  Oliva  Robert!  Stephani  (261  pages). 
It  is  also  quoted  under  the  sub-title :  Fidelis  Expositio  erroruin  Mich.  Serveti 
et  brevis  eorundem  Refutatio,  etc.,  or  simply  as  Jiefutatio  Erroruin  M.  S.  The 
French  version  is  entitled  :  Declaration  pour  maintenir  la  vraye  foji  que  tiennent 
tons  Cfiresfiens  de  la  Trinite  des  personnel  en  un  seul  Dieu.  Par  Jean  Calvin. 
Contre  les  erreurs  de'testables  de  Michel  Servet,  Espaignol.  Ou  il  est  aussi  monstre', 
qu^il  est  licite  de  punir  les  heretiques ;  et  qic'h  bon  droict  ce  meschant  a  estc  execute 
par  justice  en  la  ville  de  Geneve  (.3.56  pages).  The  work  is  accordingly  cited 
under  different  titles  —  Defensio,  Refulatio,  Declaration.  See  the  bibliographi- 
cal notices  in  Calvin's  Opera,  VIII.  Proleg.  xxix-xxxiii, 

^  See  succeeding  section. 


792        THE   FvEPOEMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

piory  is  to  be  asserted,  humanity  must  be  almost  obliterated 
from  our  memories  ?  " 

Calvin's  plea  for  the  right  and  duty  of  the  Christian 
magistrate  to  punish  heresy  by  death,  stands  or  falls  with 
his  theocratic  theory  and  the  binding  authority  of  the 
Mosaic  code.  His  arguments  are  chiefly  drawn  from  the 
Jewish  laws  against  idolatry  and  blasphemy,  and  from 
the  examples  of  the  pious  kings  of  Israel.  But  his  arguments 
from  the  New  Testament  are  failures.  He  agrees  with 
Augustin  in  the  interpretation  of  the  parabolic  words :  "  Con- 
strain them  to  come  in"  (Luke  14 :  23).^  But  this  can 
only  refer  to  moral  and  not  to  physical  force,  and  would 
imply  a  forcible  salvation,  not  destruction.  The  same  para- 
ble was  afterwards  abused  by  the  French  bishops  to  justify 
the  abominable  dragoonades  of  Louis  XIV.  against  the 
Huguenots.  Calvin  quotes  the  passages  on  the  duty  of  the 
civil  magistrate  to  use  the  sword  against  evil-doers  (Rom. 
13 : 4) ;  the  expulsion  of  the  profane  traffickers  from  the 
temple  (Matt.  21 :  12)  ;  the  judgment  on  Ananias  and  Sap- 
phira  (Acts  5 : 1  sqq.)  ;  the  striking  of  Elymas  with  blind- 
ness (13: 11);  and  the  delivery  of  Hymenseus  and  Alexander 
to  Satan  (1  Tim.  1 :  20).  He  ansAvers  the  objections  from 
the  parables  of  the  tares  and  of  the  net  (Matt.  13 :  30,  49), 
and  from  the  wise  counsel  of  Gamaliel  (Acts  5:34).  But 
he  cannot  get  over  those  passages  which  contradict  his 
theory,  as  Christ's  rebuke  to  John  and  James  for  wishing  to 
call  down  fire  from  heaven  (Luke  9 :  54),  and  to  Peter  for 
drawing  the  sword  (Matt.  26 :  52),  his  declaration  that  his 
kingdom  is  not  of  this  world  (John  18 :  36),  and  his  whole 
spirit  and  aim,  which  is  to  save  and  not  to  destroy. 

1  In  his  commentary  on  that  passage  {Harm.  Evaiig.,  Pars.  II.  43,  Tho- 
luck's  edition),  Calvin  says:  " Non  improbo,  quod  Augustinus  hoc  testimonio 
saepius  contra  Donatistas  usus  est,  tit  proharet,  piorum  principum  edictis  ad  veri 
Dei  cultum  et  Jidei  unitatem  licite  cogi  prcefractos  et  rebelles  :  quia,  etsi  voluntaria 
est  fides,  videmus  tamen,  iis  mediis  utiliter  domari  eorum  pervicaciam,  qui  non 
nisi  coacti  parent." 


§   157.     CALVIN'S    DEFENCE    OF    THE    PENALTY.  793 

In  his  juvenile  work  on  Seneca  and  in  earlier  editions  of 
his  Institutes,  Calvin  had  expressed  noble  sentiments  on 
toleration;!  even  as  Augustin  did  in  his  writings  against 
the  Manichseans,  among  Avhom  he  himself  had  lived  for 
nine  years;  but  both  changed  their  views  for  the  worse  in 
their  zeal  for  orthodoxy. 

Calvin's  "  Defence  "  did  not  altogether  satisfy  even  some 
of  his  best  friends.  Zurkinden,  the  State  Secretary  of 
Bern,  wrote  him  Feb.  10,  1554:  "I  wish  the  former  part 
of  your  book,  respecting  the  right  which  the  magistrates 
may  have  to  use  the  sword  in  coercing  heretics,  had  not 
appeared  in  your  name,  but  in  that  of  your  council,  which 
might  have  been  left  to  defend  its  own  act.  I  do  not  see 
how  you  can  find  any  favor  with  men  of  sedate  mind  in 
being  the  first  formally  to  treat  this  subject,  which  is  a  hate- 
ful one  to  almost  all."  ^  BuUinger  intimated  his  objections 
more  mildly  in  a  letter  of  March  26,  1554,  in  which  he  says: 
"I  only  fear  that  your  book  will  not  be  so  acceptable  to 
many  of  the  more  simple-minded  j)ersons,  who,  nevertheless, 
are  attached  both  to  yourself  and  to  the  truth,  by  reason  of 
its  brevity  and  consequent  obscurity,  and  the  weightiness 
of  the  subject.  And,  indeed,  your  style  appears  somewhat 
perplexed,  especially  in  this  work."  Calvin  wrote  in  reply, 
April  29,  1554 :  "  I  am  aware  that  I  have  been  more  concise 
than  usual  in  this  treatise.  However,  if  I  should  appear 
to  have  faithfully  and  honestly  defended  the  true  doctrine, 
it  will  more  than  recompense  me  for  my  trouble.  But 
though  the  candor  and  justice  which  are  natural  to  you,  as 
well  as  your  love  towards  me,  lead  you  to  judge  of  me  favor- 
ably, there  are  others  who  assail  me  harshly  as  a  master  in 
cruelty  and  atrocity,  for  attacking  with  my  pen  not  only  a 

1  See  Henry,  II.  121-124 ;  III.  224. 

'  "  Ego  non  video  gratiam  aliquam  te  inire  posse  apud  sedati  animi  homines,  quod 
primus  omnium  ex  professo  fere  hoc  argumentum  tractandum  susceperis,  omnibus 
ferme  invisttm."     Bibl.  Gen.  cod.  114.     Treclisel,  I.  2f)9;   Opem,  XV.  22. 


794         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

dead  man,  but  one  who  perished  by  my  hands.  Some,  even 
not  self-disposed  towards  me,  wish  that  I  had  never  entered 
on  the  subject  of  the  punishment  of  heretics,  and  say  that 
others  in  the  like  situation  have  held  their  tongues  as  the 
best  way  of  avoiding  hatred.  It  is  well,  however,  that  I 
have  you  to  share  my  fault,  if  fault  it  be ;  for  you  it  was 
who  advised  and  persuaded  me  to  it.  Prepare  yourself, 
therefore,  for  the  combat."  ^ 

§  158.    A  Plea  for  Religious  Liberty.     Castellio  and  Beza. 

Cf.  §  126,  p.  627,  and  especially  Ferd.  Buisson,  Se'bastien   CasteUion.     Paris 
(Hachette  et  C^e),  1892.     2  vols.  8vo  (I.  358-413;  II.  1-28). 

A  month  after  Calvin's  defence  of  the  death  penalty  of 
heretics,  there  appeared  at  Basel  a  pseudonymous  book  in 
defence  of  religious  liberty,  dedicated  to  Duke  Christopher 
of  Wiirtemberg.2  It  was  edited  and  prefaced  professedly  by 
Martinus  Bellius,  whose  real  name  has  never  been  dis- 
covered with  certainty.  Perhaps  it  was  Martin  Borrhaus  of 
Stuttgart  (1499-1564),  professor  of  Hebrew  learning  in  the 
University  of  Basel,  and  known  under  the  name  of  "  Cella- 
rius,"  in  honor  of  his  first  protector,  Simon  Cellarius  (not 
to  be  confounded  with  Michael  Cellarius  of  Augsburg).     He 

1  "  Alii  me  diirius  exagitant,  quod  scevitice  et  atrocitatis  sim  magister,  quod 
mortum  hominem,  qui  mayiibus  meis  periit,  calamo  proscindani.  Sunt  etiam  quidam 
non  malevoli,  qui  argumentum  illud  nunquam  me  attigisse  cuperent,  de  hcereticis 
puniendis.  Dicunt  enim  alios  omnes,  ut  invidiam  fugerent,  data  opera  tacuisse.  Sed 
bene  se  habet,  quod  te  habes  culpce  socium,  si  qua  tamen  culpa  est,  quia  mihi  auctor 
et  hortator  fuisti.  Vide  igitur,  ut  te  ad  certamen  compares."  Henry,  III.  236 
and  Beilage,  p.  87 ;  Opera,  XV.  124. 

2  De  hmreticis,  an  sint  persequendi,  et  omnino  quomodo  sit  cum  eis  agendum 
multorum  tum  veterum  turn  recentiorum  sententice.  Liber  hoc  tarn  turbulento  tempore 
perneccssarius.  Magdeburgi  [false  name  for  Basel]  per  Georgium  Rausch, 
anno  Domini  1554,  mense  Martio  (173  pp.,  8vo).  The  name  of  the  editor 
who  wrote  the  dedicatory  preface  is  given  as  Martinus  Bellius  (in  French, 
Martin  Bellie),  which  was  explained  by  the  contemporaries  as  "  Guerre  a 
la  guerre,  guerre  a  ceux  qui  uscnt  du  glaive."  Buisson,  I.  358.  A  copy  which 
belonged  to  Boniface  Amerbach,  is  in  the  University  Library  of  Basel 
(II.  15). 


§  158.    A   PLEA   roil    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY.  795 

Studied  at  Heidelberg  and  Wittenberg,  appeared  first  among 
the  Zwickau  Prophets,  and  then  in  connection  with  Carlstadt 
(who  ended  liis  days  likewise  as  a  professor  at  Basel). ^  The 
book  was  misdated  from  Magdeburg,  the  stronghold  of  the 
orthodox  Lutherans,  in  opposition  to  the  tyranny  of  the  Im- 
perial Interim.  A  French  edition  appeared,  nominally  at 
Rouen,  but  was  probably  printed  at  Lyons,  where  Castellio 
had  a  brother  in  the  printing  business.''^ 

Calvin  at  once  suspected  the  true  authors,  and  wrote  to 
BuUinger,  March  28,  1554:  ''A  book  has  just  been  clandes- 
tinely printed  at  Basel  under  false  names,  in  which  Castellio 
and  Curio  pretend  to  prove  that  heretics  should  not  be 
repressed  by  the  sword.  Would  that  the  pastors  of  that 
church  at  length,  though  late,  aroused  themselves  to  prevent 
the  evil  from  spreading  wider."  ^  A  few  days  afterwards 
Beza  wrote  to  BuUinger  about  the  same  book,  and  gave  it 
as  his  opinion  that  the  feigned  Magdeburg  was  a  city  on  the 
Rhine  [Basel],  and  that  Castellio  was  the  real  author,  who 
treated  the  most  important  articles  of  faith  as  useless  or 
indifferent,  and  put  the  Bible  on  a  par  with  the  Ethics  of 
Aristotle.* 

Castellio  wrote,  however,  only  a  part  of  the  book.  He 
adopted  the  pseudonym  of  Basilius  (i.e.  Sebastian)  Mont- 
fortius  (i.e.  Castellio).^ 

1  See  Riggenbach  in  Herzog,^  III.  166,  and  Buisson,  II.  10  sq. 

2  Traicte  des  he'retiques,  a  savoir  si  on  les  doit  perse'cuter,  et  comme  on  se  doit 
conduire  avec  eux,  selon  I'advis,  opinion,  et  sentence  de  pleusieurs  auteurs  tant 
anciens  que  modernes  :  grandement  ne'cessaire  en  ce  temps  plein  de  troubles,  et  tres 
utile  a  tons,  et  principalement  aux  Princes  et  Magistrals,  pour  cognoistre  quel  est 
leur  office  en  une  chose  tant  difficile  et  pe'rilleuse.  Rouen,  Pierre  Freneau,  1554 
(139  pp.,  8vo).  I  copy  the  title  from  Buisson,  I.  358.  He  gives  a  full  analy- 
sis and  extracts  (pp.  360  sqq.).     The  book  is  exceedingly  rare. 

3  Opera,  XV.  96. 
*   Opera,  XV.  97. 

5  As  Schweizer  has  shown,  see  above,  p.  627.  Buisson  ignores  Schweizer, 
but  comes  to  the  same  conclusion  (I.  404)  :  "  Basile  est  un  equivalent  tres 
plausible  de  Sebastien,  et  Montfort  e'veille  une  idee  toute  voisine  de  celle  de 
CASTELLUM  ou  de  Chatillon." 


796         THE   REFOEMATION    IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

The  body  of  this  work  consists  of  a  collection  of  testimo- 
nies in  favor  of  religious  toleration,  extracted  from  the 
writings  of  Luther  (his  book,  Von  iveltlicher  Obrigkeit,  1523), 
Brenz  (who  maintain  that  heresy  as  long  as  it  keeps  in  the 
intellectual  sphere  should  be  punished  only  by  the  Word  of 
God),  Erasmus,  Sebastian  Frank,  several  Chutch  Fathers 
(Lactantius,  Chrysostom,  Jerome,  and  Augustin,  in  his  anti- 
Manichaean  writings).  Otto  Brunsfeld  (d.  at  Bern,  1534), 
Urbanus  Rhegius  (Lutheran  theologian,  d.  1541),  Conrad 
Pellican  (Hebrew  professor  at  Ziirich,  d.  1556),  Caspar 
Hedio,  Christoph  Hoffmann,  Georg  Kleinberg  (a  pseudonym) 
and  even  Calvin  (in  the  first  edition  of  his  Institutes^.  This 
collection  was  probably  made  by  Curio. 

The  epilogue  is  written  by  Castellio,  and  is  the  most 
important  part  of  the  book.  He  examines  the  different 
biblical  and  patristic  passages  quoted  for  and  against  intoler- 
ance. He  argues  against  his  opponents  from  the  multiplicity 
of  sects  which  disagree  on  the  interpretation  of  Scripture, 
and  concludes  that,  on  their  principles,  they  should  all  be 
exterminated  except  one.  He  justly  charges  St.  Augustin 
with  inconsistency  in  his  treatment  of  the  Donatists,  for 
which,  he  says,  he  was  punished  by  the  invasion  of  the  Arian 
Vandals.  The  lions  turned  against  those  who  had  unchained 
them.  Persecution  breeds  Christian  hj^pocrites  in  place  of 
open  heretics.  It  provokes  counter-persecution,  as  was  just 
then  seen  in  England  after  the  accession  of  Queen  Mary, 
which  caused  the  flight  of  English  Protestants  to  Switzerland. 
In  conclusion  he  gives  an  allegorical  picture  of  a  journey 
through  the  centuries  showing  the  results  of  the  two  conflict- 
ing principles  of  force  and  liberty,  of  intolerance  and  charity, 
and  leaves  the  reader  to  decide  which  of  the  two  armies  is 
the  army  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Castellio  anticipated  Bayle  and  Voltaire,  or  rather  the 
Baptists  and  Quakers.  He  was  the  champion  of  religious 
liberty  in  the  sixteenth  century.     He  claimed  it  in  the  name 


§  158.    A   PLEA   FOE    RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY.  797 

of  the  gospel  and  the  Reformation.  It  was  appropriate  that 
this  testimony  should  come  from  the  Swiss  city  of  Basel,  the 
home  of  Erasmus. ^ 

But  the  leaders  of  the  Swiss  Reformation  in  Geneva  and 
Ziirich  could  see  in  this  advocacy  of  religious  freedom  only 
a  most  dangerous  heresy,  which  would  open  the  door  to  all 
kinds  of  errors  and  throw  the  Church  of  Christ  into  inex- 
tricable confusion. 

Theodore  Beza,  the  faithful  aid  of  Calvin,  took  up  his  pen 
against  the  anonymous  sceptics  of  Basel,  and  defended  the 
right  and  duty  of  the  Chi-istian  magistrate  to  punish  heresy. 
His  work  appeared  in  September,  1554 ;  that  is,  five  months 
after  the  book  of  Martinus  Bellius.  It  was  Beza's  first  published 
theological  treatise  (he  was  then  thirty -five  years  of  age).^ 

The  book  has  a  polemic  and  an  apologetic  part.  In  the 
former,  Beza  tries  to  refute  the  principle  of  toleration;  in 
the  latter,  to  defend  the  conduct  of  Geneva.  He  contends 
that  the  toleration  of  error  is  indifference  to  truth,  and  that 
it  destroys  all  order  and  discipline  in  the  Church.  Even  the 
enforced  unity  of  the  papacy  is  much  better  than  anarchy. 
Heresy  is  much  worse  than  murder,  because  it  destroys  the 
soul.  The  spiritual  power  has  nothing  to  do  with  temporal 
punishments ;  but  it  is  the  right  and  duty  of  the  civil  gov- 
ernment, which  is  God's  servant,  to  see  to  it  that  he  receives 
his  full  honor  in  the  community.  Beza  appeals  to  the  laws 
of  Moses  and  the  acts  of  kings  Asa  and  Josiah  against 
blasphemers  and  false  prophets.     All  Christian  rulers  have 

^  Michelet  (Renaissance)  says :  "  Un  pauvre  prote  d'imprimerie,  S€bastien 
Chateillon,  posa  pour  tout  I'avenir  la  grande  loi  de  la  tole'rance."  Buisson  has 
chosen  this  sentence  as  the  motto  of  his  work.  He  calls  Castellio  (II.  268) 
"  dans  le  protestantisme  fran^ais,  le  premier  des  modernes." 

2  It  was  entitled:  De  hcereticis  a  civili  magistral  a  puniendis  libellus,  adversus 
Martini  Bellii  farraginem  et  novorum  Academicorum  sectam,  Tiikodoro  Beza 
Vezelio  auctore.  Oliva  Robert!  Stephani,  MDLIIII  (271  pp.,  8vo).  Re- 
printed in  his  Tractationes  Theologica>,  2d  ed.,  1582,  pp.  85-169.  Nicolas 
Colladon  published  a  French  translation  :  Traitle'  de  ['authority  du  magistrat  en 
la  punition  des  he're'tiques,  etc.,  1560.     Buisson,  II.  19. 


798         THE   EEFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

punished  obstinate  heretics.  The  oecumenical  synods  (from 
325  to  787)  were  called  and  confirmed  by  emperors  who 
punished  the  offenders.  Whoever  denies  to  the  civil  author- 
ity the  right  to  restrain  and  punish  pernicious  errors  against 
public  worship  undermines  the  authority  of  the  Bible.  He 
cites  in  confirmation  passages  from  Luthei-,  Melanchthon, 
Urbanus  Rhegius,  Brenz,  Bucer,  Capito,  Bullinger,  Musculus, 
and  the  Church  of  Geneva.  He  closes  the  argument  as 
follows :  "  The  duty  of  the  civil  authority  in  this  matter  is 
hedged  about  by  these  three  regulations  :  (1)  It  must  strictly 
confine  itself  to  its  own  sphere,  and  not  presume  to  define 
heresy ;  that  belongs  to  the  Church  alone.  (2)  It  must  not 
pass  judgment  with  regard  to  persons,  advantages,  and  cir- 
cumstances, but  with  pure  regard  to  the  honor  of  God.  (3)  It 
must  proceed  after  quiet,  regular  examination  of  the  heresy 
and  mature  consideration  of  all  the  circumstances,  and  inflict 
such  punishment  as  will  best  secure  the  honor  due  to  the 
divine  Majesty  and  the  peace  and  unity  of  the  Church." 

This  theory,  which  differs  little  from  the  papal  theory  of 
intolerance,  except  in  regard  to  the  definition  of  heresy  and 
the  mode  and  degree  of  punishment,  was  accepted  for  a  long 
time  in  the  Reformed  Churches  with  few  dissenting  voices ; 
but,  fortunately,  there  was  no  occasion  for  another  capital 
punishment  of  heresy  in  the  Church  of  Geneva  after  the 
burning  of  Servetus. 

The  evil  which  Calvin  and  Beza  did  was  buried  with  their 
bones  ;  the  greater  good  which  they  did  will  live  on  forever. 
Dr.  Willis,  though  a  decided  apologist  of  Servetus,  makes 
the  admission :  "  Calvin  must  nevertheless  be  thought  of  as 
the  real  herald  of  modern  freedom.  Holding  ignorance  to  be 
incompatible  with  the  existence  of  a  people  at  once  religious 
and  free,  Calvin  had  the  schoolhouse  built  beside  the  Church, 
and  brought  education  within  the  reach  of  all.  Nor  did  he 
overlook  the  higher  culture."  ^ 

^  Servetus  and  Calvin,  p.  514.     See  below,  §  161. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 
CALVIN  ABROAD. 

Calvin's  Correspondence  in  his  Opera,  vols.  X.-XX.  — Henry,  III.  395-549 
(Calvin's  IVirksamkeit  nach  omssch).  —  Stahelix,  I.  505-588;  II.  5  sqq. 

§  159.    Calvin's  Gatliolicity  of  Spirit. 

Calvin  was  a  Frenchman  by  birth  and  education,  a 
Swiss  by  adoption  and  life-work,  a  cosmopolitan  in  spirit 
and  aim. 

The  Church  of  God  was  his  home,  and  that  Church  knows 
no  boundaries  of  nationality  and  language.  The  world  was 
his  parish.  Having  left  the  papacy,  he  still  remained  a 
Catholic  in  the  best  sense  of  that  word,  and  prayed  and 
labored  for  the  unity  of  all  believers.  Like  his  friend 
Melanchthon,  he  deeply  deplored  the  divisions  of  Protestant- 
ism. To  heal  them  he  was  willing  to  cross  ten  oceans. 
Thus  he  wrote,  in  reply  to  Archbishop  Cranmer,  who  had 
invited  him  (March  20,  1552),  with  Melanchthon  and 
BuUinger,  to  a  meeting  in  Lambeth  Palace  for  the  purpose 
of  drawing  up  a  consensus  creed  for  the  Reformed  Churches.^ 
After  expressing  his  zeal  for  the  Church  universal,  he  con- 
tinues (Oct.  14,  1552)  :  — 

"I  wish,  indeed,  it  could  be  brought  about  that  men  of  learnhig  and 
authority  from  the  different  churches  should  meet  somewhere,  and  after  thor- 
oughly discussing  the  different  articles  of  faith,  should,  by  a  unanimous 
decision,  deliver  down  to  posterity  some  certain  rule  of  doctrine.  But 
amongst  the  chief  evils  of  the  age  must  be  reckoned  the  marked  division 
between  the  different  churches,  insomuch  that  human  society  can  hardly  be 
said  to  be  established  among  us,  much  less  a  holy  communion  of  the  mem- 
bers of  Christ,  which,  though  all  profess  it,  few  indeed  really  observe  with 

^  See  Cranmer's  letter  of  invitation  in  Calvin's  Opera,  XIV.  .306. 

799 


800         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

sincerity.  But  if  the  clergy  are  more  lukewarm  than  they  should  be,  the 
fault  lies  chiefly  with  their  sovereigns,  who  are  either  so  involved  in  their 
secular  affairs,  as  to  neglect  altogether  the  welfare  of  tlie  Church,  and  indeed 
religion  itself,  or  so  well  content  to  see  their  own  countries  at  peace  as  to  care 
little  about  others ;  and  thus  the  members  being  divided,  the  body  of  the 
Church  lies  lacerated. 

"As  to  myself,  if  I  should  be  thought  of  any  use,  I  would  not,  if  need 
be,  object  to  cross  ten  seas  for  such  a  purpose.  If  the  assisting  of  England 
were  alone  concerned,  that  would  be  motive  enough  with  me.  Much  more, 
therefore,  am  I  of  opinion,  that  I  ouglit  to  grudge  no  labor  or  trouble,  seeing 
that  the  object  in  view  is  an  agreement  among  the  learned,  to  be  drawn  up 
by  the  weight  of  their  authority  according  to  Scripture,  in  order  to  unite 
Churches  seated  far  apart.  But  my  insignificance  makes  me  hope  tiiat  I  may 
be  spared.  I  shall  have  discharged  my  part  by  offering  up  my  prayers  for 
what  may  have  been  done  by  others.  Melanchthon  is  so  far  off  that  it  takes 
some  time  to  exchange  letters.  Bullinger  has,  perhaps,  already  answered 
you.  I  only  wish  that  I  had  the  power,  as  I  have  the  inclination,  to  serve 
the  cause."  ^ 

This  noble  project  was  defeated  or  indefinitely  postponed 
by  the  death  of  Edward  VI.  and  the  martyrdom  of  Cranmer, 
but  it  continues  to  live  as  a  piiini  desiderium.  In  opposition 
to  a  mechanical  and  enforced  uniformit}^,  Calvin  suggested 
the  idea  of  a  spiritual  unity  with  denominational  variety,  or 
of  one  flock  in  manj^  folds  under  one  shepherd.^  This  idea 
was  taken  up  in  our  age  by  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  the 
Pan-Anglican  Council,  the  Pan-Presbyterian  Alliance,  the 
Pan-Methodist  Conference,  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciations, the  Christian  Endeavor  Societies,  and  similar  volun- 

1  "  Quantum  ad  me  attinet,  si  quis  mei  usus  fore  videbitur,  ne  decern  quidem 
maria,  si  opus  sit,  oh  earn  rem  trajicere  pigeat.  Si  de  juvando  tantum  Anglice 
regno  ageretur,jam  mihi  ea  satis  legitima  ratio  foret.  Nunc  cum  quceratur  gravis 
et  ad  Scripturce  normam  probe  compositus  doctorum  hominum  consensus,  quo  ecclesicB 
procul  alioqui  dissitce  inter  se  coalescant,  nullis  vel  laboribus  vel  molestiis  parcere 
fas  mihi  esse  arhitror.  Verum  tenuitatem  meam  facturam  spero,  ut  mihi  parcatur. 
Si  votis  prosequar,  quod  ah  aliis  susc.eptum  erit,  partibus  meis  de.functus  ero.  D. 
Phiuppus  longius  ahest,  quam  ut  idtro  citroque  commeare  brevi  tempore  Uteres 
queant.  D.  Bullingekus  tibi  forte  jam  rescripsit.  Mihi  utinam  par  studii  ardori 
suppeteret  facultas ! "  See  Opera,  XIV.  312  sqq. ;  Cranmer's  Works  (Parker 
Soc.  ed.),  vol.  II.  pp.  430-433. 

2  John  10:  16,  jui'a  ■troifxvri  (not  avXiy),  eh  irot.fj.-fiv.  The  E.  V.,  following  the 
Latin  Vulgate,  wrongly  translates,  "  one  fold,"  which  suggests  the  Roman 
idea  of  one  external  organization,  like  the  papacy. 


§  159.   Calvin's  catholicity  of  spirit.  801 

tary  associations,  which  bring  Christians  of  different  churches 
and  nationalities  together  for  mutual  conference  and  co-opera- 
tion, without  interfering  with  their  separate  organization  and 
denominational  preferences. 

A  lasting  monument  of  Calvin's  catholicity  is  his  immense 
correspondence,  which  fills  ten  quarto  volumes  of  the  last 
edition  of  his  works,  and  embraces  in  all  no  less  than  forty- 
two  hundred  and  seventy-one  letters.  He  left  to  Beza  a 
collection  of  manuscripts  with  discretionary  power  to  publish 
from  it  what  he  deemed  might  promote  the  edification  of  the 
Church  of  God.  Accordingly,  Beza  edited  the  first  collection 
of  Calvin's  letters  eleven  years  after  his  death,  at  Geneva, 
1575.  This  edition  was  several  times  republit-hed,  and  grad- 
ually enriched  by  letters  discovered  in  various  libraries  by 
Liebe,  Mosheim,  Bretschneider,  Crottet,  Jules  Bonnet,  Henry, 
Reuss,  and  Herminjard. 

No  theologian  has  left  behind  him  a  correspondence  equal 
in  extent,  ability,  and  interest.  In  these  letters  Calvin  dis- 
cusses the  profoundest  topics  of  religion ;  he  gives  advice  as 
a  faithful  pastor ;  administers  comfort  to  suffering  brethren ; 
pours  out  his  heart  to  his  friends ;  solves  difticult  political 
questions,  as  a  wise  statesman,  in  the  complications  of  the 
little  Republic  with  Bern,  Savoy,  and  France.  Among  his 
correspondents  are  all  the  surviving  Reformers  —  Melanch- 
thon,  Bucer,  Bullinger,  Farel,  Viret,  Cranmer,  Knox,  Beza, 
Peter  Martyr,  John  a  Lasco ;  crowned  heads  —  Queen 
Marguerite  of  Navarre,  the  Duchess  Renee  of  Ferrara,  King 
Sigismund  Augustus  of  Poland,  the  Elector  Otto  Heinrich 
of  the  Palatinate,  Duke  Christopher  of  Wiirtemberg ;  states- 
men and  high  officers,  like  Duke  Somerset,  the  Protector  of 
England,  Prince  Radziwil  of  Poland,  Admiral  Coligny  of 
France,  the  magistrates  of  Ziirich,  Bern,  Basel,  St.  Gall,  and 
Frankfort;  and  humble  confessors  and  martyrs  to  whom 
he  sent  letters  of  comfort  in  prison. 


802        THE   KEFOBMATION    IN   FKENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

§  160.    Greneva  an  Asylum  for  Protestants  from  all  Countries. 

Calvin  gave  to  Geneva  a  cosmopolitan  character  which 
it  retains  to  this  day.  It  became,  through  him,  as  already 
stated,  the  capital  of  the  Reformed  Churches,  and  was  called 
the  Protestant  Rome.  Philip  II.  of  Spain  wrote  to  the 
French  king :  "  Geneva  is  the  source  of  all  misfortune  to 
France,  the  refuge  of  all  heretics,  the  most  terrible  enemy 
of  Rome.  I  am  ready  at  any  time,  with  all  the  power  of  my 
kingdom,  to  aid  in  its  destruction."  That  city  was,  indeed, 
in  the  sixteenth  century  what  North  America  has  become, 
on  a  much  larger  scale,  since  the  seventeenth  century.  It 
Avas  an  asylum  for  persecuted  confessors  of  the  evangelical 
faith  without  distinction  of  nationality,  an  impregnable 
moral  fortress  built  upon  the  rock  of  the  Bible  .^ 

Ziirich,  Basel,  and  Strassburg  were  the  only  places  in 
that  age  which  can  be  compared  with  Geneva  in  generous 
hospitality  to  strangers. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  city  of 
Geneva  numbered  12,000  souls,  in  1543  not  more  than 
13,000 ;  but  in  the  seven  years  from  1543  to  1550  it  increased 
to  20,000,  or  at  the  rate  of  1000  a  year.  This  increase  was 
chiefly  due  to  the  continuous  influx  of  persecuted  Prot- 
estants from  France,  Italy,  and  England.  Some  came  also 
from  Spain  and  Holland.^  Most  of  them  were  educated  men 
and  not  a  few  of  them  distinguished  for  learning  and  social 
position,  as  Cordier,  CoUadon,  Etienne  (Stephens),  Marot, 
Ochino,  Carraccioli,  Knox,  Whittingham.  They  had  made 
sacrifices  for  the  sake  of  religion,  and  thereby  acquired  the 

1  Michelet  {Histoire  de  France,  vol.  X.  414)  calls  Calvinistic  Geneva  "  la 
cite  de  I'esprit  bdtie  de  stoici.ime  sur  le  roc  de  la  predestination,"  and  (in  vol.  XI. 
93)  "la  fahrique  des  saints  et  des  martyrs,  la  sombre  forge  ouse  forgeaissentles^lus 
de  la  mort." 

-  Fourteen  hundred  French  families  settled  in  Geneva  in  eight  years, 
during  the  reign  of  Henri  II.  Gaberel,  Histoire  de  I'iSglise  de  Geneve,  I.  346 ; 
Michelet,  X.  414. 


§  161.  THE  ACADEMY  OF  GENEVA.         803 

honor  of  confessors  with  the  spirit  of  martyrs.  There  were 
special  congregations  for  Italians  and  Englishmen,  who  were 
provided  by  the  city  with  suitable  places  of  worship.  Calvin 
treated  the  refugees  with  great  hospitality.  He  secured  to 
them  as  far  as  possible  the  rights  of  citizenship.  Some  of 
them  were  even  elected  to  the  Large  Council.  An  insnlt 
to  a  refugee  from  religious  persecution  was  as  punishable 
as  an  insult  to  a  minister  of  the  gospel.  The  favor  and  priv- 
ileges accorded  to  these  foreigners  excited  the  envy  and 
jealousy  of  the  native  Genevese,  who  opposed  their  admission 
to  citizenship  and  their  right  to  carry  arms.  This  exclusive 
nativism  gave  Calvin  a  great  deal  of  trouble. 

The  little  Republic  of  Geneva  was  continually  exposed  to 
the  danger  of  absorption  by  Savoy,  France,  and  Spain,  which 
hated  her  as  the  stronghold  of  heresy.  It  was  in  a  large 
measure  due  to  the  wisdom  and  firmness  of  Calvin  that  in 
those  critical  times  she  preserved  her  liberty  and  independ- 
ence. He  also  resisted  the  repeated  attempts  of  Bern  to 
interfere  with  the  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  Church. 

Geneva  offers  a  wonderful  aspect  in  modern  history. 
"  Embracing  the  elite  of  three  nations,  melted  into  one 
whole  by  the  spirit  of  one  man,  it  continues  in  the  midst  of 
mighty  and  bitter  foes,  without  any  external  support,  simply 
through  its  moral  force.  It  has  no  territory,  no  army,  no 
treasures,  no  temporal,  no  material  resources.  There  it 
stands,  a  city  of  the  spirit,  built  of  Christian  stoicism  on 
the  rock  of  predestination." 

§  161.    The  Academy  of  Geneva.     The  High  School  of 
Reformed  Theology. 

I.  Calvik  :  Leges  Academice  Genevensis,  or  L'Ordre  du  College  de  Geneve,  first 
published  in  Latin  and  French.  Geneva,  1559.  Republished  by  Charles 
La  Fort,  professor  of  law  at  Geneva,  on  the  third  centennial  of  the 
founding  of  the  Academy,  June  5,  1859,  and  in  Opera,  X.  65-90. 

IL  Berthault:  Mathurin  Cordier.  L'enseignement  chez  les  premier  Calvini'stes. 
Paris,  1876  (85  pp.).  —  Massebieau  :  Les  colloques  scolaires  du  seizieme 


804        THE   EEFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Steele  et  leurs  auteur's.  Paris,  1878.  —  Amiel  et  Bouvier  :  L'enseigne merit 
superieur  a  Geneve  depuis  la  fondation  de  I'academie  jusqu'a.  1876.  Gen., 
1878.  Comp.  Henry,  III.  386  sqq. ;  Stahelin,  II.  487-498;  Gaberel, 
II.  109  sqq.;  Buisson:  Se'b.  Castellion  (Paris,  1892),  I.  121-151. 

One  of  the  most  important  institutions  of  Geneva  which 
strengthened  the  Reformed  religion  at  home,  and  extended 
it  abroad,  is  the  Academy  founded  by  Calvin.  Knowing  that 
the  ignorance  of  the  Roman  priesthood  was  a  source  of  much 
superstition  and  corruption,  he  labored  zealously  for  the 
education  of  the  ministry  and  the  whole  people,  and  secured 
the  best  teachers,  as  Cordier,  Saunier,  Castellio,  and  Beza. 

There  was  a  college  in  Geneva,  since  1428,  called  after  its 
founder  "  College  Versonnex,"  for  the  training  of  the  clergy ; 
but  it  had  fallen  into  decay,  and  was  reorganized  after  Calvin's 
return  in  1541.  Tuition  was  free.  To  avoid  overcrowding 
and  to  bring  the  facilities  of  education  within  the  reach  of 
every  youth,  four  elementary  schools  were  established  for 
each  of  the  four  quarters  of  the  city.  At  first  a  small  fee 
was  charged,  but  it  was  abolished  by  the  council  after  1571, 
at  the  request  of  Beza.  A  much  larger  attendance  was  the 
effect.  Calvin  is  sometimes  called  the  founder  of  the  com- 
mon school  system. 

He  wished  to  establish  a  full  university  with  four  faculties, 
but  the  limited  means  of  the  little  Republic  would  not  per- 
mit that ;  so  he  confined  himself  to  an  Academy.  He  himself 
collected  for  it  from  house  to  house  10,024  gold  guilders, 
a  very  large  sum  for  that  time.  Several  foreign  residents 
contributed  liberally :  Carraccioli,  2954 ;  Pierre  Orsieres, 
312;  Matthieu  de  la  Roche,  260  guilders.  Of  the  native 
Genevese,  Bonivard,  the  old  champion  of  liberty,  bequeathed 
his  whole  fortune  to  the  institution.^  The  Council  put  up  a 
commodious  building.  Calvin  drew  up  the  programme  of 
studies  and  the  academic  statutes,  which,  after  careful  exam- 
ination, were  unanimously  approved. 

1  Senebier,  Ilisf.  lit.  I.  48  sq. ;  Henry,  III.  886. 


§  161.  THE  ACADEMY  OP  GENEVA.         805 

The  Academy  was  solenmljr  dedicated  on  June  5,  1559,  in 
the  church  of  St.  Peter,  in  the  presence  of  the  whole  Coun- 
cil, the  ministers,  and  six  hundred  students.  Calvin  invoked 
the  blessing  of  God  upon  the  institution,  which  was  to  be 
forever  dedicated  to  science  and  religion,  and  made  some 
short  and  weighty  remarks  in  French.  Michael  Roset,  the 
Secretary  of  State,  read  the  Confession  of  Faith-  and  the 
statutes  by  which  the  institution  was  to  be  guided.  Theo- 
dore Beza  was  proclaimed  rector  and  delivered  an  inaugural 
address  in  Latin.  Calvin  closed  with  prayer.  Ten  able  and 
experienced  professors  were  associated  with  him  for  the 
different  departments  of  grammar,  logic,  mathematics, 
physics,  music,  and  the  ancient  languages.  Calvin  himself 
was  to  continue  his  theological  lectures  in  connection  with 
Beza. 

The  statutes  which  were  read  on  this  occasion  lay  great 
stress  on  French  and  Latin  composition.  The  Latin  authora 
to  be  studied  are:  Caesar,  Livy,  Cicero,  Virgil,  and  Ovid; 
the  Greek  authors:  Herodotus,  Xenophon,  Homer,  Demos- 
thenes, Plutarch,  and  Plato.  There  was  also  a  special  chair 
of  Hebrew  which  was  assigned  to  Chevalier,  a  pupil  of 
Vatable  and  formerly  tutor  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  Teachers 
and  pupils  had  to  sign  the  Apostles'  Creed  and  a  confession 
of  faith,  which,  however,  wisely  omitted  the  favorite  dogma 
of  predestination,  and  was  abolished  in  1576  in  order  to 
admit  "  Papists  and  Lutherans."  Religious  exercises  opened 
and  closed  the  daily  instructions. 

The  success  of  the  school  was  extraordinary.  No  less  than 
nine  hundred  young  men  from  almost  all  the  nations  of  Europe 
were  matriculated  in  the  first  year  as  regular  scholars,  and 
almost  as  many,  mostly  refugees  from  France  and  England, 
prepared  themselves  by  the  theological  lectures  of  Calvin 
for  the  work  of  evangelists  and  teachers  in  their  native 
land.  Among  these  was  John  Knox,  the  great  Reformer  of 
Scotland. 


806        THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

The  Academy  continued  to  flourish  with  some  interrup- 
tions. It  attracted  students  from  all  parts  of  Protestant 
Europe,  and  numbered  among  its  teachers  such  men  as 
Casaubon,  Spangenheim,  Hotoman,  Francis  and  Alphonse 
Turretin,  Leclerc,  Pictet  de  Saussure,  and  Charles  Bonnet. 
It  was  the  chief  nursery  of  Protestant  ministers  and  teachers 
for  France,  and  the  principle  school  of  reformed  theology 
and  literary  culture  for  more  than  two  hundred  years.  A 
degree  from  that  Academy  was  equivalent  in  Holland  to  a 
degree  of  any  University.  Arminius  was  sent  there  by  the 
city  of  Amsterdam  to  be  educated  under  Beza  (1582),  who 
gave  him  a  good  testimonial,  not  knowing  that  he  would 
become  the  leader  of  a  mighty  reaction  against  Calvinism. 

In  1859  the  third  centennial  of  the  Academy  was  cele- 
brated in  Geneva. 

The  evangelistic  work  of  that  Academy  was  resumed  and 
is  successfully  carried  on  in  the  spirit  of  Calvin  by  the  Evan- 
gelical Society  and  the  Free  Theological  Seminary  of  Geneva, 
which  numbered  among  its  first  teachers  Merle  d' Aubign^, 
the  distinguished  historian  of  the  Reformation. 

§  162.    CalviTi's  Influence  upon  the  Reformed   Churches  of  the 

Continent. 

Calvin's  moral  power  extended  over  all  the  Reformed 
Churches,  and  over  several  nationalities  —  Swiss,  French, 
German,  Polish,  Bohemian,  Hungarian,  Dutch,  English, 
Scotch,  and  American.  His  religious  influence  upon  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race  in  both  continents  is  greater  than  that  of 
any  native  Englishman,  and  continues  to  this  day.^ 

1  It  is  interesting  to  read  the  judgment  on  Calvin's  influence  by  a  highly- 
accomplished  lady,  who  moved  in  the  best  society  of  England  and  the  Conti- 
nent. The  Baroness  Bunsen,  whose  husband  was  successively  Prussian  Am- 
bassador in  Italy,  Switzerland,  and  England,  writes  in  one  of  her  letters  (Aug. 
19,  1865)  :  "I  read  in  the  winter  a  life  of  Calvin  by  Bungener,  and  a  very 
painful  book  it  is,  but  the  subject  is  of  grand  effect  from  the  display  of  moral 


§  162.   calvtn's  influence  upon  the  churches.     807 

Calvin  and  France. 

Calvin  never  entered  French  soil  after  his  settlement  in 
Geneva,  and  was  not  even  a  citizen  of  the  Republic  till  1559; 
but  his  heart  was  still  in  France.  From  the  time  he  wrote 
that  eloquent  letter  to  Francis  the  First,  in  dedicating  to  him 
his  Institutes,  he  followed  the  Protestant  movement  with 
the  liveliest  interest.  He  was  the  head  of  the  French  Refor- 
mation and  consulted  at  every  step.  He  was  called  as  pastor 
to  the  first  Protestant  church  in  Paris,  but  declined.  He 
gave  to  the  Huguenots  their  creed  and  form  of  government. 
The  Gallican  Confession  of  1559,  also  called  the  Confession 
of  Rochelle,  was,  in  its  first  draft,  his  work,  and  his  pupil 
Antoine  de  la  Roche  Chandieu  (also  called  Sadeel)  brought 
it  into  its  present  enlarged  shape,  in  which  it  was  presented 
by  Beza  to  Charles  IX.  at  the  Colloquy  at  Poissy,  1561, 
and  signed  at  the  Synod  of  La  Rochelle,  1571,  by  the  Queen 
Jeanne  d'Albret  of  Navarre ;  her  son,  Prince  Henry  of 
Navarre  (Henry  IV.)  ;  Prince  Conde ;  Prince  Louis,  Count 
of  Nassau ;  Admiral  Coligny  ;  Chatillon ;  several  nobles,  and 
all  the  preachers  present.^ 

The  history  of  French  Protestantism  down  to  1564  is 
largely  identified  with  Calvin's  name.  He  induced  the  Swiss 
Cantons  and  the  princes  of  the  Smalkaldian  League  to  inter- 
cede for  the  persecuted  Huguenots.  He  sent  messengers  and 
letters  of  comfort  to  the  prisoners.  "  The  reverence,"  says 
one  of  his  biographers,  "  with  which  his  name  was  mentioned, 
the  boundless  confidence  reposed  in  his  person,  the  enthu- 
siasm of  the  disciples  who  hastened  to  him,  or  came  from 
him,  surpasses  all  the  usual  experience  of  men.     Congrega- 

power  almost  unequalled.  .  .  .  The  merit  of  Calvin  is  his  own,  and  he  has 
been  the  creative  instrument  of  the  strength  of  England,  of  Scotland,  of  the 
United  States  of  America,  not  to  speak  of  the  Protestants  of  France,  wlio 
have  been  scattered  abroad  to  sow  good  seed  in  every  country  into  which 
they  fled,  as  not  being  suffered  to  build  up  their  own." 
1  Schaff,  Creeds  of  Christendom,  vol.  I.  490-501. 


808        THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

tions  appealed  to  him  for  preachers ;  princes  and  noblemen 
for  decisive  counsel  in  political  complications  ;  those  in  doubt 
for  instruction ;  the  persecuted  for  protection ;  the  martyrs  for 
exhortation  and  encouragement  in  cheerful  suffering  and 
dying.  And  as  the  eye  of  a  father  watches  over  his  chil- 
dren, Calvin  watched  with  untiring  care  of  love  over  all 
these  relations  in  their  manifold  ramifications,  and  sought 
to  be  the  same  to  the  great  community  of  his  brethren  in 
France  what  he  was  to  the  little  Republic  at  home.''^ 

Roman  Catholic  writers  have  made  Calvin  responsible  for 
the  civil  wars  in  France,  as  they  have  made  Luther  respon- 
sible for  the  Peasants'  War  and  the  Thirty  Years'  War. 
But  the  Reformers  preached  reformation  by  the  word  and 
the  spirit,  not  revolution  by  the  sword.  The  chief  cause 
of  the  religious  wars  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centu- 
ries was  the  intolerance  of  the  papacy.  Bossuet  charges 
Calvin  with  complicity  in  the  conspiracy  of  Amboise,  which 
was  a  political  coup  d'etat  to  check  the  power  of  the 
Guises  (1560).  Calvin  was  indeed  informed  of  the  plot, 
but  warned  against  it,  first  privately,  then  publicly,  and 
predicted  its  disastrous  failure.  He  constantly  upheld  the 
principle  of  obedience  to  the  rightful  magistrate,  and  opposed 
violent  measures.  "The  first  drop  of  blood,"  he  said,  "which 
we  shed  will  cause  streams  of  blood  to  flow.  Let  us  rather  a 
hundred  times  perish  than  bring  such  disgrace  upon  the  name 
of  Christianity  and  the  cause  of  the  gospel."  ^  Afterwards 
when  a  war  in  self-defence  was  inevitable,  he  reluctantly 
gave  his  consent,  but  protested  against  all  excesses.^ 

Calvin  did  not  live  to  weep  over  the  terrible  massacre  of 
St.  Bartholomew's  day,  nor  to  rejoice  over  the  Edict  of 
Nantes;    but   his    spirit   accompanied  "the    Church   of   the 

1  Stiihelin,  I.  507. 

2  See  Letters  in  Bonnet,  II.  382-391 ;  his  letter  to  BuUinger,  May  11, 1560; 
Basnage,  Hist,  de  la  Beligion  des  Egl.  ref.  II.  192-200 ;  Henry,  III.  545  sqq. ; 
Dyer,  478  sqq.;  Stiihelin,  L  615-619. 

'  Stahelin,  I.  626  sqq. 


§  162.   Calvin's  influence  upon  the  churches.     809 

Desert,"  whose  motto  was  the  burning  bush  (Ex.  3:2);  and 
every  Huguenot  who  left  France  for  the  &*uke  of  his  faith, 
carried  to  his  new  home  in  Switzerland,  or  Brandenburg,  or 
Holland,  or  England,  or  America,  a  profound  reverence  for 
the  name  of  John  Calvin. 

,     Calvin  and  the  Waldenses. 

The  Waldenses  are  the  onl}-  mediaeval  sect  which  survives 
to  this  day,  because  they  progressed  with  the  Reformation 
and  adhered  to  the  Bible  as  their  rule  of  faith.^  They  sent  a 
deputation  of  two  of  their  pastors,  in  1530,  to  (Ecolampadius 
at  Basel,  Bucer  and  Capito  at  Strassburg,  and  Berthold  Haller 
at  Bern,  for  information  concerning  the  principles  of  the 
Reformation,  and  made  common  cause  with  the  Protestants.^ 
They  were  distinguished  for  industry,  virtue,  and  simple, 
practical  piety,  but  their  heresy  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
authorities.  They  were  cited  before  the  Parliament  at  Aix, 
and  the  heads  of  their  families  were  condemned  to  death  in 
November,  1540.  The  execution  of  the  atrocious  sentence 
was  delayed  till  the  king's  wishes  should  be  ascertained.  In 
February,  1541,  Francis  granted  them  pardon  for  the  past, 
but  required  them  to  recant  within  three  months.  They 
adhered  to  their  faith.  On  the  28th  of  April,  1545,  a  fiendish 
scheme  of  butchery  —  under  the  direction  of  Baron  d'Oppede, 
military  governor  of  Provence,  and  Cardinal  Tournon,  the 
bigoted  and  bloodthirsty  archbishop  of  Lyons — was  carried 
out  against  these  innocent  people.  Their  chief  towns  of 
Merindol  and  Cabrieres,  together  with  twenty-eight  villages, 

1  The  cognate  Bohemian  Brethren  continued  under  a  new  name  in  the 
Moravian  Brotherhood  (Unitas  Fratriim,  Brndergevieinde). 

2  Creeds  of  Christendom,  I.  565  sqq.  See  also  a  report  of  conversations 
which  Calvin  had  at  Strassburg  with  Matthias  Czervenka,  a  Bohemian,  about 
the  Bohemian  Brethren  in  Gindely,  Quellen  ztir  Gesch.  der  bohmischen  Briider, 
Wien,  1859,  p.  68,  quoted  in  Annal.  Calv.  XXI.  260  sqq.  Calvin  objected  to 
the  Waldenses  at  that  time,  that  they  claimed  merit  and  did  not  leave  room 
for  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  in  Christ. 


810         THE   REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

were  destroyed,  the  women  outraged,  and  about  four  thou- 
sand persons  shxtightered. 

Great  numbers  of  the  Waldenses  sought  refuge  in  flight. 
The  noble  and  humane  Bishop  Sadolet  of  Carpentras,  received 
them  kindly,  and  interceded  for  them  with  the  King.  Four 
thousand  went  to  Geneva.  Calvin  started  a  subscription  for 
them,  provided  them  with  lodging  and  employment  at  the 
fortifications,  and  made  every  effort  to  get  the  Swiss  Cantons 
to  intercede  with  King  Francis  in  behalf  of  those  Waldenses 
who  remained  in  France.  He  travelled  to  Bern,  Ziirich,  and 
Aarau  for  this  purpose.  He  even  intended  to  go  to  Paris,  but 
was  prevented  by  sickness.  The  Cantons  actually  wrote  to 
the  king  in  the  strongest  terms,  but  he  rebuked  them  for 
meddling  with  his  affairs.  Viret  visited  the  French  court 
with  letters  of  recommendation  from  the  Swiss  Cantons  and 
the  Smalkaldian  League,  but  likewise  without  result.^ 

Since  that  time  there  has  been  a  fraternal  intercourse 
between  the  Waldenses  and  the  French  Swiss,  and  many  of 
their  most  useful  pastors  were  educated  at  Geneva  and 
Lausanne.  The  Waldensian  Confession  of  1655  is  Calvin- 
istic  and  based  upon  the  Gallican  Confession  of  1559.^  After 
many  persecutions  in  their  mountain  homes  in  Piedmont,  the 
Waldenses  obtained  freedom  in  1848,  and  since  that  time, 
and  especially  since  1870,  they  have  become  zealous  evan- 
gelists in  the  united  kingdom  of  Italy,  with  a  church  even 
in  Rome  and  a  flourishing  theological  college  in  Florence. 

Calvin  in  Germany. 

Calvin  labored  three  years  in  Germany ;  he  felt  closely 
allied  to  the  Lutheran  Church ;  he  had  the  profoundest 
regard  for  Luther,  in  sj^ite  of  his  infirmities ;  he  was  the 
intimate  friend  of  Melanchthon;  he  attended  three  colloquies 

1  Baum,  Beza,  I.  240  sqq. ;  Stahelin,  I.  509-512 ;  Dyer,  193-198. 

2  Creeds  of  Christendom,  III.  757-770  (French  and  English). 


§  162.     CALVIN'S   INFLUENCE   UPON   THE   CHURCHES.      811 

between  Lutheran  and  Roman  Catholic  divines;  he  once 
signed  the  Augsburg  Confession  (1541),  as  understood,  ex- 
phiined,  and  improved  by  its  author.  He  followed  the 
progress  of  the  Reformation  in  Germany  step  by  step  with 
the  warmest  interest,  as  is  shown  in  his  correspondence  and 
various  writings. 

He  did  not  labor  for  a  separate  Reformed  Church  in  Ger- 
many, but  for  a  free  confederation  of  the  Swiss  and  Lutheran 
Churches.  But  the  fanatical  bigotry  of  such  men  as  Flacius, 
Westphal,  and  Heshusius  produced  a  reaction  and  drove  a 
large  part  of  the  moderate  or  Melanchthonian  Lutherans  into 
the  Reformed  communion. 

The  Reformed  Church  in  the  Electoral  Palatinate  was  the 
result  of  a  co-operation  of  Melanchthonian  and  Calvinistic 
influences  under  the  pious  Elector,  Frederick  IIL  The  Hei- 
delberg Catechism  is  the  joint  work  of  Ursinus,  a  pupil  of 
Melanchthon,  and  Olevianus,  a  pupil  of  Calvin.  It  appeared 
in  1563,  three  years  after  Melanchthon's  death,  one  year 
before  Calvin's  death,  and  became  the  leading  symbol  of  the 
Palatinate  and  the  Reformed  Churches  in  Germany  and 
Holland.^  It  gives  the  best  expression  to  Calvin's  views  on 
the  Lord's  Supper,  and  on  Election,  but  wisely  omits  all 
reference  to  an  eternal  decree  of  reprobation  and  preterition ; 
following  in  this  respect  Calvin's  own  catechism.  The  well- 
known  first  question  is  a  gem  and  presents  the  bright  and 
comforting  side  of  the  doctrine  of  Election  :  — 

"  What  is  thy  only  comfort  in  life  and  in  death  1  " 

"  That  I,  with  body  and  soul,  both  in  life  and  in  death,  am  not  my  own,  but 
belong  to  my  faithful  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  who  with  His  precious  blood  has 
fully  satisfied  for  all  my  sins,  and  redeemed  me  from  all  the  power  of  the 
devil;  and  so  preserves  me,  that  without  the  will  of  my  Father  in  heaven  not 
a  hair  can  fall  from  my  head;  yea,  that  all  things  must  work  together  for 
my  salvation.  Wherefore,  by  His  Holy  Spirit,  He  also  assures  me  of  eter- 
nal life,  and  makes  me  heartily  willing  and  ready  henceforth  to  live  unto 
Him." 

1  See  Schaff ,  Creeds  of  Christendom,  vol.  I.  pp.  529  sqq. 


812        THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

The  influence  of  Calvinism  and  Presbyterian  Church  gov- 
ernment extended,  indirectly,  also  over  the  Lutheran  Church 
and  was  modified  in  turn  by  Lutheranism. 

John  Sigismund,  Elector  of  Brandenburg,  and  ancestor  of 
the  Kings  of  Prussia  and  Emperors  of  Germany,  adopted  the 
Calvinistic  faith  in  a  moderate  form  (1613). ^  Frederick 
William,  "the  great  Elector,"  the  proper  founder  of  the  Prus- 
sian Monarchy,  secured  the  legal  recognition  of  the  Reformed 
Church  in  the  Treaty  of  Westphalia  (1648),  and  answered 
the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  (1685)  by  a  hospitable 
invitation  of  the  persecuted  Huguenots  to  his  country,  where 
they  settled  in  large  numbers.  King  Frederick  William 
III.  introduced,  at  the  third  centenary  of  the  Reformation 
(1817),  the  Evangelical  Union  of  the  Lutheran  and  Reformed 
Churches  of  Prussia ;  and  among  the  chief  advocates  of  the 
union  was  Schleiermacher,  the  son  of  a  Calvinistic  minister, 
the  pupil  of  the  Moravians,  and  the  renovator  of  German 
theology,  which  itself  is  the  result  of  a  commingling  of 
Lutheran  and  Reformed  elements  with  a  decided  advance 
upon  narrow  confessionalism. 

We  may  add  that,  while  Calvin's  rigorous  doctrine  of  pre- 
destination in  its  dualistic  form  will  never  satisfy  the  German 
mind,  his  doctrine  of  the  sacraments  has  made  great  progress 
in  the  Lutheran  Church  and  seems  to  offer  a  solid  basis  for 
a  satisfactory  theory  on  the  mystery  of  the  spiritual  real 
presence  and  fruition  of  Christ  in  the  Holy  Supper. 

Calvin  and  Holland. 

The  Netherlands  derived  the  Reformation  first  from  Ger- 
many, and  soon  afterwards  from  Switzerland  and  France. 
The  Calvinists  outnumbered  the  Lutherans  and  Anabap- 
tists, and  the  Reformed  Church  became  the  State  religion 
in  Holland. 

1  Creeds  of  Christendom,  I.  555  sqq. 


§  162.     CALVIN'S   INFLUENCE   UPON   THE   CHURCHES.      813 

Two  Aiigustinian  monks  were  burned  for  heresy  in  Brus- 
sels in  1523,  and  were  celebrated  by  Luther  in  a  stirring 
hymn  as  the  first  evangelical  martyrs.  This  was  the  fiery 
signal  of  a  fearful  persecution,  which  raged  during  the  reigns 
of  Charles  V.  and  Philip  II.,  and  resulted  at  last  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  national  independence  and  civil  and  religious 
liberty.  During  that  memorable  struggle  of  eighty  years, 
more  Protestants  were  put  "to  death  for  their  conscientious 
belief  by  the  Spaniards  than  Christians  suffered  martyrdom 
under  the  Roman  Emperors  in  the  first  three  centuries. 
William  of  Orange,  the  hero  of  the  war  and  a  liberal  Calvin- 
ist,  was  assassinated  by  an  obscure  fanatic  (1584).i  His 
second  son,  Maurice,  a  strict  Calvinist  (d.  1625),  carried  on 
and  completed  the  conflict  (1609).  The  horrible  barbarities 
practised  upon  men,  women,  and  unborn  children,  especially 
during  the  governorship  of  that  bloodhound,  the  Duke  of 
Alva,  from  1567-1573,  are  almost  beyond  belief.  We  quote 
from  the  classical  history  of  Motley :  "  The  number  of  Nether- 
landers  who  were  burned,  strangled,  beheaded,  or  buried 
alive,  in  obedience  to  the  edicts  of  Charles  V.,  and  for  the 
offences  of  reading  the  Scriptures,  of  looking  askance  at  a 
graven  image,  or  of  ridiculing  the  actual  presence  of  the 
body  and  blood  of  Christ  in  a  wafer,  have  been  placed  as 
high  as  one  hundred  thousand  by  distinguished  authorities, 
and  have  never  been  put  at  a  lower  mark  than  fifty  thousand. 
The  Venetian  envoy  Navigero  placed  the  number  of  victims 

1  Motley  {The  Rise  of  the  Dutch  Bepublic,  III.  617)  thus  characterizes 
William  of  Orange,  the  Washington  of  Holland :  "  He  was  more  than  any- 
thing else  a  religious  man.  From  his  trust  in  God,  he  ever  derived  support 
and  consolation  in  the  darkest  hours.  Implicitly  relying  upon  Almighty 
wisdom  and  goodness,  he  looked  danger  in  the  face  with  a  constant  smile, 
and  endured  incessant  labors  and  trials  with  a  serenity  which  seemed  more 
tlian  human.  While,  however,  his  soul  was  full  of  piety,  it  was  tolerant  of 
error.  Sincerely  and  deliberately  himself  a  convert  to  the  Reformed  Ciiurch, 
he  was  ready  to  extend  freedom  of  worship  to  Catholics  on  the  one  hand,  and 
to  Anabaptists  on  the  other,  for  no  man  ever  felt  more  keenly  than  he  that 
the  Reformer  who  becomes  in  his  turn  a  bigot  is  doubly  odious." 


814         THE    REFORMATION    IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

ill  the  provinces  of  Holland  and  Friesland  alone  at  thirty 
thousand,  and  this  in  1546,  ten  years  before  the  abdication, 
and  five  before  the  promulgation  of  the  hideous  edict  of 
1550."  1  Of  the  administration  of  the  Duke  of  Alva,  Motley 
says :  "  On  his  journey  from  the  Netherlands,  he  is  said  to 
have  boasted  that  he  had  caused  eighteen  thousand  six  hun- 
dred inhabitants  of  the  provinces  to  be  executed  during  the 
period  of  his  government.  The  number  of  those  who  had 
perished  by  battle,  siege,  starvation,  and  massacre,  defied  com- 
putation. .  .  .  After  having  accomplished  the  military  enter- 
prise [in  Portugal]  entrusted  to  him,  he  fell  into  a  lingering 
fever,  at  the  termination  of  which  he  was  so  much  reduced 
that  he  was  only  kept  alive  by  milk  which  he  drank  from 
a  woman's  breast.  Such  was  the  gentle  second  childhood 
of  the  man  who  had  almost  literally  been  drinking  blood 
for  seventy  years.  He  died  on  the  12th  of  December, 
1582."  2 

The  Bible,  with  the  Belgic  Confession  and  the  Heidelberg 
Catechism,  was  the  spiritual  guide  of  the  Protestants,  and 
inspired  them  with  that  heroic  courage  which  triumphed 
over  the  despotism  of  Spain,  and  raised  Holland  to  an 
extraordinary  degree  of  political,  commercial,  and  literary 
eminence.^ 

1  J.  L.  Motley,  The  Bise  of  the  Dutch  Bepuhlic,  vol.  I.  p.  114. 

2  Ibid.  vol.  II.  497.  Comp,  the  description  of  Alva's  cruelties  and  the 
sufferings  of  the  Protestants  under  his  reign  of  terror  on  pp.  503  sq.,  and 
B.  ter  Haar's  History  of  the  Reformation  (German  translation  from  the  Dutch), 
II.  86  sqq.  and  127  sqq. 

^  Motley,  who  was  a  Unitarian,  does  at  least  this  justice  to  the  practical 
effects  of  Calvinism  in  Holland  and  elsewhere :  "  The  doctrine  of  predestina- 
tion, the  consciousness  of  being  chosen  soldiers  of  Christ,  inspired  those 
Puritans  who  founded  the  commonwealths  of  England,  of  Holland,  and  of 
America  with  a  contempt  of  toil,  danger,  and  death  which  enabled  them  to 
accomplish  things  almost  supernatural.  No  uncouthness  of  phraseology,  no 
unlovely  austerity  of  deportment,  could,  except  to  vulgar  minds,  make  that 
sublime  enthusiasm  ridiculous,  which  on  either  side  the  ocean  ever  confronted 
tyranny  with  dauntless  front,  and  welcomed  death  on  battlefield,  scaffold,  or 
rack  with  perfect  composure.  The  early  Puritan  at  least  believed.  The  very 
intensity  of  his  belief  made  him  —  all  unconsciously  to  himself,  and  narrowed 


§  162.   Calvin's  influence  upon  the  churches.     815 

The  Belgic  Confession  of  1561  was  prepared  by  Guido  de 
Bres,  and  revised  by  Francis  Junius,  a  student  of  Calvin.  It 
became  the  recognized  symbol  of  the  Reformed  Churches  of 
Holland  and  Belgium. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  Arminianism 
rose  as  a  necessary  and  wholesome  reaction  against  scholastic 
Calvinism,  but  was  defeated  in  the  Synod  of  Dort,  1619,  which 
adopted  the  five  knotty  canons  of  unconditional  predestina- 
tion, limited  atonement,  total  depravity,  irresistible  grace,  and 
the  perseverance  of  saints.  The  Dutch  Reformed  Church 
in  the  United  States  still  holds  to  the  Canons  of  Dort.  But 
Arminianism,  although  temporarily  expelled,  was  allowed  to 
return  to  Holland  after  the  death  of  Maurice,  and  gradually 
pervaded  the  national  Church.  It  largely  entered  the  Church 
of  England  under  the  Stuarts.  It  assumed  new  vigor  through 
the  great  IMethodist  Revival,  which  made  it  a  converting  and 
missionary  agency  in  both  hemispheres,  and  the  most  formi- 
dable rival  of  Calvinism  in  the  Anglo-American  Churches. 
A  greater  man  and  more  abundant  in  self-den}dng  and  fruit- 
ful apostolic  labors  has  not  risen  in  the  Protestant  churches 
since  the  death  of  Calvin  than  John  Wesley,  whose  "  parish 
was  the  world."  But  he  was  aided  in  the  great  Anglo- 
American  Revival  by  George  Whitefield,  who  was  both  a 
Calvinist  and  a  true  evangelist. 

Calvinism  emphasizes  divine  sovereignty  and  free  grace ; 
Arminianism  emphasizes  human  responsibility.  The  one 
restricts  the  saving  grace  to  the  elect :  the  other  extends  it 
to  all  men  on  the  condition  of  faith.  Both  are  right  in  what 
they  assert ;  both  are  wrong  in  what  they  deny.  If  one  im- 
portant truth  is  pressed  to  the  exclusion  of  another  truth  of 
equal  importance,  it  becomes  an  error,  and  loses  its  hold 
upon  the  conscience. 

as  was  his  view  of  his  position  —  the  great  instrument  by  which  the  widest 
human  liberty  was  to  be  gained  for  all  mankind."  History  of  the  United 
Netherlands,  vol.  IV.  548. 


816         THE   REFORMATION   IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

The  Bible  gives  us  a  theology  which  is  more  human  than 
Calvinism,  and  more  divine  than  Arminianism,  and  more 
Christian  than  either  of  them.^ 

§  163.    Calvin' s  Influence  upon  Grreat  Britain. 
Calvin  and  the  Church  of  England. 

Calvin  first  alludes  to  the  English  Reformation  in  a  letter 
to  Farel,  dated  March  15,  1539,  where  he  gives  the  following 
judgment  of  Henry  VIII. :  "  The  King  is  only  half  wise.  He 
prohibits,  under  severe  penalties,  besides  depriving  them  of- 
the  ministry,  the  priests  and  bishops  who  enter  upon  matri- 
mony ;  he  retains  the  daily  masses ;  he  wishes  the  seven 
sacraments  to  remain  as  they  are.  In  this  way  he  has  a 
mutilated  and  torn  gospel,  and  a  church  stuffed  full  as  yet 
with  many  toys  and  trifles.  Then  he  does  not  suffer  the 
Scripture  to  circulate  in  the  language  of  the  common  people 
throughout  the  kingdom,  and  he  has  lately  put  forth  a  new 
verdict  by  which  he  warns  the  people  against  the  reading  of 
the  Bible.  He  lately  burned  a  worthy  and  learned  man 
[John  Lambert]  for  denying  the  carnal  presence  of  Christ  in 
the  bread.  Our  friends,  however,  though  sorely  hurt  by 
atrocities  of  this  kind,  will  not  cease  to  have  an  eye  to  the 
condition  of  his  kingdom." 

With  the  accession  of  Edward  VI.  he  began  to  exercise  a 
direct  influence  upon  the  Anglican  Reformation.  He  ad- 
dressed a  long  letter  to  the  Protector  Somerset,  Oct.  22, 
1548,  and  advised  the  introduction  of  instructive  preaching 
and  strict  discipline,  the  abolition  of  crying  abuses,  and  the 
drawing  up  of  a  summary  of  articles  of  faith,  and  a  catechism 
for  children.  Most  of  his  suggestions  were  adopted.  It  is 
remarkable  that  in  this  letter,  as  well  as  that  to  the  king  of 
Poland,  he  makes  no  objection  to  the  Episcopal  form  of  gov- 

1  See  Creeds  of  Christendom,  I.  -502  sqq.  and  508  sqq. 


§  163.   Calvin's  influence  upon  great  beitain.     817 

ernment,  nor  to  a  liturgy.  At  the  request  of  Archbishop 
Cranmer,  he  wrote  also  lettei-s  to  Edward  VI.,  and  dedicated 
to  him  his  Commentary  on  Isaiah.  He  sent  them  by  a  private 
messenger  who  was  introduced  to  the  King  by  the  Duke 
of  Somerset.  His  correspondence  with  Cranmer  has  been 
already  alluded  to.i  As  a  consensus  creed  of  Reformed 
Churches  was  found  to  be  impracticable,  he  encouraged  the 
archbishop  to  draw  up  the  articles  of  religion  for  the  Church 
of  England. 

These  articles  which  appeared  first  in  1553,  and  were  after- 
wards reduced  from  forty-one  to  thirty-nine  under  Queen 
Elizabeth,  in  1563,  show  the  influence  of  the  Auo-sburo-  Con- 
fession  in  the  doctrines  of  the  Trinity,  justification  and  the 
Church,  and  the  influence  of  Calvin  in  the  doctrines  of  the 
Eucharist,  and  of  predestination,  which,  however,  is  stated 
with  wisdom  and  moderation  (Art.  XVII.),  without  repro- 
bation and  preterition.2 

During  the  reign  of  Queen  Mary,  many  leading  Protestants 
fled  to  Geneva,  and  afterwards  obtained  high  positions  in  the 
Church  under  Queen  Elizabeth.  Among  them  were  the 
translators  of  the  Geneva  version  of  the  Bible,  which  owes 
much  to  Calvin  and  Beza,  and  continued  to  be  the  most 
popular  English  version  till  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  when  it  was  superseded  by  the  version  of  1611. 

During  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth  Calvin's  theological 
influence  was  supreme,  and  continued  down  to  the  time  of 
Archbishop  Laud.  His  Institutes  were  translated  soon  after 
the  appearance  of  the  last  edition,  and  passed  through  six 
editions  in  the  life  of  the  translator.  They  were  the  text- 
book in  the  universities,  and  had  as  great  an  authority  as  the 
Sentences  of  Peter  the  Lombard,  or  the  Summa  of  Thomas 
Aquinas,  in  the  Middle  Ages.  We  have  previously  quoted 
the    high   tributes  of  the  "judicious"   Hooker  and  Bishop 

I  §  159,  pp.  799  sq. 

-  See  Creeds  of  Christendom,  vol.  I.  G13  sqq. ;  G33  sqq. 


818         THE    KEFOEMATIOISr   IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Sanderson  to  Calvin.^  Heylyn,  the  admirer  and  biographer 
of  Archbishop  Laud,  says  that  "  Calvin's  book  of  Institutes 
was  for  the  most  part  the  foundation  on  which  the  young 
divines  of  those  times  did  build  their  studies."  Hardwick, 
speaking  of  the  latter  part  of  the  Elizabethan  period,  asserts 
that  "  during  an  interval  of  nearly  thirty  years,  the  more 
extreme  opinions  of  the  school  of  Calvin,  not  excluding  his 
theory  of  irrespective  reprobation,  were  predominant  in 
almost  every  town  and  parish."  ^ 

The  nine  Lambeth  Articles  of  1595,  and  the  Irish  Articles 
of  Archbishop  Ussher  of  1615,  give  the  strongest  S3aiibolical 
expression  to  the  Calvinistic  doctrine  of  unconditional  elec- 
tion and  reprobation,  but  lost  their  authority  under  the  later 
Stuarts.^ 

Calvin,  however,  always  maintained  his  commanding  posi- 
tion as  a  commentator  among  the  scholars  of  the  Anglican 
Church.  His  influence  revived  in  the  evangelical  party,  and 
his  sense  of  the  absolute  dependence  on  divine  grace  for 
comfort  and  strength  found  classical  expression  in  some  of 
the  best  hymns  of  the  English  language,  notably  in  Toplady's 

"  Rock  of  Ages  cleft  for  me." 
Calvin  and  the  Church  of  Scotland. 

Still  greater  and  more  lasting  was  Calvin's  influence  upon 
Scotland.  It  extended  over  discipline  and  church  polity  as 
well  as  doctrine. 

The  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland,  under  the  sole  head- 
ship of  Christ,  is  a  daughter  of  the  Reformed  Church  of 
Geneva,  but  has  far  outgrown  her  mother  in  size  and  impor- 
tance, and  is,  upon  the  whole,  the  most  flourishing  of  the 
Reformed  Churches  in  Europe,  and  not  surpassed  by  any 

1  See  above,  p.  286  sq. 

2  A  History  of  the  Articles  of  Religion  (1859),  p.  167. 

'  See  above,  p.  564,  and  Creeds  of  Christendom,  I.  658  sqq. 


§  163.     CALVIN'S    INFLUEXCK    Ul'ON    GREAT    BIUTAIN.       819 

denomination  in  general  intelligence,  liberality,  and  zeal  for 
the  spread  of  Christianity  at  home  and  abroad. 

The  hero  of  the  Scotch  Reformation,  though  four  years 
older  than  Calvin,  sat  humbly  at  his  feet  and  became  more 
Calvinistic  than  Calvin.  John  Knox,  the  Scot  of  the  Scots, 
as  Luther  was  the  German  of  the  Germans,  spent  the  five 
years  of  his  exile  (1554-1559),  during  the  reign  of  the 
Bloody  Mary,  mostly  at  Geneva,  and  found  there  "  the  most 
perfect  school  of  Christ  that  ever  was  since  the  days  of  the 
Apostles."  1  After  that  model  he  led  the  Scotch  people, 
with  dauntless  courage  and  energy,  and  the  perfervidum 
ingenium  Scotorum^  from  mediaeval  semi-barbarism  into  the 
light  of  modern  civilization,  and  acquired  a  name  which, 
next  to  those  of  Luther,  Zwingli,  and  Calvin,  is  tlie  greatest 
in  the  history  of  the  Protestant  Reformation.^ 

In  the  seventeenth  century  Scotch  Presbyterianism  and 
English  Puritanism  combined  to  produce  a  second  and  more 
radical  reformation,  and  formulated  the  rigorous  principles 
of  Puritanic  Calvinism  in  doctrine,  discipline,  and  worship. 
The  Westminster  standards  of  1647  have  since  governed  the 
Presbyterian,  and,  in  part,  also  the  Congregational  or  Inde- 
pendent, and  the  regular  Baptist  Churches  of  the  British 
Empire  and  the  United  States,  with  such  modifications  and 
adaptations  as  the  progress  of  theology  and  church  life 
demands.^ 

1  See  above,  §  110,  p.  518. 

2  Creeds  of  Christendom,  I.  669-685,  and  the  literature  there  given. 

3  Ibid.  I.  685-813. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

THE   CLOSING  SCENES  IN  CALVIN'S   LIFE. 

§  164.    Calvin's  Last  Days  and  Death. 

Calvin  had  labored  in  Geneva  twenty-three  years  after 
his  second  arrival,  —  that  is,  from  September,  1541,  till  May 
27,  1564,1  —  when  he  was  called  to  his  rest  in  the  prime 
of  manhood  and  usefulness,  and  in  full  possession  of  his 
mental  powers ;  leaving  behind  him  an  able  and  worthy  suc- 
cessor, a  model  Reformed  Church  based  on  the  law  of  Moses 
and  the  gospel  of  Christ ;  a  flourishing  Academy,  which  was  a 
nursery  of  evangelical  preachers  for  Switzerland  and  France, 
and  survives  to  this  day ;  and  a  library  of  works  from  his 
pen,  which  after  more  than  three  centuries  are  still  a  living 
and  moulding  power.^ 

He  continued  his  labors  till  the  last  year,  writing,  preach- 
ing, lecturing,  attending  the  sessions  of  the  Consistory  and 
the  Venerable  Company  of  pastors,  entertaining  and  counsel- 
ling strangers  from  all  parts  of  the  Protestant  world,  and 
corresponding  in  every  direction.  He  did  all  this  notwith- 
standing his  accumulating  physical  maladies,  as  headaches, 
asthma,  dyspepsia,  fever,  gravel,  and  gout,  which  wore  out 
his  delicate  body,  but  could  not  break  his  mighty  spirit. 

When  he  was  unable  to  walk  he  had  himself  transported 
to  church  in  a  chair.  On  the  6th  of  February,  1564,  he 
preached  his  last  sermon.     On  Easter  day,  the  2d  of  April, 

^  In  the  same  year  (1564)  Michelangelo  died,  and  Shakespeare  and  Galileo 
were  born.  Adding  the  two  years  of  his  first  sojourn,  from  1536  to  1538, 
Calvin  spent  twenty-five  years  in  Geneva. 

-  He  lived,  says  a  Scotch  divine,  "  somewhat  less  than  fif tj^-five  years,  but 
into  that  period  the  work  of  centuries  was  compressed."     Tweedie,  I.e.,  p.  57. 
820 


§  164.    CALVIN'S   LAST   DAYS   AND   DEATH.  821 

he  was  for  the  last  time  carried  to  church  and  received  the 
sacrament  from  the  hands  of  Beza. 

On  the  25th  of  April,  he  made  his  last  will  and  testament. 
It  is  a  characteristic  document,  full  of  humility  and  gratitude 
to  God,  acknowledging  his  own  unworthiness,  placing  his 
whole  confidence  in  the  free  election  of  grace,  and  the 
abounding  merits  of  Christ,  laying  aside  all  controversy,  and 
looking  forward  to  the  unity  and  peace  in  heaven.^ 

Luther,  defying  all  forms  of  law,  begins  his  last  will  with 
the  words :  "  I  am  well  known  in  heaven,  on  earth,  and  in 
hell,"  and  closes :  "  This  wrote  the  notary  of  God  and  the 
witness  of  his  gospel.  Dr.  Martin  Luther." 

On  the  26th  of  April,  Calvin  wished  to  see  once  more  the 
four  Syndics  and  all  the  members  of  the  Little  Council  in  the 
Council  Hall,  but  the  Senators  in  consideration  of  his  health 
offered  to  come  to  him.  They  proceeded  to  his  house  on  the 
27th  in  solemn  silence.  As  they  were  assembled  round  him 
he  gathered  all  his  strength  and  addressed  them  without  in- 
terruption, like  a  patriarch,  thanking  them  for  their  kindness 
and  devotion,  asking  their  pardon  for  his  occasional  outbreaks 
of  violence  and  wrath,  and  exhorting  them  to  persevere  in 
the  pure  doctrine  and  discipline  of  Christ.  He  moved  them 
to  tears .2  In  like  manner,  on  the  28th  of  April,  he  addressed 
all  the  ministers  of  Geneva  whom  he  had  invited  to  his  house, 
in  words  of  solemn  exhortation  and  affectionate  regard.  He 
asked  their  pardon  for  any  failings,  and  thanked  them  for  their 
faithful  assistance.  He  grasped  the  hands  of  every  one. 
"  They  parted,"  says  Beza,  "  with  heavy  hearts  and  tearful 
eyes.   "^ 

1  Beza's  Vita,  in  Opera,  XXI.  pp.  162  sqq.  (in  Latin)  ;  Henry,  III.  p.  171  (in 
Frencli)  ;  translation  in  the  next  section. 

2  See,  besides  the  account  of  Beza,  the  entry  in  the  Ee'g.  du  Conseil,  April 
27,  Annal.  XXI.  815. 

3  See  the  Discours  d'adieu  aux  membres  du  Petit  Conseil,  and  the  Discours 
d'adieu  aux  ministres,  in  his  Opera,  Tom.  IX.  887-890,  in  Beza's  Vita,  and  in 
the  appendix  to  Bonnet's  French  Letters,  Tom!  II.  573.  Comp.  also  Henry,  III. 
582  sqq. ;  IStahelin,  II.  462-468.     Translation  in  the  next  section. 


822         THE   EEFORMATIOX   EST   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

These  were  sublime  scenes  worthily  described  by  an  eye- 
witness, and  represented  by  the  art  of  a  painter.^ 

On  the  19th  of  May,  two  days  before  the  pentecostal  com- 
munion, Calvin  invited  the  ministers  of  Geneva  to  his  house 
and  caused  himself  to  be  carried  from  his  bed-chamber  into 
the  adjoining  dining-room.  Here  he  said  to  the  company: 
"  This  is  the  last  time  I  shall  meet  you  at  table,"  —  words 
that  made  a  sad  impression  on  them.  He  then  offered  up  a 
prayer,  took  a  little  food,  and  conversed  as  cheerfully  as  was 
possible  under  the  circumstances.  Before  the  repast  was 
quite  finished  he  had  himself  carried  back  to  his  bed-room, 
and  on  taking  leave  said,  with  a  smiling  countenance  :  "  This 
wall  will  not  hinder  my  being  present  with  you  in  spirit, 
though  absent  in  body." 

From  that  time  he  never  rose  from  his  bed,  but  he  con- 
tinued to  dictate  to  his  secretary. 

Farel,  then  in  his  eightieth  year,  came  all  the  way  from 
Neuchatel  to  bid  him  farewell,  although  Calvin  had  written 
to  him  not  to  put  himself  to  that  trouble.  He  desired  to  die 
in  his  place.  Ten  days  after  Calvin's  death,  he  wrote  to  Fabri 
(June  6, 1564)  :  "  Oh,  why  was  not  I  taken  away  in  his  place, 
while  he  might  have  been  spared  for  many  ^^ears  of  health  to 
the  service  of  the  Church  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ !  Thanks 
be  to  Him  who  gave  me  the  exceeding  grace  to  meet  this 
man  and  to  hold  him  against  his  will  in  Geneva,  where  he  has 
labored  and  accomplished  more  than  tongue  can  tell.  In  the 
name  of  God,  I  then  pressed  him  and  pressed  him  again  to 
take  upon  himself  a  burden  which  appeared  to  him  harder  than 
death,  so  that  he  at  times  asked  me  for  God's  sake  to  have 
pity  on  him  and  to  allow  him  to  serve  God  in  a  manner  which 
suited  his  nature.  But  when  he  recognized  the  will  of  God, 
he  sacrificed  his  own  will  and  accomplished  more  than  was 
expected  from  him,  and  surpassed' not  only  others,  but  even 
himself.    Oh,  what  a  glorious  course  has  he  happily  finished ! " 

1  Hornung's  picture  of  Calvin  on  liis  deatli-bed,  addressing  the  senators. 


§  164.   calvin"s  last  days  and  death.  823 

Calvin  spent  his  last  days  in  almost  continual  prayer,  and 
in  ejaculating  comforting  sentences  of  Scripture,  mostly 
from  the  Psalms.  He  suffered  at  times  excruciating  pains. 
He  was  often  heard  to  exclaim :  "  I  mourn  as  a  dove  "  (Isa. 
38 :  14) ;  "  I  was  dumb,  I  opened  not  my  mouth ;  because 
thou  didst  it"  (Ps.  39:9)  ;  "Thou  bruisest  me,  O  Lord,  but 
it  is  enough  for  me  that  it  is  thy  hand."  His  voice  was 
broken  by  asthma,  but  his  eyes  remained  bright,  and  his  mind 
clear  and  strong  to  the  last.  He  admitted  all  who  wished 
to  see  him,  but  requested  that  they  sliould  rather  pray  for 
him  than  speak  to  him. 

On  the  day  of  his  deatli  he  spoke  with  less  difficulty.  He 
fell  peacefully  asleep  with  the  setting  sun  towards  eight 
o'clock,  and  entered  into  the  rest  of  his  Lord.  "I  had 
just  left  him,"  says  Beza,  "  a  little  before,  and  on  receiving 
intimation  from  the  servants,  immediately  hastened  to  him 
with  one  of  the  brethren.  We  found  that  he  had  already 
died,  and  so  very  calmly,  without  any  convulsion  of  his  feet 
or  hands,  that  he  did  not  even  fetch  a  deeper  sigh.  He  had 
remained  perfectly  sensible,  and  was  not  entirely  deprived  of 
utterance  to  his  very  last  breath.  Indeed,  he  looked  much 
more  like  one  sleeping  than  dead."  ^ 

He  had  lived  fifty-four  years,  ten  months,  and  seventeen 
days. 

"  Thus,"  continues  Beza,  his  pupil  and  friend,  "  withdrew 
into  heaven,  at  the  same  time  with  the  setting  sun,  that 
most  brilliant  luminary,  which  was  the  lamp  of  the  Church. 
On   the  following  night  and  day  there  was  immense  grief 

1  The  original  entry  in  the  Register  of  tlie  Council  of  Geneva  under  date 
"■Samedi,  Mai  27,  1564,"  relative  to  the  death  of  Calvin,  is  this:  "  C« 
iourd'huy  environ  huit  heures  du  soir  le  sp.  Ian  Calvin  est  alle  a  Dieu,  sain  et  entier, 
graces  a  Dieu,  de  sens  et  entendement."  Under  date  of  "  Ltindi,  Mai  29,"  the 
succession  of  Beza  to  the  place  of  Calvin  is  thus  announced  in  the  same  Reg- 
ister :  "  De  Beze  succede  a  la  place  de  Calvin.  II  aura  la  charge  quil  avoit  oultre 
ce  quil  a  faire  les  lemons.  Arreste  quon  lug  bailie  le  gage  quavoit  M.  Calvin.  Et  au 
reste  quand  se  viendra  ceans  quon  se  contente  quil  soit  assis  au  banc  dabas  et  quon  lug 
presente  la  maison  dudit  Sr.  Calvin  sil  y  veult  uller."    Calvin's  Opera,  XXI.  815. 


824         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    S\yiTZERLAND. 

and  lamentation  in  the  whole  city ;  for  the  Republic  had  lost 
its  wisest  citizen,  the  Church  its  faithful  shepherd,  the  Acad- 
emy an  incomparable  teacher  —  all  lamented  the  departure 
of  their  common  father  and  best  comforter,  next  to  God.  A 
multitude  of  citizens  streamed  to  the  death-chamber  and 
could  scarcely  be  separated  from  the  corpse.  Among  them 
were  several  foreigners,  as  the  distinguished  Ambassador  of 
the  Queen  of  England  to  France,  who  had  come  to  Geneva 
to  make  the  acquaintance  of  the  celebrated  man,  and  now 
wished  to  see  his  remains.  At  first  all  were  admitted ;  but  as 
the  curiosity  became  excessive  and  might  have  given  occasion 
to  calumnies  of  the  enemies,^  his  friends  deemed  it  best  on  the 
following  morning,  which  was  the  Lord's  Day,  to  wrap  his 
body  in  linen  and  to  enclose  it  in  a  wooden  coffin,  according 
to  custom.  At  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  the  remains  were 
carried  to  the  common  cemetery  on  Plain  Palais  (^Planum 
Palatium),  followed  by  all  the  patricians,  pastors,  professors, 
and  teachers,  and  nearly  the  whole  city  in  sincere  mourning."  ^ 
Calvin  had  expressly  forbidden  all  pomp  at  his  funeral  and 
the  erection  of  any  monument  over  his  grave.  He  wished  to 
be  buried,  like  Moses,  out  of  the  reach  of  idolatry.  This  was 
consistent  with  his  theology,  which  humbles  man  and  exalts 
God. 

1  What  these  calumnies  were,  is  not  stated ;  they  were  first  made  public 
by  Bolsec  fifteen  years  later  (see  Note  below).  Francis  Junius,  in  his  ani- 
madversions upon  Bellarmin,  says  that  he  was  at  Geneva  when  Calvin  closed 
his  life,  but  that  he  never  saw,  heard,  knew,  thought,  or  even  dreamed  of  the 
blasphemies  and  curses  which  the  papists  said  he  uttered  at  his  death. 

'^  "  Pomeridiana  vero  secunda,  segitentibus  funus  patriciis,  una  cum  pastoribus 
professoribusque  scJiolce  omnibus  totaque  pane  civitate  non  sine  uberibus  lacrymis 
prosequente  elatus  est,  communique  ccemiterio,  quod  Planum  Palatium  vacant,  nulla 
penitus  extraordinaria  pompa  nulloque  addito  cippo  (sic  enivi  mandarat)  conditus, 
cut  propterea,  his  versiculis  parentavi."  Then  follow  the  Parentalia  and  a 
description  of  Calvin's  character  and  habits.  In  his  French  biography,  which 
is  dated  Aug.  19,  1564,  Beza  says  that  Calvin  was  buried  "comme  il  I'avait 
ordonn^,  an  cemetiere  commun  appele  Plein  palais  sans  pompe  ni  appareil  quelcon- 
ques-la  ou  il  gist  auiourd'huy  attendant  la  resurrection  qu'il  nous  a  enseign€e  et  a  si 
constamment  espere'e,"  etc.  He  closes  both  biographies  with  a  list  of  Calvin's 
works.     Opera,  XXI.  47-50. 


§  164.   Calvin's  last  days  and  death.  825 

Beza,  however,  wrote  a  suitable  epitaph  in  Latin  and 
French,  which  he  calls  "Parentalia"  (i.e.  offering  at  the 
funeral  of  a  father)  :  — 

"  Shall  honored  Calvin  to  the  dust  return, 
From  whom  e'en  Virtue's  self  might  learn; 
Shall  he  —  of  falling  Rome  the  greatest  dread, 
By  all  the  good  bewailed,  and  now  (tho'  dead) 
The  terror  of  the  vile  —  lie  in  so  mean, 
So  small  a  tomb,  where  not  his  name  is  seen  ? 

Sweet  Modesty,  who  still  by  Calvin's  side 
"Walked  while  he  lived,  here  laid  him  when  he  died. 
0  happy  tomb  with  such  a  tenant  graced ! 
0  envied  marble  o'er  his  ashes  placed !  "  i 

On  the  third  centennial  of  the  Reformation  of  Geneva,  in 
1835,  a  splendid  memorial  medal  was  struck,  which  on  the 
one  side  shows  Calvin's  likeness,  with  his  name  and  dates  of 
birth  and  death  ;  on  the  other,  Calvin's  pulpit  with  the  verse  : 
"  He  held  fast  to  the  invisible  as  if  he  saw  Him "  (Heb. 
11 :  27),  and  the  circular  inscription :  "  Broken  in  body ; 
Mighty  in  spirit ;  Victor  by  faith ;  the  Reformer  of  the 
Church ;  the  Pastor  and  Protector  of  Geneva."  ^ 

At  the  third  centenary  of  his  death  (1864),  his  friends  in 
Geneva,  aided  by  gifts  from  foreign  lands,  erected   to   his 

1  In  his  Latin  Vita  :  — 

"  Romce  ruentis  terror  ille  maximus. 
Quern  mortuiim  higent  boni,  horrescunt  malt, 
Ipsa  a  quo  potuit  virtutem  discere  virtus, 
Cur  adeo  exiguo  ignotoqae  in  despite  clausus 

Calvinus  latent,  royas  f 
Calvinum  adsidue  comitata  viodestia  vimim. 
Hoc  ttiniulo  manibas  condidit  ipsa  suis. 
O  te  beatum  cespitem  tnnto  hospite  .' 
O  cui  invidere  cuncta  possint  marmora  .'" 

There  are  besides  one  Hebrew,  ten  Greek,  two  Latin,  and  three  French 
"  Epitaphia  in  Calvinum  scripta,"  in  Beza's  Poemala,  1597,  and  in  Calvin's 
Opera,  vol.  XXI.  169,  173-178.  The  three  French  sonnets  are  from  Ciian- 
dieu,  a  pupil  of  Calvin. 

-  On  the  obverse :  Johannes  Calvinus  Natus  NoviodunI,  1509.  Mortuus 
Genevce,  1564.  On  the  reverse :  "//  teint  ferme  comme  s'il  eust  veu  celuy  qui 
est  invisible"  (Heb.  11:27).  Genev.  Jubil  Ann.,  1835.  And  the  inscrip- 
tion: "  Corpore  fractus  :  Animo  patens  :  Fide  victor:  Ecclesice  Re/or  mator :  Gene- 
vce Pastor  et  Tittamen."     See  Henrv,  Til.  592. 


826        THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

memory  the  "  Salle  de  la  Reformation,"  a  noble  building, 
founded  on  the  principles  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  and 
dedicated  to  the  preaching  of  the  pure  gospel  and  the  advo- 
cacy of  every  good  cause. 

The  Reformed  Churches  of  both  hemispheres  are  the  monu- 
ment of  Calvin,  more  enduring  than  marble. 

Zwingli,  of  all  the  Reformers,  died  first  (1531),  in  the 
prime  of  life,  on  the  battlefield,  with  the  words  trembling  on 
his  lips :  "  They  can  destroy  the  bod}^  but  not  the  soul." 
The  star  of  the  Swiss  Reformation  went  down  with  him,  but 
only  to  rise  again. 

Next  followed  Luther  (1546).  He,  too,  died  away  from 
home,  at  Eisleben,  his  birthplace,  disgusted  with  the  disorders 
of  the  times,  weary  of  the  world  and  of  life,  but  holding  fast 
to  the  faith  of  the  gospel,  repeating  the  precious  words : 
"  God  so  loved  the  world  as  to  give  His  onl}^  begotten  Son," 
and,  in  the  language  of  the  31st  Psalm,  committing  his  spirit 
into  the  hands  of  his  faithful  God,  who  had  redeemed  him. 

Melanchthon  left  this  world  at  his  own  home  (1560),  like 
Calvin ;  his  last  and  greatest  sorrow  was  the  dissensions  in 
the  Church  for  which  he  could  shed  tears  as  copious  as  the 
waters  of  the  Elbe.  He  desired  to  die  that  he  might  be 
delivered  first  of  all  from  sin,  and  also  from  "  the  fury  of 
theologians."  He  found  great  comfort  in  the  fifty-third 
chapter  of  Isaiah,  and  the  first,  and  seventeenth  chapters  of 
John ;  and  when  asked  by  his  son-in-law  (Peucer),  whether 
he  desired  anything,  he  replied:  "Nothing  but  heaven." 

John  Knox,  the  Calvin  of  Scotland,  "  who  never  feared 
the  face  of  man,"  survived  his  friend  eight  years  (till  1572), 
and  found  his  last  comfort  likewise  in  the  Psalms,  the  fifty- 
third  chapter  of  Isaiah,  and  the  sacerdotal  prayer  of  our 
Saviour. 

The  providence  of  God,  which  rules  and  overrules  the 
movements  of  history,  raised  up  worth}'-  successors  for  the 
Reformers,   who   faithfully   preserved   and   carried   forward 


§  164.    CALVIN'S   LAST   DAYS   AND  DEATH.  827 

their  work:  Bullinger  for  Zvviugli,  Melanchtlion  for  Luther, 
Beza  for  Calvin,  Melville  for  Knox. 

The  extraordinary  episcopal  power  which  Calvin,  owing 
to  his  extraordinary  talents  and  commanding  character,  had 
exercised  without  interruption,  ceased  with  his  death.  Beza 
was  elected  his  successor  on  the  29th  of  May,  1564,  as  "  mod- 
erateur"  of  the  ecclesiastical  affairs  of  (leneva,  only  for  one 
year.i  But  he  Avas  annually  re-elected  till  1580,  when  he 
felt  unequal  to  carrying  any  longer  the  heavy  burden  of 
duty.  He  was  willing,  however,  to  continue  the  correspond- 
ence with  foreign  Churches.  He  divided  his  untirinsr 
activity  between  Switzerland  and  France,  and  exercised  a 
controlling  influence  on  the  progress  of  the  Reformation  in 
those  two  countries.  He  saw  a  Huguenot  prince,  Henry  IV., 
ascend  the  throne  of  France ;  he  lamented  his  abjuration 
of  the  evangelical  faith,  but  rejoiced  over  the  Edict  of  Nantes 
which  gave  legal  existence  to  Protestantism ;  and  he  carried, 
as  the  last  survivor  of  the  noble  race  of  the  Reformers,  the 
ideas  of  the  Reformation  to  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  His  theology  marks  the  transition  from  the  broad 
Calvinism  of  Calvin  to  the  narrow,  scholastic,  and  supralap- 
sarian  Calvinism  of  the  next  generation,  which  produced  the 
reaction  of  Arminianism  not  only  in  Holland  and  England, 
but  also  in  France  and  Geneva. 

NOTE.     A   CALUMNY. 

It  is  painful  to  notice  that  sectarian  hatred  and  malice  followed  the  Reform- 
ers to  their  death-beds.  Fanatical  Romanists  represented  Zwingli's  heroic 
death  as  a  judgment  of  God,  and  invented  the  myths  that  CEcolampadius 
committed  suicide  and  was  carried  off  by  the  devil ;  that  Luther  hung  himself 
by  his  handkerchief  on  the  bed-post  and  emitted  a  horrible  stench ;  and  that 
Calvin  died  in  despair. 

The  myth  of  Luther's  suicide  was  soberly  and  malignantly  repeated  by  an 
ultramontane  priest  (Majunke,  editor  of  the  "Germania"  in  Berlin),  and  gave 

1  He  himself  suggested  a  similar  change  in  an  address  before  the  Vener- 
able Company  of  Pastors  and  Professors,  June  2,  1564.  Annales,  in  Opera, 
XXI.  816. 


828    THE  REFORMATION  IN  FRENCH  SWITZERLAND. 

rise  to  a  lively  controversy  in  1890.  It  must  be  added,  however,  that  learned 
and  honest  Catholics  indignantly  protested  against  the  calumny.  (^Cf.  my 
article,  Z'/c?  Luther  commit  Suicide?  in  "Magazine  of  Christian  Literature," 
New  York,  for  December,  1890.) 

As  to  Calvin,  it  is  quite  probable  that  his  body,  broken  by  so  many  diseases, 
soon  showed  signs  of  decay,  which  put  a  stop  to  the  reception  of  strangers, 
and  may  have  given  rise  to  some  "  calumnies,"  of  which  Beza  vaguely  speaks. 
But  it  was  not  till  fifteen  years  after  liis  death,  that  Bolsec,  the  apostate  monk, 
fastened  upon  Calvin's  youth  an  odious  vice  (see  above,  p.  302),  and  spread 
the  report  that  he  died  of  a  terrible  malady,  —  that  of  being  eaten  by  worms, 
—  with  which  the  just  judgment  of  God  destroys  His  enemies.  He  adds  that 
Calvin  even  invoked  the  devils  and  cursed  his  studies  and  writings.  ("// 
mourut  invoquant  les  diables.  .  .  .  Meme  il  maudissait  Vheure  qu'il  avail  jamais 
€tudie'  et  e'crit.")     But  he  gives  no  authority,  living  or  dead. 

Audin  {Li/e  of  Calvin,  p.  532,  Engl,  transl.)  repeats  this  infamous  fabrica- 
tion with  some  variations  and  dramatic  embellishments,  on  the  alleged  testi- 
mony of  an  unknown  student,  who,  as  he  says,  sneaked  into  the  death-chamber, 
lifted  the  black  cloth  from  the  face  of  Calvin  and  reported : ' "  Calvinus  in 
desperatione  furiens  vitam  obiit  turpissimo  et  fcedissimo  morbo  quem  Deus  rebellibus 
et  maledictis  comminatus  est,  pi-ius  excruciatus  et  consumptus,  quod  ego  verissime 
attestari  audeo,  qui  funestum  et  tragicum  illius  exitum  et  exitium  his  meis  oculis 
prcesens  aspexi.     Joann.  Harennius ,  apud  Pet.  Cutzenum  !  " 

We  regret  to  say  that  a  Roman  Catholic  archbishop.  Dr.  Spalding,  whose 
work  on  the  Reformation  gives  no  evidence  of  any  acquaintance  with  the 
writings  of  Calvin  or  Beza,  retails  the  slanders  of  Bolsec  and  Audin,  and 
informs  American  readers  that  Calvin  was  "  a  very  Nero  "  and  "  a  monster 
of  impurity  and  iniquity !  "     (See  above,  §  110,  p.  520.) 

Calvin's  whole  life  and  writings,  his  testament,  and  dying  words  to  the 
senators  and  ministers  of  Geneva,  and  the  minute  account  of  his  death  by  his 
friend  Beza,  who  was  with  him  till  his  last  moments,  ought  to  be  sufficient  tO' 
convince  even  the  most  incredulous  who  is  not  incurably  blinded  by  bigotry. 

§  165.    Calvin's  Last  Will.,  and  Farewells. 
Calvin's  Last  Will  and  Testament,  April  25,  1564. 

In  Beza's  Vita  Calv.,  French  and  Latin;  in  Opera,  XX.  298  and  XXI.  162. 
Henry  gives  the  French  text.  III.,  Beilage,  171  sqq.  The  English  trans- 
lation is  by  Henry  Beveridge,  Edinburgh,  1844. 

"  In  the  name  of  God,  Amen.  On  the  25th  day  of  April,  in  the  year  of 
our  Lord  1564,  I,  Peter  Chenalat,  citizen  and  notary  of  Geneva,  witness  and 
declare  that  I  was  called  upon  by  that  admirable  man,  John  Calvin,  minister 
of  the  Word  of  God  in  this  Church  of  Geneva,  and  a  citizen  of  the  same 
State,  who,  being  sick  in  body,  but  of  sound  mind,  told  me  that  it  was  his 
intention  to  execute  his  testament,  and  explain  the  nature  of  his  last  will,  and 
begged  me  to  receive  it,  and  to  write  it  down  as  he  should  rehearse  and 
dictate  it  with  his  tongue.     This  I  declare  that  I  immediately  did,  ^vriting 


§  165.     CALVIN'S    LAST    WILL,    AND    FAKEWELLS.         829 

down  word  for  word  as  he  was  pleased  to  dictate  and  rehearse;  and  that 
I  have  in  no  respect  added  to  or  subtracted  from  his  words,  hut  have  followed 
the  form  dictated  by  himself. 

"'In  the  name  of  the  Lord,  Amen.  I,  John  Calvin,  minister  of  the  Word 
of  God  in  this  Church  of  Geneva,  being  afflicted  and  oppressed  with  various 
diseases,  which  easily  induce  me  to  believe  that  the  Lord  God  has  determined 
shortly  to  call  me  away  out  of  this  world,  have  resolved  to  make  my  testament, 
and  commit  my  last  will  to  writing  in  the  manner  following:  First  of  all, 
I  give  thanks  to  God,  that  taking  mercy  on  me,  whom  lie  had  created  and 
placed  in  this  world,  He  not  only  delivered  me  out  of  the  deep  darkness  of 
idolatry  in  which  I  was  plunged,  that  He  might  bring  me  into  the  light  of  His 
gospel,  and  make  me  a  partaker  in  the  doctrine  of  salvation,  of  whicli  I  was 
most  unworthy  ;  and  not  only,  with  the  same  mercy  and  benignity,  kindly  and 
graciously  bore  with  my  faults  and  my  sins,  for  which,  however,  I  deserved 
to  be  rejected  by  Him  and  exterminated,  but  also  vouchsafed  me  such  clem- 
ency and  kindness  that  He  has  deigned  to  use  my  assistance  in  preaching  and 
promulgating  the  truth  of  His  gospel.  And  I  testify  and  declare,  that  it  is 
my  intention  to  spend  what  yet  remains  of  my  life  in  the  same  faith  and 
religion  which  He  has  delivered  to  me  by  His  gospel ;  and  that  I  have  no 
other  defence  or  refuge  for  salvation  than  His  gratuitous  adoption,  on  which 
alone  my  salvation  depends.  With  my  whole  soul  I  embrace  the  mercy 
which  He  has  exercised  towards  me  through  Jesus  Christ,  atoning  for  my  sins 
with  the  merits  of  His  death  and  passion,  that  in  this  way  He  might  satisfy  for 
all  my  crimes  and  faults,  and  blot  them  from  His  remembrance.  I  testify 
also  and  declare,  that  I  suppliantly  beg  of  Him,  that  He  may  be  pleased  so  to 
wash  and  purify  me  in  the  blood  which  my  Sovereign  Kedeemer  has  shed  for 
the  sins  of  the  human  race,  that  under  His  shadow  I  may  be  able  to  stand 
at  the  judgment-seat.  I  likewise  declare,  that,  according  to  the  measure  of 
grace  and  goodness  which  the  Lord  hath  employed  towards  me,  I  have 
endeavored,  both  in  my  sermons  and  also  in  my  writings  and  commentaries, 
to  preach  His  Word  purely  and  chastely,  and  faithfully  to  interpret  His 
sacred  Scriptures.  I  also  testify  and  declare,  that,  in  all  the  contentions  and 
disputations  in  which  I  have  been  engaged  with  the  enemies  of  the  gospel, 
I  have  used  no  impostures,  no  wicked  and  sophistical  devices,  but  have  acted 
candidly  and  sincerely  in  defending  the  truth.  But,  woe  is  me !  my  ardor 
and  zeal  (if  indeed  worthy  of  the  name)  have  been  so  careless  and  languid, 
that  I  confess  I  have  failed  innumerable  times  to  execute  my  office  properly, 
and  had  not  He,  of  His  boundless  goodness,  assisted  me,  all  that  zeal  had 
been  fleeting  and  vain.  Nay,  I  even  acknowledge,  that  if  the  same  goodness 
had  not  assisted  me,  those  mental  endowments  which  the  Lord  bestowed  upon 
me  would,  at  His  judgment-seat,  prove  me  more  and  more  guilty  of  sin  and 
sloth.  For  all  these  reasons,  I  testify  and  declare  that  I  trust  to  no  other 
security  for  my  salvation  than  this,  and  this  only,  viz.  that  as  God  is  the 
Father  of  mercy.  He  will  show  Himself  such  a  Father  to  me,  who  acknowl- 
edge myself  to  be  a  miserable  sinner.  As  to  what  remains,  I  wish  that,  after 
my  departure  out  of  this  life,  my  body  be  committed  to  the  earth  (after  the 
form  and  manner  which  is  used  in  this  Church  and  city),  till  the  day  of  a 


830         THE    KEFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

happ3'^  resurrection  arrive.  As  to  the  slender  patrimony  Avhich  God  has 
bestowed  upon  me,  and  of  which  I  have  determined  to  dispose  in  this  will 
and  testament,  I  appoint  Anthony  Calvin,  my  very  dear  brother,  my  heir, 
but  in  the  way  of  lionor  only,  giving  to  him  for  liis  own  the  silver  cup  whicli 
I  received  as  a  present  from  Varanius,  and  with  which  I  desire  he  will  be 
contented.  Everything  else  belonging  to  my  succession  I  give  him  in  trust, 
begging  he  will  at  his  death  leave  it  to  his  children.  To  the  Boys'  School 
I  bequeath  out  of  my  succession  ten  gold  pieces ;  as  many  to  poor  strangers ; 
and  as  many  to  Joanna,  the  daughter  of  Charles  Constans,  and  myself  by 
affinity.  To  Samuel  and  John,  the  sons  of  my  brother,  I  bequeath,  to  be 
paid  by  him  at  his  death,  each  four  hundred  gold  pieces;  and  to  Anna,  and 
Susanna,  and  Dorothy,  his  daughters,  each  three  hundred  gold  pieces;  to 
David,  their  brother,  in  reprehension  of  his  juvenile  levity  and  petulance, 
I  leave  only  twenty-five  gold  pieces.  This  is  the  amount  of  the  whole  patri- 
mony and  goods  which  the  Lord  has  bestowed  on  me,  as  far  as  I  can  estimate, 
setting  a  value  both  on  my  library  and  movables,  and  all  my  domestic  uten- 
sils, and,  generally,  my  whole  means  and  effects ;  but  should  they  produce 
a  larger  sum,  I  wish  the  surplus  to  be  divided  proportionally  among  all  the 
sons  and  daughters  of  ray  brother,  not  excluding  David,  if,  through  the  good- 
ness of  God,  he  shall  have  returned  to  good  behavior.  But  should  the  whole 
exceed  the  above-mentioned  sum,  I  believe  it  will  be  no  great  matter,  espe- 
cially after  my  debts  are  paid,  the  doing  of  which  I  have  carefully  committed 
to  my  said  brotlier,  having  confidence  in  his  faith  and  good-will ;  for  which 
reason  I  will  and  appoint  him  executor  of  this  my  testament,  and  along  with 
him  my  distinguished  friend,  Lawrence  Normand,  giving  power  to  them  to 
make  out  an  inventory  of  my  effects,  without  being  obliged  to  comply  with 
the  strict  forms  of  law.  I  empower  them  also  to  sell  my  movables,  that  they 
may  turn  tliem  into  money,  and  execute  my  will  above  written,  and  explained 
and  dictated  by  me,  John  Calvin,  on  this  25tli  day  of  April,  in  the  year  1564.'  ^ 
"After  I,  the  aforesaid  notary,  had  written  the  above  testament,  the 
aforesaid  John  Calvin  immediately  confirmed  it  with  his  usual  subscription 
and  liandwriting.  On  the  following  day,  which  was  the  26th  day  of  April 
of  same  year,  the  same  distinguished  man,  Calvin,  ordered  me  to  be  sent  for, 
and  along  with  me,  Theodore  Beza,  Raymond  Chauvet,  Michael  Cop,  Lewis 
Enoch,  Nicholas  Colladon,  and  James  Bordese,  ministers  and  preachers  of 
the  Word  of  God  in  this  Church  of  Geneva,  and  likewise  the  distinguished 
Henry  Scrimger,  Professor  of  Arts,  all  citizens  of  Geneva,  and  in  presence 
of  them  all,  testified  and  declared  that  he  had  dictated  to  me  this  his  instru- 
ment in  the  form  above  written;  and,  at  the  same  time,  he  ordered  me  to 
read  it  in  their  hearing,  as  having  been  called  for  that  purpose.  This  I 
declare  I  did  articulately,  and  with  clear  voice.  And  after  it  was  so  read, 
he  testified  and  declared  that  it  was  his  last  will,  which  he  desired  to  be  rati- 

1  A  part  of  Calvin's  furniture  belonged  to  the  Republic  of  Geneva,  as  is 
proved  by  the  inventory  preserved  in  the  archives.  His  books  were  pur- 
chased after  his  death  by  the  Council.  In  spite  of  his  poverty  he  could  not 
escape  the  charge  of  avarice.     See  below,  p.  838. 


§  165.     CALVm's    LAST    WILL,    AXD    FAREWELLS.        831 

fied.  In  testimony  and  confirmation  whereof,  lie  requested  them  all  to 
subscribe  said  testament  with  their  own  hands.  This  was  immediately  done 
by  them,  month  and  year  above  written,  at  Geneva,  in  the  street  commonly 
called  Canon  Street,  and  at  the  dwelling-place  of  said  testator.  In  faith  and 
testimony  of  which  I  have  written  the  foresaid  testament,  and  subscribeil  it 
with  my  own  hand,  and  sealed  it  with  the  common  seal  of  our  supreme 
magistracy. 

"  PiiTEii  Chenalat." 

Calvin's  Farewell  to  the  Syndics  and  Senatohs  of  Geneva, 
April  27,  1564. 

From  Beza's  Vita  Calvini.  The  Latin  text  in  Opera,  XXI.  164  sqq.  The  French 
text  in  vol.  IX.  887-800.  Comp.  Bey.  du  Conseil,  fol.  38,  in  Annales,  XXI. 
815.  Translated  by  Henry  Beveridge,  Esq.,  for  "  The  Calvin  Translation 
Society,"  1844  (Calvin's  Tracts,  vol.  I.  Ixxxix-xciii). 

"This  testament  being  executed,  Calvin  sent  an  intimation  to  the  four 
syndics,  and  all  the  senators,  that,  before  his  departure  out  of  life,  he  was 
desirous  once  more  to  address  them  all  in  the  Senate  house,  to  which  he 
hoped  he  might  be  carried  on  the  following  day.  The  senators  replied  that 
they  would  rather  come  to  him,  and  begged  that  he  would  consider  the  state 
of  his  health.  On  the  following  day,  when  the  whole  Senate  had  come  to  him 
in  a  body,  after  mutual  salutations,  and  he  had  begged  pardon  for  their 
having  come  to  him  when  he  ouglit  rather  to  have  gone  to  them,  first  premis- 
ing tliat  he  had  long  desired  this  interview  with  them,  but  had  put  it  off  until 
he  should  have  a  surer  presentiment  of  his  decease,  he  proceeded  thus :  — 

" '  Honored  Lords,  —  I  thank  you  exceedingly  for  having  conferred  so 
many  honors  on  one  who  plainly  deserved  nothing  of  the  kind,  and  for  having 
so  often  borne  patiently  with  my  very  numerous  infirmities.  This  I  have 
always  regarded  as  the  strongest  proof  of  your  singular  good-will  toward  me. 
And  though  in  the  discharge  of  my  duty  I  have  had  various  battles  to  fight, 
and  various  insults  to  endure,  because  to  these  every  man,  even  the  most 
excellent,  must  be  subjected,  I  know  and  acknowledge  that  none  of  these 
things  happened  through  your  fault;  and  I  earnestly  entreat  you  that  if,  in 
anything,  I  have  not  done  as  I  ought,  you  will  attribute  it  to  the  want  of 
ability  rather  than  of  will;  for  I  can  truly  declare  that  I  have  sincerely 
studied  the  interest  of  your  Republic.  Though  I  have  not  discharged  my 
duty  fully,  I  have  always,  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  consulted  for  the  public 
good;  and  did  I  not  acknowledge  that  the  Lord,  on  His  part,  hath  sometimes 
made  my  labors  profitable,  I  should  lay  myself  open  to  a  charge  of  dissimu- 
lation. But  this  I  beg  of  you,  again  and  again,  that  you  will  be  pleased  to 
excuse  me  for  having  performed  so  little  in  public  and  in  private,  compared 
with  what  I  ought  to  have  done.  I  also  certainly  acknowledge,  tliat  on 
another  account  also  I  am  highly  indebted  to  you,  viz.  your  having  borne 
patiently  with  my  vehemence,  which  was  sometimes  carried  to  excess ;  my 
sins,  in  this  respect,  I  trust,  have  been  pardoned  by  God  also.     But  in  regard 


832         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

to  the  doctrine  which  I  have  delivered  in  your  hearing,  I  declare  that  the 
Word  of  God,  intrusted  to  me,  I  have  taught,  not  rashly  nor  uncertainly,  but 
purely  and  sincerely  ;  as  well  knowing  that  His  wrath  was  otherwise  impend- 
ing on  my  head,  as  I  am  certain  that  my  labors  in  teaching  were  not  displeas- 
ing to  Plim.  And  this  I  testify  the  more  willingly  before  God,  and  before 
you  all,  because  I  have  no  doubt  whatever  that  Satan,  according  to  his  wont, 
will  stir  up  wicked,  fickle,  and  giddy  men,  to  corrupt  the  pure  doctrine  which 
you  have  heard  of  me.' 

"  Then  referring  to  the  great  blessings  with  which  the  Lord  had  favored 
them,  *  I,'  says  he,  '  am  the  best  witness  from  how  many  and  how  great  dan- 
gers the  hand  of  Almighty  God  hath  delivered  you.  You  see,  moreover,  what 
your  present  situation  is.  Therefore,  whether  in  prosperity  or  adversity,  have 
this,  I  pray  you,  always  present  before  your  eyes,  that  it  is  He  alone  who 
establishes  kings  and  states,  and  on  that  account  wishes  men  to  worship  Him. 
Remember  how  David  declared  that  he  had  fallen  when  he  was  in  the  enjoy- 
ment of  profound  peace,  and  assuredly  would  never  have  risen  again,  had  not 
God,  in  His  singular  goodness,  stretched  out  His  hand  to  help  him.  What, 
then,  will  be  the  case  with  such  diminutive  mortals  as  we  are,  if  it  was  so 
with  him  who  was  so  strong  and  powerful?  You  have  need  of  great  humble- 
ness of  mind,  that  you  may  walk  carefully,  setting  God  always  before  you, 
and  leaning  only  on  His  protection;  assured,  as  you  have  often  already  expe- 
rienced, that,  by  His  assistance,  you  will  stand  strong,  although  your  safety 
and  security  hang,  as  it  were,  by  a  slender  thread.  Therefore,  if  prosperity 
is  given  you,  beware,  I  pray  you,  of  being  puffed  up  as  the  wicked  are,  and 
rather  humbly  give  thanks  to  God.  But  if  adversity  befalls  you,  and  death 
surrounds  you  on  every  side,  still  hope  in  Him  who  even  raises  the  dead. 
Nay,  consider  that  you  are  then  especially  tried  by  God,  that  you  may  learn 
more  and  more  to  have  respect  to  Him  only.  But  if  you  are  desirous  that  this 
republic  may  be  preserved  in  its  strength,  be  particularly  on  your  guard 
against  allowing  the  sacred  throne  on  which  He  hath  placed  you  to  be  polluted. 
For  He  alone  is  the  supreme  God,  the  King  of  kings,  and  Lord  of  lords,  who 
will  give  honor  to  those  by  whom  He  is  honored,  but  will  cast  down  the  de- 
spisers.  Worship  Him,  therefore,  according  to  His  precepts;  and  study  this 
more  and  more,  for  we  are  always  very  far  from  doing  what  it  is  our  duty  to 
do.  I  know  the  disposition  and  character  of  each  of  you,  and  I  know  that 
you  need  exhortation.  Even  among  those  who  excel,  there  is  not  one  who  is 
not  deficient  in  many  things.  Let  every  one  examine  himself,  and  wherein 
he  sees  himself  to  be  defective,  let  him  ask  of  the  Lord.  We  see  how  much 
iniquity  prevails  in  the  counsels  of  this  world.  Some  are  cold;  others,  negli- 
gent of  the  public  good,  give  their  whole  attention  to  their  own  affairs ;  others 
indulge  their  own  private  affections ;  others  use  not  the  excellent  gifts  of  God 
as  is  meet ;  others  ostentatiously  display  themselves,  and,  from  overweening 
confidence,  insist  that  all  their  opinions  shall  be  approved  of  by  others.  I 
admonisli  the  old  not  to  envy  their  younger  brethren,  wliom  they  may  see 
adorned,  by  God's  goodness,  with  some  superior  gifts.  The  younger,  again, 
I  admonish  to  conduct  themselves  with  modesty,  keeping  far  aloof  from  all 
haughtiness  of  mind.     Let  no  one  give  disturbance  to  his  neighbor,  but  let 


§  165.     CALVIN'S    LAST    WILL,    AND    FAREWELLS.         833 

every  one  shun  deceit  and  all  that  bitterness  of  feeling  which,  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  Republic,  has  led  many  away  from  the  right  patii.  These 
things  you  will  avoid  if  each  keeps  within  his  own  sphere,  and  all  conduct 
themselves  with  good  faith  in  the  department  which  has  been  intrusted  to 
them.  In  the  decision  of  civil  causes  let  there  be  no  place  for  partiality  or 
hatred;  let  no  one  pervert  justice  by  oblique  artifices;  let  no  one,  by  his 
recommendations,  prevent  the  laws  from  having  full  effect;  let  no  one  depart 
from  what  is  just  and  good.  Should  any  one  feel  tempted  by  some  sinister 
affection,  let  him  firmly  resist  it,  having  respect  to  Him  from  whom  he 
received  his  station,  and  supplicating  the  assistance  of  His  Holy  Spirit. 

"'Finally,  I  again  entreat  you  to  pardon  my  infirmities,  whicii  I  acknowl- 
edge and  confess  before  God  and  His  angels,  and  also  before  you,  my  much 
respected  lords.' 

"Having  thus  spoken,  and  prayed  to  Almighty  God  that  He  would  crown 
them  more  and  more  with  His  gifts,  and  guide  them  by  His  Holy  Spirit,  for 
the  safety  of  the  whole  Republic,  giving  his  right  hand  to  each,  he  left  them 
in  sorrow  and  tears,  all  feeling  as  if  they  were  taking  a  last  farewell  of  their 
common  parent." 

Calvin's  Farewell  to  the  Ministers  of  Geneva,  April  28,  1564. 

From  Beza's  Vita  Calvini.  The  Latin  text  in  Opera,  XXI.  166  sq.  Transla- 
tion by  Henry  Beveridge  for  "The  Calvin  Translation  Society,"  Edin- 
burgh, 1844  (I.  xciii),  from  the  Latin  text.  There  is  another  report,  in 
French,  by  minister  Jean  Pinaut,  dated  May  1,  which  is  fuller  as  regards 
Calvin's  persecutions,  and  the  confession  of  his  infirmities,  which  always 
displeased  him  and  for  which  he  asks  forgiveness.  It  also  makes  grate- 
ful mention  of  Farel,  Viret,  and  Beza,  and  an  unpleasant  allusion  to 
Bern,  which  always  more  feared  than  loved  Calvin.  It  is  printed  in 
Opera,  vol.  IX.  891,  892,  and  in  the  Letters  of  John  Calvin  by  Jules 
Bonnet,  transl.  by  Gilchrist,  vol.  IV.  372-377. 

"  On  the  28th  of  April,  when  all  of  us  in  the  ministry  of  Geneva  had  gone 
to  him  at  his  request,  he  said  :  — 

"'  Bretliren,  after  I  am  dead,  persist  in  this  work,  and  be  not  dispirited;  for 
the  Lord  will  save  this  Republic  and  Church  from  the  threats  of  the  enemy. 
Let  dissension  be  far  away  from  you,  and  embrace  each  other  with  mutual  love. 
Think  again  and  again  what  you  owe  to  this  Church  in  which  the  Lord  hath 
placed  you,  and  let  nothing  induce  you  to  quit  it.  It  will,  indeed,  be  easy  for 
some  who  are  weary  of  it  to  slink  away,  but  they  will  find,  to  their  experience, 
that  the  Lord  cannot  be  deceived.  When  I  first  came  to  this  city,  the  gospel 
was,  indeed,  preaclied,  but  matters  were  in  the  greatest  confusion,  as  if  Chris- 
tianity had  consisted  in  notliing  else  than  the  throwing  down  of  images  ;  and 
there  were  not  a  few  wicked  men  from  whom  I  suffered  the  greatest  indigni- 
ties;  but  the  Lord  our  God  so  confirmed  me,  who  am  by  no  means  natur- 
ally bold  (I  say  what  is  true),  that  I  succumbed  to  none  of  their  attempts. 
I  afterwards  returned  thither  from  Strassburg  in  obedience  to  my  calling,  but 


834         THE   REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

with  an  unwilling  mind,  because  I  thought  I  should  prove  unfruitful.  For 
not  knowing  what  the  Lord  had  determined,  I  saw  nothing  before  me  but 
numbers  of  the  greatest  difSculties.  But  proceeding  in  this  work,  I  at  length 
perceived  that  the  Lord  had  truly  blessed  my  labors.  Do  you  also  persist  in 
this  vocation,  and  maintain  the  established  order;  at  the  same  time,  make  it 
your  endeavor  to  keep  the  people  in  obedience  to  the  doctrine ;  for  there  are 
some  wicked  and  contumacious  persons.  Matters,  as  you  see,  are  tolerably 
settled.  The  more  guilty,  therefore,  will  you  be  before  God,  if  they  go  to 
wreck  through  your  indolence.  But  I  declare,  brethren,  that  I  have  lived 
with  you  in  the  closest  bonds  of  true  and  sincere  affection,  and  now,  in  like 
manner,  part  from  you.  But  if,  while  under  this  disease,  you  have  experi- 
enced any  degree  of  peevishness  from  me,  I  beg  your  pardon,  and  heartily 
thank  you,  that  when  I  was  sick,  you  have  borne  the  burden  imposed  upon 
you.' 

"  When  he  had  thus  spoken,  he  shook  hands  with  each  of  us.  We,  with 
most  sorrowful  hearts,  and  certainly  not  unmoistened  eyes,  departed  from 
him." 

Beza  modestly  omits  Calvin's  reference  to  himself  which  is  as  follows  : 
"  Quant  a  nostre  estat  interieur,  vous  avez  esleu  Monsieur  de  Beze  pour  tenir  ma 
place.  Regardez  de  le  soulager,  car  la  charge  est  grande  et  a  de  la  peine,  en  telle 
sorte  qu'il  faudroit  qu'il  fust  accable'  soubs  le  Jardeau.  Mais  regardez  a  le  sup- 
porter.  De  luy,  ie  s^ay  qu'il  a  bon  vouloir  et  /era  ce  qu'il  pourra."  Pinaut's 
report,  in  Calv.  Opera,  IX.  894. 

§  166.    Calvin's  Personal  Character  and  Habits. 

Calvin  is  one  of  those  characters  that  command  respect 
and  admiration  rather  than  affection,  and  forbid  familiar 
approach,  but  gain  upon  closer  acquaintance.  The  better  he 
is  known,  the  more  he  is  admired  and  esteemed.  Those  who 
judge  of  his  character  from  his  conduct  in  the  case  of  Serve- 
tus,  and  of  his  theology  from  the  "  decretum  horribile"  see 
the  spots  on  the  sun,  but  not  the  sun  itself.  Taking  into 
account  all  his  failings,  he  must  be  reckoned  as  cue  of  the 
greatest  and  best  of  men  whom  God  raised  in  the  history 
of  Christianity. , 

He  has  been  called  by  competent  judges  of  different  creeds 
and  schools,  "  the  theologian  "  par  excellence,  "  the  Aristotle 
of  the  Reformation,"  "  the  Thomas  Aquinas  of  the  Reformed 
Church,"  "the  Lycurgus  of  a  Christian  democracy,"  "the 
Pope  of  Geneva."  He  has  been  compared,  as  a  church  ruler, 
to  Gregory  VII.  and  to  Innocent  III.     The  sceptical  Renan 


§  166.   Calvin's  personal  character.  835 

even,  who  entirely  dissents  from  his  theology,  calls  him  "  the 
most  Christian  man  of  his  age."  Such  a  combination  of 
theoretic  and  practical  pre-eminence  is  without  a  parallel  in 
history.  But  he  was  also  an  intolerant  inquisitor  and  perse- 
cutor, and  his  hands  are  stained  Avith  the  blood  of  a  heretic.^ 
Take  these  characteristics  together,  and  you  have  the  whole 
Calvin ;  omit  one  or  the  other  of  tliem,  and  you  do  liim  in- 
justice. He  will  ever  command  admiration  and  even  rever- 
ence, but  can  never  be  popular  among  the  masses.  No 
pilgrimages  will  be  made  to  his  grave.  The  fourth  centen- 
nial of  his  birth,  in  1909,  is  not  likely  to  be  celebrated  with 
such  enthusiasm  as  Luther's  was  in  1883,  and  Zwingli's  in 
1884.  But  the  impression  he  made  on  the  Swiss,  French, 
Dutch,  and  especially  on  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  in  Great 
Britain  and  America,  can  never  be  erased.^ 

Calvin's  bodily  presence,  like  that  of  St.  Paul,  Avas  weak. 
His  earthly  tent  scarcely  covered  his  mighty  spirit.  He  was 
of  middle  stature,  dark  complexion,  thin,  pale,  emaciated,  and 
in  feeble  health ;  but  he  had  a  finely  chiseled  face,  a  well- 
formed  mouth,  pointed  beard,  black  hair,  a  prominent  nose,  a 
lofty  forehead,  and  flaming  eyes  which  kept  their  lustre  to 

*  His  enemies  in  Geneva  even  started  tlie  proverb,  if  we  are  to  believe 
the  untrustwortiiy  Baudouin :  "  Better  witli  Beza  in  hell  than  with  Calvin  in 
heaven." 

2  See  the  collection  of  remarkable  tributes  in  §  68,  pp.  270  sqq.  I  will  only 
add  two  more  from  Dr.  Baur  and  Dr.  Mohler,  the  great  historians  who  were 
colleagues  and  antagonists,  the  champions,  indeed,  of  opposite  creeds  in  one  of 
the  most  important  theological  controversies  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The 
Protestant  Baur,  in  his  Kirchengeschichte  (IV.  374),  calls  Calvin  a  man  '•  von  sel- 
tener  Gelehrsamkeit,  feiner ,  vielseitifjer  Bildung,  scharfem,  durchdringendem  Geiste, 
kmjligem,  aber  strengem  Charukter,  voUkommen  wilrdig,  den  iihrigen  Hiiuptern  der 
Reformation  zur  Seite  zu  stehen,  an  Schlirfe  des  Geistes  zum  Theil  ihnen  noch  iiber- 
legen."  The  Roman  Catholic  Mohler,  the  author  of  the  Symhollk,  which  caused 
a  great  sensation  in  its  day,  says  in  his  posthumous  Kirchengeschiclde  (III. 
180)  :  "  Cahiin  besass  sehr  viel  Scharfsinn  und  eine  ausnehmende  Beredtsamkeit, 
nnd  icar  welt  gelehrter  als  alle  ubrigen  Reformatoren,  so  dass  Lehren,  die  bei  einem 
andern  abscheulich  gewesen  waren,  ans  seinem  Munde  ivohl  klingen;  "  but  he  adds: 
"  Zu  bedatiern  aber  ist,  dass  eine  so  grosse  geistige  Kraft  im  Dienste  des  Irrthums 
war." 


836         THE   REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

the  last.  He  seemed  to  be  all  bone  and  nerve.  He  looked 
in  death,  Beza  says,  like  one  who  was  asleep.  A  command- 
ing intellect  and  will  shone  through  the  frail  body.  There 
are  several  portraits  of  him ;  the  best  is  the  oil  painting  in 
the  University  Library  of  Geneva,  which  presents  him  in 
academic  dress  and  in  the  attitude  of  teaching,  with  the 
mouth  open,  one  hand  laid  upon  the  Bible,  the  other  raised.^ 

He  calls  himself  timid  and  pusillanimous  by  nature ;  but 
his  courage  rose  with  danger,  and  his  strength  was  perfected 
in  weakness.  He  belonged  to  that  class  of  persons  who  dread 
danger  from  a  distance,  but  are  fearless  in  its  presence.  In 
his  conflict  with  the  Libertines  he  did  not  yield  an  inch,  and 
more  than  once  exposed  his  life.  He  was  plain,  orderly,  and 
methodical  in  his  habits  and  tastes,  scrupulously  neat  in  his 
dress,  intemperately  temperate,  and  unreasonably  abstemious. 
For  many  years  he  took  only  one  meal  a  day,  and  allowed 
himself  too  little  sleep. 

Calvin's  intellectual  endowments  were  of  the  highest  order 
and  thoroughly  disciplined :  a  retentive  memory,  quick  per- 
ception, acute  understanding,  penetrating  reason,  sound  judg- 
ment, complete  command  of  language.  He  had  the  classical 
culture  of  the  Renaissaifce,  without  its  pedantry  and  moral 
Aveakness.  He  made  it  tributary  to  theology  and  piety.  He 
was  not  equal  to  Augustin  and  Luther  as  a  creative  genius 
and  originator  of  new  ideas,  but  he  surpassed  them  both  and 
all  his  contemporaries  as  a  scholar,  as  a  polished  and  eloquent 
writer,  as  a  systematic  and  logical  thinker,  and  as  an  organ- 
izer and  disciplinarian.     His  talents,  we  may  say,  rose  to  the 

1  It  is  reproduced  on  p.  256.  Mr.  Theophile  Dufour,  tlie  librarian,  assured 
me  in  1886  that  it  is  the  most  autlientic  portrait.  Professor  Diodati,  a  former 
librarian,  wrote  to  Dr.  Henry  (III.  P.  I.  Preface,  p.  vii)  :  "  Quant  an  portrait 
que  I'on  voit  a  notre  bibliotheque,  il  a  toujours  passe  pour  authentique  etjidele.  Nos 
peintres  s'accordent  a  reconnaitre  qu'il,  est  bien  de  I'epoque  de  Calvin  et  qu'il  est  peint 
d'une  maniere  remarquable.  On  I'a  souvent  attribue  a  Holbein  ;  mais  cette  opinion 
n'est  pas  constate'e.  Ce  que  I'on  peut  dire  c'est  qu'on  y  retrouve  sa  maniere.  En 
I'e'tudiant  attentivement  on  lui  trouve  un  air  de  ve'rite  frappant." 


§  166.     CALVIX'S   PERSONAL   CHARACTER.  837 

full  height  of  genius.  His  mind  was  cast  in  the  mould  of 
Paul,  not  in  that  of  John.  He  had  no  mystic  vein,  and  little 
imagination.  He  never  forgot  anything  pertaining  to  his 
duty;  he  recognized  persons  whom  he  had  but  once  seen 
many  years  previously.  He  spoke  very  much  as  he  wrote, 
with  clearness,  precision,  purity,  and  force,  and  equally  well 
in  Latin  and  French.  He  never  wrote  a  dull  line.  His 
judgment  was  always  clear  and  solid,  and  so  exact,  that,  as 
Beza  remarks,  it  often  appeared  like  prophecy.  His  advice 
was  alwa3's  sound  and  useful.  His  eloquence  was  logic  set 
on  fire.  But  he  lacked  the  power  of  illustration,  which  is 
often,  before  a  popular  audience,  more  effective  in  an  orator 
than  the  closest  argument. 

His  moral  and  religious  character  was  grounded  in  the  fear 
of  God,  which  is  "  the  beginning  of  wisdom."  Severe  against 
others,  he  was  most  severe  against  himself.  He  resembled  a 
Hebrew  prophet.  He  may  be  called  a  Christian  Elijah.  His 
symbol  was  a  hand  offering  the  sacrifice  of  a  burning  heart 
to  God.  The  Council  of  Geneva  were  impressed  with  "the 
great  majesty "  of  his  character.^  This  significant  expres- 
sion accounts  for  his  overawing  power  over  his  many  ene- 
mies in  Geneva,  who  might  easily  have  crushed  him  at  any 
time.  His  constant  and  sole  aim  was  the  glory  of  God,  and 
the  reformation  of  the  Church.  In  his  eyes,  God  alone  was 
great,  man  but  a  fleeting  shadow.  Man,  he  said,  must  be 
nothing,  that  God  in  Christ  may  be  everything.  He  was 
always  guided  by  a  strict  sense  of  duty,  even  in  the  punish- 
ment of  Servetus.  In  the  preface  to  the  last  edition  of  his 
Institutes  (1559),  he  says :  "  I  have  the  testimony  of  my  own 
conscience,  of  angels,  and  of  God  himself,  that  since  I  under- 
took the  office  of  a  teacher  in  the  Church,  I  have  had  no  other 
object  in  view  than  to  profit  the  Church  by  maintaining  the 

1  "  Dieu  lui  avait  imprim€  un  chamctere  d'lme  si  grande  majesle."     Registres, 
June  8,  1564.     Grenus,  Fragments  Biographiques. 


838    ■     THE    REFOKMATION    IN"   FKENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

pure  doctrine  of  godliness  ;  yet  I  suppose  there  is  no  man  more 
slandered  or  calumniated  than  myself."  ^ 

Riches  and  honors  had  no  charms  for  him.  He  soared  far 
above  filthy  lucre  and  worldly  ambition.  His  only  ambition 
was  that  pure  and  holy  ambition  to  serve  God  to  the  best  of 
his  ability.     He  steadily  refused  an  increase  of  salary,  and 

1  He  meets  these  calumnies  in  a  letter  to  Christopher  Piperin,  Oct.  18,  1555 
(^Opera,  XV.  825  sq.),  from  which  I  quote  the  following  passage  :  "  When  I 
liear  that  I  am  everywhere  so  foully  defamed,  I  have  not  such  iron  nerves  as 
not  to  be  stung  with  pain.  But  it  is  no  slight  consolation  to  me  tliat  your- 
self and  many  other  servants  of  Christ  and  pious  worshippers  of  God  sympa- 
thize with  me  in  my  injuries.  .  .  .  Why  should  I  worry  honest  people  with 
ray  zeal  for  vindicating  my  own  reputation  1  Did  there  exist  a  greater  neces- 
sity for  it,  having  entreated  their  indulgence,  I  might  lay  my  defence  before 
them.  But  the  scurrilous  calumnies  with  whicli  malignant  men  bespatter  me 
are  too  unfounded  and  too  silly  to  require  any  labored  refutation  on  my  part. 
The  authors  of  tliem  would  tax  me  with  self-importance,  and  laugh  at  me  as 
being  too  anxiously  concerned  for  my  character.  One  example  of  these 
falsehoods  is  that  immense  sum  of  money  which  you  mention.  Everybody 
knows  how  frugally  I  live  in  my  own  house.  Every  one  sees  that  I  am  at  no 
expense  for  the  splendor  of  my  dress.  It  is  well  known  everywhere  that  my 
only  brother  is  far  from  being  rich,  and  that  the  little  which  he  has,  he 
acquired  without  any  influence  of  mine.  Where,  then,  was  that  hidden  treas- 
ure dug  up  ?  But  they  openly  give  out  that  I  have  robbed  the  poor.  Well, 
this  charge  also,  these  most  slanderous  of  men  will  be  compelled  to  confess, 
was  falsely  got  up  without  any  grounds.  I  have  never  had  the  handling  of 
one  farthing  of  the  money  which  charitable  people  have  bestowed  on  the 
poor.  About  eight  years  ago,  a  man  of  rank  [David  de  Busanton,  a  refugee; 
see  Calvin's  letter  to  Viret,  Aug.  17,  1545,  Opera,  XII.  139]  died  in  my  house 
who  had  deposited  upwards  of  two  thousand  crowns  with  me,  and  without 
demanding  one  scrap  of  writing  to  prove  the  deposit.  When  I  perceived  that 
liis  life  was  in  danger,  though  he  wished  to  intrust  that  sum  to  my  management, 
I  refused  to  undertake  so  responsible  a  charge.  I  contrived,  however,  that 
eight  hundred  crowns  should  be  sent  to  Strassburg  to  relieve  the  wants  of  the 
exiles.  By  my  advice  he  chose  men  above  suspicion  to  distribute  the  remain- 
der of  the  sum.  W^hen  he  wished  to  appoint  nie  one  of  their  number,  to 
which  the  others  made  no  objections,  I  refused ;  but  I  see  what  nettles  my 
enemies.  As  they  form  an  estimate  of  my  character  from  their  own,  they 
feel  convinced  tliat  I  must  amass  wherever  I  find  a  good  opportunity.  But 
if  during  my  lifetime  I  do  not  escape  the  reputation  of  being  rich,  death  will 
at  last  vindicate  my  character  from  this  imputation."  See  his  testament, 
p.  829.  Nevertheless  Bolsec  (ch.  XI.)  unscrupulously  repeated  and  exagger- 
ated the  calumny  about  the  misappropriation  of  the  legacy  of  two  thousand 
crowns.     Comp.  the  editorial  notes  in  Opera,  XV.  825  and  826. 


§  166.   Calvin's  i^ersonal  character.  839 

frequently  also  presents  of  every  descrii^tion,  except  for  the 
poor  and  the  refugees,  whom  he  always  had  at  lieart,  and  aided 
to  the  extent  of  his  means.  lie  left  only  two  liuiidred  and 
fifty  gold  crowns,  or,  if  we  include  the  value  of  his  furnituie 
and  library,  about  three  hundred  crowns,  which  he  bequeathed 
to  his  younger  brother,  Antoine,  and  his  children,  except  ten 
crowns  to  the  schools,  ten  to  the  hospital  for  poor  refugees, 
and  ten  to  the  daughter  of  a  cousin.  When  Cardinal  Sadolet 
passed  through  Geneva  in  disguise  (about  1547),  he  was  sur- 
prised to  find  that  the  Reformer  lived  in  a  plain  house  instead 
of  an  episcopal  palace  with  a  retinue  of  servants,  and  himself 
opened  the  door.^  When  Pope  Pius  IV.  heard  of  his  death  he 
paid  him  this  tribute :  "  The  strength  of  that  heretic  consisted 
in  this,  —  that  money  never  had  the  slightest  charm  for  him. 
If  I  had  such  servants,  my  dominions  would  extend  from  sea 
to  sea."  In  this  resj)ect  all  the  Reformers  were  true  succes- 
sors of  the  Apostles.     They  were  poor,  but  made  many  rich. 

Calvin  had  defects  which  vv'ere  partly  the  shadow  of  his 
virtues.  He  was  passionate,  prone  to  anger,  censorious,  im- 
patient of  contradiction,  intolerant  towards  Romanists  and 
heretics,  somewhat  austere  and  morose,  and  not  without  a 
trace  of  vindictiveness.  He  confessed  in  a  letter  to  Bucer, 
and  on  his  death-bed,  that  he  found  it  difiScult  to  tame  "the 
wild  beast  of  his  wrath,"  and  he  humbly  asked  forgiveness 
for  his  weakness.  He  thanked  the  senators  for  their  patience 
with  his  often  "  excessive  vehemence."  His  intolerance 
sprang  from  the  intensity  of  his  convictions  and  his  zeal  for 
the  truth.  It  unfortunately  culminated  in  the  tragedy  of 
Servetus,  which  must  be  deplored  and  condemned,  although 
justified  by  the  laws  and  the  public  opinion  in  his  age. 
Tolerance  is  a  modern  virtue. 

Calvin  used  frequently  contemptuous  and  uncharitable 
language  against   his    opponents  in  his  polemical  writings, 

1  This  incident  is  related  by  Drelincourt,  Bungencr,  and  others,  and 
believed  in  Geneva. 


840        THE  REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

which  cannot  be  defended,  but  he  never  condescended  to 
coarse  and  vulgar  abuse,  like  so  many  of  his  contemporaries.^ 

He  has  often  been  charged  with  coldness  and  want  of 
domestic  and  social  affection,  but  very  unjustly.  The  chap- 
ter on  his  marriage  and  home  life,  and  his  letters  on  the  death 
of  his  wife  and  only  child  show  the  contrary .^  The  charge 
is  a  mistaken  inference  from  his  gloomy  doctrine  of  eternal 
reprobation ;  but  this  was  repulsive  to  his  own  feelings,  else 
he  would  not  have  called  it  "  a  horrible  decree."  Experience 
teaches  that  even  at  this  day  the  severest  Calvinism  is  not 
seldom  found  connected  with  a  sweet  and  amiable  Christian 
temper.  He  was  grave,  dignified,  and  reserved,  and  kept 
strangers  at  a  respectful  distance ;  but  he  was,  as  Beza  ob- 
serves, cheerful  in  society  and  tolerant  of  those  vices  which 
spring  from  the  natural  infirmity  of  men.  He  treated  his 
friends  as  his  equals,  with  courtesy  and  manly  frankness,  but 
also  with  affectionate  kindness.  And  they  all  bear  testimony 
to  this  fact,  and  were  as  true  and  devoted  to  him  as  he  was  to 
them.  The  French  martyrs  wrote  to  him  letters  of  gratitude 
for  having  fortified  them  to  endure  prison  and  torture  with 
patience  and  resignation.^  "  He  obtained,"  says  Guizot,  "  the 
devoted  affection  of  the  best  men  and  the  esteem  of  all,  with- 
out ever  seeking  to  please  them."  "  He  possessed,"  says 
Tweedie,  "  the  secret  and  inexplicable  power  of  binding  men 
to  him  by  ties  that  nothing  but  sin  or  death  could  sever. 
They  treasured  up  every  word  that  dropped  from  his  lips." 

Among  his  most  faithful  friends  were  many  of  the  best 
men  and  women  of  his  age,  of  different  character  and  dispo- 
sition, such  as  Farel,  Viret,  Beza,  Bucer,  Grynseus,  Bullinger, 
Knox,    Melanchthon,    Queen    Marguerite,   and  the  Duchess 

1  Comp.  above,  §  118,  p.  595. 

2  See  above,  §  92,  pp.  413-424. 

3  Michelet  (XI.  95)  :  "  Les  martyrs,  a  leur  dernier  jour,  se  faisaient  une  conso- 
lation, un  devoir  d'^crire  a  Calvin,  lis  n'aiiraient  pas  quitte'  la  vie  sans  remercier 
celui  dont  la  parole  les  avail  mene's  a  la  mort.  Leurs  lettres,  respectueuses,  nobles 
et  douces,  arrachant  les  larmes." 


§  166.    CALVm's   PERSONAL   CHARACTER.  841 

Ren^e.  His  large  correspondence  is  a  noble  monument  to 
his  heart  as  well  as  his  intellect,  and  is  a  sufficient  refuta- 
tion of  all  calumnies.  How  tender  is  his  reference  to  his  de- 
parted friend  Melanchthon,  notwithstanding  their  difference 
of  opinion  on  predestination  and  free-will :  "  It  is  to  thee,  I 
appeal,  who  now  livest  with  Christ  in  the  bosom  of  God, 
where  thou  waitest  for  us  till  we  be  gathered  with  thee  to 
a  holy  rest.  A  hundred  times  hast  thou  said,  when,  wearied 
with  thy  labors  and  oppressed  by  thy  troubles,  thou  reposedst 
thy  head  familiarly  on  my  breast,  '  Would  that  I  could  die 
in  this  bosom ! '  Since  then  I  have  a  thousand  times  wished 
that  it  had  happened  to  us  to  be  together."  IIoav  noble  is  his 
admonition  to  Bullinger,  when  Luther  made  his  last  furious 
attack  upon  the  Zwinglians  and  the  Ziiriehers  (1544),  not  to 
forget  "  how  great  a  man  Luther  is  and  by  what  extraordi- 
nary gifts  he  excels."  And  how  touching  is  his  farewell 
letter  to  his  old  friend  Farel  (May  2,  1564) :  "  Farewell,  my 
best  and  truest  brother  I  And  since  it  is  God's  will  that  you 
should  survive  me  in  this  world,  live  mindful  of  our  friend- 
ship, of  which,  as  it  was  useful  to  the  Church  of  God,  the 
fruits  await  us  in  heaven.  Fniy,  do  not  fatigue  yourself  on 
my  account.  It  is  with  difficulty  that  I  draw  my  breath,  and 
I  expect  that  every  moment  will  be  my  last.  It  is  enough 
that  I  live  and  die  for  Christ,  who  is  the  reward  of  his  fol- 
lowers both  in  life  and  in  death.  Again,  farewell,  with  the 
brethren." 

Calvin  has  also  unjustly  been  charged  with  insensibility  to 
the  beauties  of  nature  and  art.  It  is  true  we  seek  in  vain  for 
specific  allusions  to  the  earthly  paradise  in  which  he  lived,  — 
the  lovely  shores  of  Lake  Leman,  the  murmur  of  the  Rhone, 
the  snowy  grandeur  of  the  monarch  of  mountains  in  Cha- 
mounix.  But  the  writings  of  the  other  Reformei's  are  equally 
bare  of  such  allusions,  and  the  beauties  of  Switzerland  were 
not  properly  appreciated  till  towards  the  close  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  when  Haller,  Goethe,  and  Schiller  directed 


842        THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

attention  to  them.  Calvin,  however,  had  a  lively  sense  of 
the  wonders  of  creation  and  expressed  it  more  than  once. 
"  Let  us  not  disdain,"  he  says,  "  to  receive  a  pious  delight 
from  the  works  of  God,  which  everywhere  present  themselves 
tp  view  in  this  very  beautiful  theatre  of  the  world " ;  and 
he  points  out  that  "  God  has  wonderfully  adorned  heaven 
and  earth  with  the  utmost  possible  abundance,  variety,  and 
beauty,  like  a  large  and  splendid  mansion,  most  exquisitely 
and  copiously  furnished,  and  exhibited  in  man  the  master- 
piece of  his  works  by  distinguishing  him  with  such  splendid 
beauty  and  such  numerous  and  great  privileges."  ^ 

He  had  a  taste  for  music  and  poetry,  like  Luther  and 
Zwingli.  He  introduced,  in  Strassburg  and  Geneva,  con- 
gregational singing,  whicli  he  described  as  "an  excellent 
method  of  kindling  the  heart  and  making  it  burn  with  great 
ardor  in  prayer,"  and  which  has  ever  since  been  a  most 
important  part  of  worship  in  the  Reformed  Churches.  He 
composed  also  a  few  poetic  versifications  of  Psalms,  and  a 
sweet  hymn  to  the  Saviour,  to  whose  service  and  glory  his 
whole  life  was  consecrated. 

NOTE. 

Calvin's  "  Salutation  a  le'sus  Christ "  was  discovered  by  Felix  Bovet  of 
Neuchatel  in  an  old  Genevese  prayer-book  of  1545  (Calvin's  Liturgy),  and 
published,  together  with  eleven  other  poems  (mostly  translations  of  Psalms), 
by  the  Strassburg  editors  of  Calvin's  works  in  1867.  (See  vol.  VI.  223  and 
Prolegg.  XVIII.  sq.)  It  reveals  a  poetic  vein  and  a  devotional  fervor  and 
tenderness  which  one  could  hardly  expect  from  so  severe  a  logician 
and  polemic.  A  German  translation  was  made  by  Dr.  E.  Stiihelin  of  Basel, 
and  an  English  translation  by  Mrs.  Henry  B.  Smith  of  New  York,  and 
published   in   Schaff's    Christ  in   Song,  1868.     ("  I  greet  Thee,  who  my  sure 

^  Institutes,  bk.  I.  ch.  XIV.  20.  This  whole  chapter  on  Creation  is  replete 
with  admiration  for  the'  beauty  and  order  of  God's  universe.  "  Were  I  desir- 
ous," he  says  (21),  "of  pursuing  the  subject  to  its  full  extent,  there  would  be 
no  end;  since  there  are  as  many  miracles  of  divine  power,  as  many  monu- 
ments of  divine  goodness,  as  many  proofs  of  divine  wisdom  as  there  are 
species  of  things  in  the  world,  and  even  as  there  are  individual  things  either 
great  or  small." 


§  1G6.     CALVIX'S    PEUSOXAL    CHAltACTElJ.  84C' 

Redeemer  art."     New  York  etl.  p.  078 ;  London  ed.  p.  549.)     We  give  it  here 
in  the  original  old  French  :  — 


"  le  te  sultie,  mon  certain  Redempteur, 
Ma  vrai/ejianc'  et  mon  seid  Salvateur, 
Qui  tant  de  luhcur, 
D'ennui/s  et  de  douleur 
As  endure' pour  inoy  : 
Oste  de  noz  cueurs 
Toutes  vaines  hinrjueurs, 
Fol  souci/  et  esmoy. 

"  Tu  es  le  Roy  misericordieux  ; 
Puissant  par  tout  et  regnant  en  tous  lieux  ; 
Vueille  done  regner 
En  nous,  et  domine.r 
Sur  nous  entierement, 
Nous  illuminer, 
Ravyr  et  nous  mener 
A  ton  luiut  Firmament. 

"  Tu  es  la  vie  par  laquelle  vivons, 
Toute  sustanc'  et  touteforc'  avons  : 
Donne  nous  confort 
Contre  la  dure  mart. 
Que  ne  la  craignons  point, 
Et  sans  desconfort 
La  passons  d'un  cueur  fort 
Quand  ce  viendra  uu  point. 

"  Tu  es  la  vraye  et  perfaite  douceur, 
Sans  amertume,  despit  ne  rigueur : 
Fay  710US  savourer, 
Aymer  et  adorer, 
Ta  tresdouce  bont<f; 
Fay  nous  desirer, 
Et  tousiows  demeurer 
En  ta  douce  unite'. 

" Nostre  esperanc'  en  autre  n'est  qu'en  toy, 
Sur  ta  promesse  est  fonde'e  nostre  foy  : 
Vueilles  augmenter, 
Ayder  et  conforter 
Nostre  espoir  tellement, 
Que  bien  surmonter 
Nous  puissons,  et  porter 
Tout  ni(d  patiemment. 


844         THE    REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

"A  toy  crijons  comme  povres  hanys, 
Enfans  d'Eve  pleins  de  manx  injinis  : 
A  toy  souspirons, 
Gemissons  et  plorons, 
En  la  valle'e  de  plows  ; 
Pardon  requerons 
Et  salut  desirous, 
Nous  confessans  pecheurs. 

"  Or  avant  donq,  nostre  Mediateur, 
Nostre  advocat  et  propiciateur, 
Tourne  tes  doux  yeux 
Icy  en  ces  has  lieux, 
Et  nous  vueille  monstrer 
Le  haut  Dieu  des  Dieux, 
Et  aveq  toy  '€s  cieux 
Nous  faire  tons  entrer. 

"  0  dehonnair' ,  o  pitoyabl'  et  doux, 
Des  ames  suintes  aniyabl'  espoux, 
Seigneur  lesus  Christ, 
Encontre  L'antechrist 
Memply  de  criiaut^, 
Donne  nous  L^esprit 
De  suyvir  ton  escript 
En  vraye  verity." 


CHAPTER   XIX. 
THEODORE   BEZA. 

[This  chapter,  owing  to  my  sickness,  I  entrusted  to  the  Rev.  Samuel  Macauley  Jackson, 
who  revised  and  somewhat  enlarged  it.  —  P.  8.] 

Sources  :  Bez.\^'s  Correspondence,  mostly  unprinted,  but  many  letters  are  given 
in  tlie  BeiUujen  zu  Baum's  Theodor  Beza  (see  below),  and  in  IIi:kmi.njai{I)'s 
Conespondance  des  reformateurs  dans  les  pcn/s  de  lanriue/ran(;(iise  (vols.  VI. 
sqq.)  ;  and  his  publisiied  works  (the  list  to  the  number  of  ninety  is  given 
in  the  article  "  Beze,  The'odore  de,"  in  Haag,  La  France  Protestanle,  2d 
ed.  by  Bordier,  vol.  II.,  cols.  520-540).  By  far  the  most  important  of 
them  are,  his  Vita  J.  Calvini,  best  ed.  in  Calvin's  Opera,  XXI.,  and  his 
Tractatiojies  theologicce  (1582).  He  also  had  much  to  do  witli  the  I/isloire 
ecclesiaslique  des  ^(/llses  reforme'es  au  roijaume  de  France,  best  ed.  by  Baum, 
Cunitz,  and  Rodolphe  Keuss  (the  son  of  Edward  Reuss,  the  editor  of 
Calvin),  Paris,  188:3-1889.     3  vols,  small  quarto. 

Antoine  de  La  Fa  ye:  De  vita  et  obitu  Th.  Bezw,  Geneva,  IGOG.  —  Fkikdrich 
Christoph  Schlosseu:  Lehen  des  Theodor  de  Beza  und  des  Peter  Marti/r 
Vermili,  Heidelberg,  1809. — *Johaxn  Wilhelm  Baum:  Theodor  Beza 
nach  handschriftlichen  Quellen  dargestellt,  Leipzig,  I.  Theil,  1843,  with 
Beilugen  to  bks.  I.  and  II.  II.  Theil,  1851,  with  Anhany  die  Beilagen 
enthaltend,  1852  (unfortunately  this  masterly  book  only  extends  to 
1503).  —  *  Heinrich  Heppe  :  Theodor  Beza.  Leben  und  ausgeiciihlte 
Schriften,  Elberfeld,  18G1  (contains  the  whole  life,  but  is  inferior  in 
style  to  Baum). 

Jerome  Bolsec  :  Histoire  de  la  vie,  mceurs,  doctrine,  et  deporlements  de  Thfydore 
de  Beze,  Paris,  1582;  republished  by  an  unnamed  Roman  Catholic  in 
Geneva,  18.35,  along  with  Bolsec's  "  Life  of  Calvin,"  to  counteract  the 
effect  of  the  celebration  of  the  third  centennial  of  the  Reformation.  It 
has  no  historical  value,  but  is  a  malignant  libel,  like  his  so-called  "Life 
of  Calvin,"  ns  this  specimen  shows:  "Beze,  ioute  sa  jeunesse,  a  e'le' un  tres- 
debauch€  et  dissolu,  sodomite,  adulfere  et  suborneur  defemmes  marie'es  [Bolsec 
elsewhere  asserts  that  Claudine  Denosse  was  married  when  Beza  seduced 
her],  larron,  trompeur,  homicide  de  sa  propre  geniture,  traitre,  vantevr,  cause 
et  insligateur  d'injinis  meurtres,  guerres,  invasions,  brid emeus  de  villes,  pulais 
et  maisons  ;  de  saccagemetis  de  temples,  et  injinies  autres  mines  et  malheurs" 
(ed.  1835,  p.  188). 

Much  use  has  been  made  of  the  allusions  to  Beza  in  Henry  M.  Baird's  Rise 
of  the  Huguenots  (New  York,  1879),  and  Huguenots  and  Henri/  of  Navarre 
(1880),  also  of  tlie  article  on  "Beze,  Theodore  de,"  in  Haag,  La  France 

845 


846         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Protestante,  mentioned  above.  See  also  Principal  Cunningham  :  The 
Reformers,  Edinburgh,  18G2 ;  "  Calvin  and  Beza,"  pp.  345-413  (theological 
and  controversial). 

§  167.    Life  of  Beza  to  his  Conversion. 

The  history  of  the  Swiss  Reformation  would  not  be  com- 
plete without  an  account  of  Calvin's  faithful  friend  and  suc- 
cessor, Theodore  Beza,  who  carried  on  his  work  in  Geneva 
and  France  to  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

In  the  ancient  duchy  of  Burgundy  is  the  village  of  Vezelay. 
It  was  once  the  scene  of  a  great  gathering,  for  to  it  in  1146 
came  Louis  VII.  and  his  vassals,  to  whom  Bernard  preached 
the  duty  of  rescuing  the  Holy  Sepulchre  from  the  infidels  so 
convincingly,  that  the  king  and  his  knights  then  and  there 
took  the  oath  to  become  crusaders.  Four  and  forty  years 
later  (1190),  in  the  same  place,  Philip  Augustus  of  France 
and  Richard  the  Lionheart  of  England,  under  similar  plead- 
ings, made  the  same  vow. 

The  village  clusters  around  the  castle  in  which,  in  1519, 
lived  the  rich  Pierre  de  Besze,^  the  bailiif  of  the  county,  a 
descendant  of  one  of  the  proudest  families  of  the  duchy.  His 
wife  was  Marie  Bourdelot,  beloved  and  renowned  for  her 
intelligence  and  her  charities.  They  had  already  two  sons 
and  four  daughters,  when  on  the  24th  of  June  in  that  year, 
1519,  another  son  was  born  who  was  destined  to  render  the 
name  illustrious  to  the  end  of  time.  This  son  was  christened 
Theodore.  Thus  the  future  reformer  was  of  gentle  birth  — 
a  fact  which  was  recognized  when  in  after  years  he  pleaded 
for  the  Protestant  faith  before  kings,  and  princes,  and  mem- 
bers of  the  nobility  and  of  the  fashionable  world. 

But  the  providential  preparation  for  the  part  he  was  des- 
tined to  play  extended  far  beyond  the  conditions  of  his  birth. 

1  This  was  the  old  spelling  as  appears  from  Beza's  signature.  The  modern 
French  spell  it  Beze,  the  English  and  Germans  Beza,  which  is  the  Latin 
form. 


f 


^      ♦  i-^^-k 


/  -Z.  d^^  y^t^y  ,7^-7/ 


847 


848        THE   REFORMATION   IjST   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

Gentle  breeding  followed.  His  mother  died  when  he  was 
not  quite  three  years  old,  but  already  was  he  a  stranger  to 
his  father's  house ;  for  one  of  his  uncles,  Nicolas  de  Besze, 
seigneur  de  Cette  et  de  Chalonne,  and  a  councillor  in  the  Par- 
liament of  Paris,  had  taken  him  with  him  to  Paris  and  adopted 
him,  so  great  was  the  love  he  bore  him,  and  when  the  time 
came  he  was  put  under  the  best  masters  whom  money  and 
influence  could  secure.  The  boy  was  precocious,  and  liis  uncle 
delighted  in  his  progress.  One  day  at  table  he  entertained 
a  guest  from  Orleans,  who  was  a  member  of  the  royal  council. 
The  conversation  turned  upon  the  future  of  Theodore,  where- 
uj)on  the  friend  commended  Melchior  Wolmar,  the  famous 
Greek  scholar  at  Orleans,  who  was  also  the  teacher  of  Calvin, 
as  the  best  person  to  educate  the  lad.  The  uncle  listened 
attentively,  and  sent  Theodore  tliither  and  secured  him  admis- 
sion into  Wolmar's  family.  This  was  in  1528,  when  Theodore 
was  only  nine  years  old.  With  Wolmar  he  lived  till  1535, 
first  at  Orleans  and  then  at  Bourges,  and  doubtless  learned 
much  from  him.  Part  of  this  learning  was  not  at  all  to  the 
mind  of  his  father  or  his  uncle  Claudius,  the  Abbot  of  the 
Cistercian  monastery  of  Froimont  in  the  diocese  of  Beauvais, 
who,  on  the  death  of  his  brother  Nicolas,  on  Nov.  29,  1532, 
had  undertaken  the  pious  duty  of  superintending  the  boy's 
education ;  for  Wolmar,  in  common  with  many  sober-minded 
scholars  of  that  day,  had  broken  with  the  Roman  Church  and 
taken  up  the  new  ideas  inculcated  by  Luther,  and  which  were 
beginning  to  make  a  stir  in  France.  Indeed,  it  was  his  known 
adlierence  to  these  views  which  compelled  his  flight  to  Ger- 
many in  the  year  1535.  Thus  the  future  reformer,  in  his 
tenderest  and  most  susceptible  years,  had  impressed  upon  him 
the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  in  the  righteousness  of 
Christ,  heard  much  of  the  corrupt  state  of  the  dominant 
Church,  and  was  witness  to  the  efforts  of  that  Church  to  put 
to  death  those  who  differed  from  her  teaching. 

Nothing  was  further  from  the   mind  of   the  father  and 


§  167.     LIFE    OF    BEZA    TO    HIS    CONVERSION.  849 

uncle,  and  also  from  that  of  Theodore  himself,  than  that  he 
should  be  an  advocate  of  the  new  views.  The  career  marked 
out  for  him  Avas  that  of  law,  in  which  his  uncle  Nicolas 
had  been  so  distinguished.  To  this  end  he  was  sent  to  the 
University  of  Orleans.  Although  very  young,  he  attracted 
attention.  He  joined  the  German  nation  —  for  the  students 
in  universities  then  were  divided  into  factions,  according 
to  their  ancestry,  and  Burgundy  was  accounted  part  of  Ger- 
many—and rapidly  became  a  favorite.  But  he  did  not  give 
himself  up  to  mere  good-fellowship.  He  studied  hard,  and 
on  Aug.  11, 1539,  attained  with  honor  the  degree  of  licentiate 
of  the  law. 

His  education  being  thus  advanced,  Beza,  now  twenty 
years  old,  came  to  Paris,  there,  as  his  father  desired,  to 
prosecute  further  law  studies;  but  his  reluctance  to  such 
a  course  was  pronounced  and  invincible,  so  mucli  so  that 
at  length  he  won  his  uncle  to  his  side,  and  was  allowed  by 
his  father  to  pui-sue  those  literary  studies  which  afterwards 
accrued  so  richly  to  the  Reformed  Church ;  but  at  the  time 
he  had  no  inkling  of  his  subsequent  career.  By  his  uncle 
Claudius'  influence  the  possessor  of  two  benefices  which 
yielded  a  handsome  income,  and  enriched  further  by  his 
brother's  death  in  1541,  well-introduced  and  well-connected, 
a  scholar,  a  Avit,  a  poet,  handsome,  affable,  amiable,  he  lived 
on  equal  terms  with  the  best  Parisian  society,  and  was  one 
of  the  acknowledged  leaders.^ 

1  The  Jesuit  Maimbourg,  a  declared  enemy,  in  his  Illstoire  ilit  Calvinisme 
(Paris,  1682,  ISnio,  p.  217),  has  thus  described  him  at  this  time:  "Homme  bien 
fait,  de  belle  taille,  ayanl  le  visarje  fort  agre'uble,  I'liir  Jin  et  de'Ucat,  et  toutes  Us 
manieres  d'un  homme  du  vionde  qui  le  faisoient  estimer  des  Grands  et  surtout  des 
dames,  atisgttelles  il  prenoit  grand  soin  de  ne  pas  de'plaire.  Pour  I'esprit,  on  ne 
pent  nier  qu'il  ne  I'etist  tres-beau,  vif,  ais€,  subtil,  enjou€  et  poli,  ai/ant  pris  peine 
de  le  cultiver  par  l'€tude  des  belles  lettres,  et  particulierement  de  la  poesie,  oil  il  excel- 
loit  en  frangois  et  en  latin,  s^achant  avec  cela  un  peu  de  philosophie  et  de  droit  qu'il 
avoit  appris  aux  ^coles  d'Orteans."  "  He  was  well  made,  of  good  size,  having 
a  very  agreeable  countenance,  a  refined  and  delicate  air,  and  tlie  carriage  of 
ji  man  of  the  world,  who  had  won  the  esteem  of  the  great,  and  especially 


850         THE   REFORMATION   IN   FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

That  he  did  not  escape  contamination  he  has  himself 
confessed,  but  that  he  sinned  grossly  he  has  as  plainly 
denied.i  In  1544  he  made  in  the  presence  of  two  friends, 
Laurent  de  Normandie  and  Jean  Crespin,  eminent  jurists, 
an  irregular  alliance  with  Claudine  Denosse,^  a  burgher's 
daughter,  and  at  the  time  declared  that  when  circumstances 
favored  he  would  publicly  marry  her.  His  motive  in  making 
a  secret  marriage  was  his  desire  to  hold  on  to  his  benefices. 
But  he  was  really  attached  to  the  woman,  and  was  faithful 
to  her,  as  she  was  to  him ;  and  there  was  nothing  in  their 
relationship  which  would  have  seriously  compromised  him 
with  the  company  in  which  he  lived.  The  fact  that  they  lived 
together  happily  for  forty  years  shows  that  they  followed  the 
leading  of  sincere  affection,  and  not  a  passing  fancy.  In  1548 
he  published  his  famous  collection  of  poems  —  Juvenilia.  This 
gave  him  the  rank  of  the  first  Latin  poet  of  his  da}^  and  his 
ears  were  full  of  praises.  He  dedicated  his  book  to  Wolmar. 
It  did  not  occur  to  him  that  anybody  would  ever  censure 
him  for  his  poems,  least  of  all  on  moral  grounds ;  but  this  is 
precisely  what  happened.  Prurient  minds  have  read  between 
his  lines  what  he  never  intended  to  put  there,  and  imagined 
offences  of  which  he  was  not  guilty  even  in  thought.^  And 
what  made  the  case  blacker  against  him  was  his  subsequent 
Protestantism.  Because  he  became  a  leader  of  the  Reformed 
Church,  free-thinkers  and  livers  and  the  adherents  of  the  old 
faith  have  brought  up  against  him  the  fact  that  in  the  days 
of  his  worldly  and  luxurious  life  he  had  used  their  language, 
and  been  as  pagan  and  impure  as  they. 

of  the  ladies,  whom  he  took  much  pains  not  to  displease.  It  cannot  be 
denied  that  he  was  very  attractive,  lively,  easy,  subtle,  playful,  and  polished, 
having  cultivated  his  mind  by  reading  literature,  particularly  poetry,  wherein 
he  himself  excelled  both  in  French  and  Latin,  mingling  with  it  a  little  phi- 
losophy and  law  which  he  had  taken  in  at  Orleans." 

1  Baura,  I.  60-63. 

-  Anciently  spelled  Desnosze. 

3  Thus  they  have  taken  the  characters  mentioned  in  them  as  actual, 
whereas  they  are  purely  imaginary. 


§  168.     I5EZA   AT   LAUSANNE.  851 

The  book  had  scarcely  begun  its  career,  and  the  praises 
had  scarcely  begun  to  be  received,  ere  Beza  fell  seriously 
sick.  Sobered  by  his  gaze  into  the  eyes  of  death,  his  con- 
science rebuked  him  for  his  duplicity  in  receiving  ecclesias- 
tical benefices  as  if  he  was  a  faithful  son  of  the  Church, 
whereas  he  was  at  heart  a  Protestant ;  for  his  cowardice  in 
cloaking  his  real  opinions ;  for  his  negligence  in  not  keeping 
the  promise  he  had  voluntarily  made  to  the  woman  he  had 
secretly  married  four  years  before  ;  and  for  the  general  condi- 
tion of  his  private  and  public  life.  The  teachings  of  Wolmar 
came  back  to  him.  This  world  seemed  very  hollow;  its 
praises  and  honors  very  cloying.  The  call  to  a  higher,  purer, 
nobler  life  was  heard,  and  he  obeyed ;  and,  although  only 
convalescent,  leaving  father  and  fatherland,  riches  and 
honors,  he  fled  from  the  city  of  his  triumphs  and  his  trials, 
and,  taking  Claudine  Denosse  with  him,  crossed  the  border 
into  Switzerland,!  and  on  Oct.  23,  1548,  entered  the  city 
of  Geneva.  He  was  doubtless  attracted  thither  because  his 
intimate  friend  Jean  Crespin,  one  of  the  witnesses  of  his 
secret  alliance,  was  living  there,  likewise  a  fugitive  for  relig- 
ion's sake  —  and  there  lived  John  Calvin. 

From  being  the  poet  of  the  Renaissance,  bright,  witty, 
free,  Beza,  from  the  hour  he  joined  the  Reformed  Church, 
became  a  leader  in  all  its  affairs  and  one  of  the  chiefs  of 
Protestantism. 2 

§  168.    Beza  at  Lausanne  and  as  a  Delegate  to  the  German 

Princes. 

Beza's  earliest  business  after  greeting  Calvin  was  to  marry 
in  church  Claudine  Denosse.      Then  he  looked  around  for 

1  He  adopted  tlie  alias  of  Tliibaud  de  May.     So  Ileppe,  p.  20. 

-  For  having  left  France  because  he  was  a  Protestant  he  was  condemned 
by  the  Parliament  of  Paris  to  death,  and  all  his  property  confiscated  to  the 
State  (May  31,  1550).  By  special  royal  mandate  his  property  was  restored 
to  him  in  1564,  althou<rh  he  was  at  the  time  at  the  head  of  the  Reformed 
Church  of  France.     C/.  Baum,  I.  00  sq. 


852         THE    REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

an  occupation  that  would  support  him.  He  considered  for  a 
time  going  into  the  printing  business  with  Crespin,  but  on 
his  return  from  a  visit  to  Wolmar  at  Tlibingen  he  yiekled  to 
the  persuasions  of  Pierre  Viret,  who  entertained  him  as  he 
was  passing  through  Lausanne,  and  on  Nov.  6,  1549,  became 
professor  of  Greek  in  the  Academy  there,^  and  entered  upon 
a  course  of  great  usefulness  and  influence.  He  showed  his 
zeal  as  well  as  biblical  learning  by  giving  public  lectures  on 
the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  and  on  the  Epistles  of  Peter ;  and 
that  he  still  was  a  poet,  and  that,  too,  of  the  Renaissance, 
only  -in  the  religious  and  not  usual  sense  (of  regeneration 
and  not  renascence),  by  continuing  the  translation  of  the 
Psalms  begun  by  Clement  Marot,  and  by  publishing  a  drama, 
classically  constructed,  on  the  Sacrifice  of  Abraham.^  All 
these  performances  were  in  the  French  language. 

While  at  Lausanne,  Beza  was  taken  sick  with  the  plague. 
Calvin  in  writing  of  this  to  Farel,  under  date  of  June  15, 
1551,  thus  pays  his  tribute  to  the  character  of  Beza :  "  I  would 
not  be  a  man  if  I  did  not  return  his  love  who  loves  me  more 
than  a  brother  and  reveres  me  as  a  father:  but  I  am  still 
more  concerned  at  the  loss  the  church  would  suffer  if  in  the 
midst  of  his  career  he  should  be  suddenly  removed  by  death, 
for  I  saw  in  him  a  man  whose  lovely  spirit,  noble,  pure  man- 
ners, and  open-mindedness  endeared  him  to  all  the  righteous. 
I  hope,  however,  that  he  will  be  given  back  to  us  in  answer 
to  our  prayers." 

Lausanne  was  then  governed  by  Bern.  It  was  therefore 
particularly  interested  in  Bern's  alliance  with  Geneva,  and 
when  this  was  renewed  in  1557,  after  it  had  been  suffered  to 
lapse  a  year,  Beza  considered  it  very  providential.  In  the 
spring  of  that  year,  1557,  persecution  broke  out  against  the 
neighboring  Waldenses,  and  on  nomination  of  the  German 

^  His  colleague  in  the  Latin  chair  was  Francis  Hotoman. 
2  It  was  performed  by  the  students  of  the  Lausanne  academy  and  else- 
wliere  and  translated  into  several  languages. 


§  168.     BEZA    AT    LAUSAXNK.  853 

clergy  and  with  special  permission  of  Bern,  Beza,  and  Farel 
began  a  series  of  visits  through  Switz-erland  and  upon  the 
Protestant  princes  of  Germany  in  the  interest  of  the  perse- 
cuted. The  desire  was  to  stir  up  the  Protestants  to  unite 
in  an  appeal  to  the  king  of  France.  Beza  was  then  tliiity- 
eight  years  old  and  had  been  for  eight  years  a  successful 
teacher  and  preacher.  He  was  therefore  of  mature  years  and 
established  reputation.  But  what  rendered  the  choice  of 
him  still  more  an  ideal  one  was  his  aristocratic  bearing  and 
his  familiarity  with  court  life.  He  accepted  his  appointment 
Avith  alacrity,  as  a  man  enters  upon  a  course  particularly 
suited  to  him.  Thus  Beza  started  out  upon  the  first  of  the 
many  journe3^s  which  furnished  such  unique  and  invaluable 
services  to  the  cause  of  French  Protestantism. 

The  two  delegates  made  a  favorable  impression  everywhere. 
The  Lutherans  especially  Avere  pleased  with  them,  altliough 
at  first  inclined  to  look  askance  upon  two  such  avowed  ad- 
mirers and  followers  of  Calvin.  But  when  they  had  returned 
full  of  rejoicing  that  they  had  accomplished  their  design  and 
that  the  Protestant  princes  and  cantons  would  unite  in  peti- 
tioning the  French  king  on  behalf  of  the  persecuted  Wal- 
denses,  albeit  to  small  effect,  alas  I  they  were  called  to 
sharp  account  because  at  Goppingen  on  May  14,  1557,  they 
had  defined  their  doctrine  of  the  Eucharist  in  terms  which 
emphasized  the  points  of  agreement  and  passed  by  those  of 
disagreement.^  This  was  in  the  interest  of  peace.  They 
rightly  felt  that  it  would  be  shameful  to  shipwreck  their 
Christian  attempt  upon  the  shoals  of  barren  controversy. 
But  the  odium  theolor/icum  compelled  their  home  friends 
to  charge  them  with  disloyalty  to  the  truth  I  Cahin,  how- 
ever, raised  his  voice  in  defence  of  Beza's  conduct,  aiul  the 
strife  of  tongues  quickly  ceased. 

How  little  Beza  had  suffered  in  general  reputation,  or  at 

1  See  the  text  in  Bauni,  I.  400-409. 


S,')[       rill',   Kin'OKMAiMON    IN    I'Ki^NiMi   s\\  ir/.i;i; I , A M>. 

lonsl.  in  tho  i\\os  of   du'   |n>\v(Mi'ul   (';il\in.  was  uliuost    iuMnc- 
*li!it(>ly  ni!init\«s(. 

( >i\  I  he  i>\  iMiiiiji'  ol  llu'  llh  t>r  ScptrinluM-.  I  .">;)7,  lhn't>  or  tour 
luiinlii'il  l'ri>(os(!Hits  in  I'ariswlio  had  (Hiiotly  assi-nibltMl  in 
llio  iuioSt.  .laipios  to  i'(>lt>lMal("  i\\v  Lonl's  Siip|H'r  wimo  sot 
iipou  In  a  moll,  and  aiuid  insults  ami  injurios  haloil  to  jirison. 
Thoir  I'ato  dooply  siinod  tlu'  Trt^tostants  o\  or\  w  luMo,  ami 
Ho.a  w  ith  S(>nio  ('oinpanions  was  Ui>ain  stmt  to  ilio  I'rolostant 
i-antiUis  and  |>rim'os  io  invoUo  ihtMraid  as  botoro.  ami  hocausi* 
(ho  pviiu'i's  wtM'o  i|uiokiM'  at  prouiisin;'-  than  [UMtormanoo  ho 
wiMit  ajv^iin  tho  n(>\t  \oar.  I>ut  lliMir\  11.  paid  small  atton- 
liou  to  tho  noto  (>t  tho  rroti>stant  powors. 

§   loll     Hr:,i   ,if   {f,ii,r,i. 

In  1.">.">S  tho  oitv  ot"  (lonoxa  ostahlislu'd  a  hi^h  school,  ami 
lUv.a  was  I'alU'il.  at  ('alvin's  su«>'n"oslion,  to  tho  (lit'ok  prohvs- 
st>vship.  Mui'h  to  tho  ros^ivl  o(  \"\ro[  ami  his  iolli>aL;uos,  ho 
Mi-oopii'd.  Ho  was  iullnoiU'iHl  In  vaiious  I'lmsidtM-ations,  tlu> 
ohiol  ot  w  liioh  w  010  his  dosiro  to  i>soapi'  trom  tho  trouhlo 
oausod  1>\  \  irot's  ostahlishmont  ol"  tho  iJouovan  idiuroh  dis- 
oiplino.  w  hioh  had  lod  io  a  lalliiiij  out  wiih  l>oru.  Lausanno's 
rulor,  and  tVom  llu*  omharrassnioiits  still  rosnltin<;'  troiu  his 
woU  inoant  atlompts  at  nnittn  amou;:;-  (ho  rrotoslanis,  and 
prohahly  still  moro  bv  his  dosiro  to  labor  at  tho  sido  ot"  C\ilvin, 
whom  lu>  so  Li"i'oatlv  rovortnl  ami  whoso  diu"trim\s  ho  so  viq;iu'- 
oiKsly  and  himosth  ilot\Muh>d.  llo  was  honorably  dismissod 
to  (lonova  and  warmly  oommondod  io  tho  0(MilidiMiot>  ol'  tho 
brothrtMi  thoro.  Whon  on  .Inno  a,  ir>r)0.  tho  Aoailomy  was 
oponod.  ho  was  installod  as  root»>r.  Thus,  in  his  fortioth  voar. 
ho  iMittMod  np(m  his  tinal  plaoo  ot"  rivsidonoo  and  u[u>n  his 
tinal  labors.  1  lonoiM'orw  ard  ho  was  insoparablo  Irvun  tho 
work  ol"  (.'alyin,  and  howoyor  tar  ami  Iroipiontly  ho  mi^ht 
l;"o  from  (lonoya,  it  was  thoro  that  lu»  loft  his  hoart. 

0\\  (.'alyin's  nonhnation.  Uo/a  was  ailmittod  to  i-iii/onship 
at   (uMioNa.  ami  short h  aftorwaids  (Maiih   IT.  lool^  ho  suo- 


§  lt>9.     BE/.A    AT    GKNKVA.  855 

eeedtHl  to  the  jvi^toraro  of  one  of  tho  city  ohurohos.'  l>ui 
each  new  labor  imposed  uixmi  him  only  demonstrated  his 
capacity  and  teal.  The  Academy  and  the  cons:rtvg;^tion  rtoni^ 
islied  under  his  ;issiduous  oare.  and  Calvin  found  his  new  ally 
simply  inviUuable.  There  w.is  soon  a  fivsh  call  n^H^n  his 
diplomacy.  Anne  du  Bourg,  president  of  the  Parliament  of 
Paris,  boldly  avowed  his  Pnnesitantism  lx»fore  Henry  II.,  and 
was  arrested.  "When  the  news  ivachcd  Calviji.  he  ilcsjvitchcd 
Beza  to  the  Elector  Palatine,  Fivderick  111.,  to  inteivst  this 
powerful  prince.  The  result  of  his  mission  was  a  call  on 
Du  Boui"g  from  the  Elector  to  IxH'ome  professor  of  law  in 
his  university  at  HeidellxM\j.  But  the  intervention  availed 
nothing.     Du  Boui"g  \>-i\s  tried,  and  executed  Dec.  'Jo,  looO. 

Shortly  after  his  return,  Beza  was  scut  forth  ap\in.  .hily 
20, 1560.  The  occasion  w;\s,  however,  quite  different.  ri\e 
Prince  de  Conde.  shorn  of  his  power  by  the  Guises,  had  lied 
to  Nt5rac.  He  desiivd  to  attach  to  the  Pivtcstant  party  his 
lnx-»ther,  Antoine  de  Bourlxtn-VemU^me,  kiui::  ^^f  Navarre. 
Calvin  had  already,  by  letter,  made  some  impression  oi\  the 
iri-esolute  and  tickle  king,  but  Condt^  induced  his  brother  to 
send  for  Beza.  who,  with  his  eloquence  and  his  courtly  l>ear- 
ing,  quite  captiNiited  the  king,  who  doolarcil  that  he  would 
never  hear  the  mass  ag-ain,  but  would  do  all  he  could  to 
advance  the  Protestant  cause.  His  zeal  was.  however,  of  very 
short  duration:  for  no  sooner  did  his  brother,  the  cardinal  of 
Bourlx^n,  arrive,  than  he  and  his  queen,  .leanne  d'Albret,  who 
afterwards  was  a  sincere  convert  to  Pivtcstantisni,  heard  mass 
in  the  convent  of  the  Cordclici^  at  Ncrao.  Inv.a.  seeing  that 
Antoine  would  not  hold  oui.  but  was  certain  lo  fall  into  the 
jHiwer  of  the  Catholic  party,  quietly  left  him,  Oct.  IT,  and 
after  many  dangei"S  ix^ached  Geneva  early  in  November.  The 
joui-ney  had  taken  three  weeks,  and  had.  for  the  nu>st  part, 
to  be  performed  at  night.- 

1  l^ierre  Virot  had  followed  hiiu  to  Oonova,  J.in.  lo,  lo50.  aiul  was  oiio  of 
his  coUeaguos  in  eoolesiastioal  service. 

-  Bauni.  II.  V2'2.     rnfortunatcly  Bozas  account  of  it  is  lost. 


856        THE   KEFORMATIOjST    in   JFKENCH   SWITZEULAXD. 

§  170.    Beza  at  tlie  Colloquy  of  Poissy} 

Beza  was  now  considered  by  all  the  French  Reformed  as 
their  most  distinguished  orator,  and  next  to  Calvin  their  most 
celebrated  theologian.  This  commanding  position  he  had 
attained  by  many  able  services.  When,  therefore,  the  queen- 
mother  Catherine  determined  to  hold  a  discussion  between 
the  French  prelates  and  the  most  learned  Protestant  minis- 
ters, the  Parisian  pastors,  seconded  by  the  Prince  of  Cond^, 
the  Admiral  Coligny,  and  the  king  of  Navarre,  implored 
Beza  to  come,  and  to  him  was  committed  the  leader..hip.  At 
first  he  declined.  But  in  answer  to  renewed  and  more  urgent 
appeals  he  came,  and  on  Aug.  22,  1561,  he  was  again  in  Paris, 
for  the  first  time  since  his  precipitate  flight,  in  October,  1548 
—  thirteen  years  before.  The  preliminary  meeting  was  in  the 
famous  chateau  of  St.  Germain-en-Laye,  on  the  Seine,  a  few 
miles  below  Paris.  There,  on  Aug.  23,  he  made  his  appear- 
ance. On  the  evening  of  that  day  he  was  summoned  to  the 
apartments  of  the  king  of  Navarre,  and  in  the  presence  of 
the  queen-mother  and  other  persons  of  the  highest  rank,  he 
had  his  first  encounter  in  debate  with  Cardinal  Lorraine. 
The  subject  was  transubstantiation.  The  Cardinal  was  no 
match  for  Beza,  and  after  a  weak  defence,  yielded  the  floor, 
saying  that  the  doctrine  should  not  stand  in  the  wa}^  of  a 
reconciliation.  On  Tuesday,  Sept.  9,  1561,  the  parties  to  the 
Colloquy  assembled  in  the  nuns'  refectory  at  Poissy,  some 
three  miles  away.  It  was  soon  evident  that  there  was 
not  to  be  any  real  debate.  The  Catholic  party  had  all  the 
advantages  and  acted  as  sole    judges.^     It  was    a   foregone 

1  B.aum,  II.  1G8-419,  Heppe,  104-148,  Baird  (/?/.se  of  the  Huguenots),  I. 
493-577,  give  full,  accurate,  and  interesting  accounts  of  the  famous  Colloquy 
of  Poissy,  to  which  the  reader  is  referred.  Only  the  briefest  mention  can  be 
made  in  this  place. 

2  The  entirely  proper  request  of  the  Protestants  that  the  bishops  should 
not  be  at  the  same  time  parties  and  judges,  that  the  questions  in  debate  should 
be  decided  solely  by  the  Word  of  God  in  the  originals,  and  that  the  minutes 


§  170.     Bi:ZA   AT    THE    COLLOQUV    OF    POISSV.  «o7 

conclusion  that  the  verdict  was  to  be  given  to  the  Catholic 
part}',  whatever  the  arguments  might  be.  Nevertheless,  lieza 
and  his  associates  went  through  the  form  of  a  debate,  and 
courageously  held  their  ground.  In  characteristic  fashion 
they  fii-st  knelt,  and  Beza  prayed,  commencing  his  prayer 
with  the  confession  of  sins  used  in  tlie  Genevan  liturgy  of 
Calvin.  He  then  addi-essed  the  assembly  upon  the  points  of 
agreement  and  of  disagreement  between  them,  and  was  quietly 
listened  to  until  he  made  the  assertion  that  tlie  Body  of  Christ 
was  as  far  removed  from  the  bread  of  the  Eucharist  as  the 
heavens  are  from  the  earth.  Then  the  prelates  broke  out 
wdth  the  Qvy '^  Bla><phemavit !  hlmphemavit ! ''  ("he  has  blas- 
phemed"), and  for  a  while  there  was  much  confusion.  Beza 
had  followed  the  obnoxious  expression  with  a  remark  which 
was  intended  to  break  its  force,  affirming  the  spiritual  pres- 
ence of  Christ  in  the  Eucharist ;  but  the  noise  had  prevented 
its  being  heard.  Instead,  however,  of  3'ielding  to  the  clamor 
the  queen-mother  insisted  that  Beza  should  be  heard  out, 
and  he  finished  his  speech.  The  Huguenots  claimed  the 
\actory,  but  the  Roman  Catholics  spread  the  stor}-  that 
they  had  been  easily  and  decidedly  beaten.  The  prelates 
requested  the  points  in  writing,  and  it  was  not  till  Sept.  16 
that  they  made  a  reply.  The  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  was  the 
spokesman.  No  opportunity  was  given  the  Protestants  to 
rejoin,  as  they  were  ready  to  do  at  once. 

On  Sept.  24  a  third  conference  was  held,  but  in  tlie  small 
chamber  of  the  prioress,  not  in  the  large  refectory,  and  a  fourth 
in  the  same  place  on  Sept.  26.  But  the  Colloquy  had  degen- 
erated into  a  rambling  debate,  and  its  utterly  unprofitable 
character  was  manifest  to  all.     The  queen-mother  did,  it  is 


should  not  be  accepted  unless  signed  by  the  secretary  on  each  side,  liad  been 
refused.  With  studied  indignity  the  Protestant  ministers,  who  numbered 
twelve,  all  distinguished  men,  were  required  to  appear  as  culprits  brought 
to  the  bar,  for  they  were  separated  by  a  railing  from  the  prelates  and 
courtiers. 


858        THE   REFORMATION   LiSf    FRENCH   SWITZERLAND. 

true,  flatter  herself  that  there  might  be  an  agreement,  and 
zealously  labored  to  produce  it.  But  in  vain.  Her  expec- 
tation really  showed  how  shallow  were  her  religious  ideas. 

Beza  stayed  at  St.  Germain  until  the  beginning  of  Novem- 
ber,i  and  then,  worn  out,  and  threatened  with  a  serious  ill- 
ness, he  sought  rest  in  Paris.  There  he  had  a  visit  from  his 
oldest  step-brother,  and  also  a  pressing  and  affectionate  letter 
from  his  father,  who  had  learned  to  what  honor  his  son  had 
come,  forgave  him  for  his  persistence  in  heresy,  and  expressed 
a  great  desire  to  see  him.  Beza  started  for  Vezelay,  but  on 
the  way  met  a  courier  with  the  intelligence  that  the  Prot- 
estants required  his  instant  attendance  to  help  them  at  a 
crisis  in  their  affairs,  because  acts  of  violence  against  them 
had  taken  place  in  all  parts  of  France.  And  Beza,  ever  sub- 
ordinating private  to  public  duties,  turned  back  to  Paris, 
and  no  further  opportunity  of  seeing  his  father  ever  came  to 
him.^ 

§  171.    Beza  as  the  Counsellor  of  the  Hujjtieyiot  Leaders. 

On  the  20th  of  December  an  assembly  of  notables,  includ- 
ing representatives  from  each  of  the  parliaments,  the  princes 
of  the  blood,  and  members  of  the  Council,  had  been  called 
to  suggest  some  decree  of  at  least  a  provisional  nature 
upon  the  religious  question.  It  was  January,  1562,  before 
it  convened.  It  enacted  on  Jan.  17  the  famous  law  known 
as  the  "Edict  of  January,"  whereby  the  Huguenots  were 
recognized  as  having  certain  rights,  chief  of  which  was 
that  of  assembling  for  worship  by  day  outside  of  the  walled 
cities.^  The  churches  which  they  had  seized  were,  however, 
not  restored  to  them,  and  they  were  forbidden  to  build 
others. 

1  His  leave  of  absence  from  Geneva  had  been  much  extended  in  answer  to 
the  request  of  the  king  of  Navarre,  Conde,  and  Coligny.     Heppe,  161. 

2  Cf.  the  touching  account  of  these  events  in  Heppe,  158-61. 

3  Baird,  I.  576  sq. 


§  171.     BEZA    AS    THE    COUXSELLOK.  859 

Beza  counselled  the  Protestants  to  accept  the  edict,  al- 
though it  gave  them  very  much  less  than  their  rights ;  and 
they  obeyed. 

On  Jan.  27, 1562,  he  was  again  at  St.  Germain  by  command 
of  Catherine,  to  argue  with  Catholic  theologians  upon  the 
use  of  images  and  the  worship  of  saints.  As  before,  the  gulf 
between  Protestants  and  Roman  Catholics  stood  revealed, 
and  the  conference  did  no  good  except  to  show  that  the 
Protestants  had  some  reason,  at  all  events,  for  their  opinions. 
Yet  they  did  entertain  hopes  of  maintaining  the  peace,  when 
the  news  that  on  March  1  the  Duke  of  Guise  had  massa- 
cred hundreds  of  defenceless  Protestants,  in  a  barn  at  Vassy, 
while  engaged  in  peaceful  worship,  spread  consternation  far 
and  wide.  The  court  was  then  at  Monceaux,  and  there  Beza 
appeared  as  deputy  of  the  Protestants  of  Paris  to  demand  of 
the  king  of  Navarre  punishment  for  this  odious  violation  of 
the  Edict  of  January.  The  queen-mother  received  the  de- 
mand graciously  and  promised  compliance,  but  the  king 
responded  roughly  and  laid  all  the  blame  on  the  Protestants, 
who,  he  declared,  had  excited  the  attack  by  throwing  stones 
at  the  Duke  of  Guise.  "  Well  then,"  said  Beza,  "  he  should 
have  punished  only  those  who  did  the  throwing."  And  then 
he  added  these  memorable  words :  "  Sire,  it  is  in  truth  the 
lot  of  the  Church  of  God,  in  whose  name  I  am  speaking,  to 
endure  blows,  and  not  to  strike  them.  But  also  may  it  please 
you  to  remember  that  it  is  an  anvil  that  has  worn  out  many 
hammers."  ^ 

Civil  war  now  broke  out,  Condd  on  one  side  and  the  Guises 
on  the  other;  and  Beza,  although  so  unwilling,  was  fairly 
involved  in  it. 

In  a  lull  in  the  strife  the  third  national  Synod  of  the 

1  "  Sire,  c'est  a  la  v€rit€  a  I'^glise  de  Dieu,  au  nom  de  laqueUe  jc  parte,  d'en- 
durer  les  coups,  et  non  pas  d'en  dunner.  Mais  aussi  vous  plaira-t-il  voits  souvenir 
que  c'est  une  enclume  qui  a  us^beaucoup  de  marteaux."  Quoted  by  Baird,  II.  28 ; 
cf.  Baum,  II.  567. 


860         THE    EEFOKMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Reformed  Church  was  held  at  Orleans  on  April  25.  Beza 
was  present,  and  his  translation  of  the  Psalms  was  sung  upon 
the  streets. 

On  May  20,  1562,  the  Prince  of  Conde  sent  a  memorable 
answer  to  the  petition  of  the  Guises  that  King  Charles  would 
take  active  measures  to  extirpate  heresy  in  his  domains.  The 
reply  was  really  the  work  of  Beza,  and  is  a  masterpiece  of 
argument  and  eloquence.^ 

The  necessity  of  securing  allies  induced  Cond^  to  send 
Beza  to  Germany  and  Switzerland.  He  went  first  to  Strass- 
burg,  then  to  Basel,  and  at  length  on  Friday,  Sept.  4,  he 
arrived  at  Geneva.  How  earnest  must  have  been  the  conver- 
sations between  him  and  Calvin  !  How  glad  must  his  many 
friends  have  been  to  welcome  back  home  the  leader  of  French 
Protestantism ! 

Beza  resumed  his  former  mode  of  life.  Two  weeks  passed 
and  he  had  just  begun  to  feel  himself  able  in  peace  to  carry 
out  his  plans  for  the  Academy  and  the  Genevan  churches, 
when  a  messenger  riding  post  haste  from  D'Andelot,  a  brother 
of  Coligny,  and  his  fellow-deputy  to  the  German  princes, 
announced  the  fresh  outbreak  of  trouble  in  France.  Beza 
was  at  first  inclined  to  stay  at  home,  mistrusting  the  necessity 
of  his  presence  among  the  Huguenot  troops,  but  Calvin  urged 
him  to  go,  and  so  he  went,  and  for  the  next  seven  months 
Beza  was  with  the  Huguenot  army.  He  acted  as  almoner 
and  treasurer.  He  followed  Cond^  to  the  battle  of  Dreux, 
Dec.  19,  1562,  at  which  Cond^  Avas  taken  prisoner.  It  was 
made  a  matter  of  reproach  that  he  took  an  active  part  in  the 
battle.  He  did  indeed  ride  in  the  front  rank,  but  he  denied 
that  he  struck  a  blow.  He  was  in  citizen's  dress.  He  then 
retired  to  Normandy  with  Coligny.  The  expected  help  from 
England  did  not  arrive,  and  it  was  determined  to  send  him  to 

1  Baum  says  (II.  642)  that  it  may  with  confidence  be  placed  by  the  side  of 
the  most  eloquent  passages  in  the  French  language.  A  judgment  in  which 
Baird  (II.  (51)  concurs. 


§  171.     BEZA    AS    THE   COUNSELl.(  )K.  861 

London.  So  utterly  sick  Avas  Beza  of  the  military  life  that 
he  seriously  meditated  going  directly  back  to  Geneva  from 
London.  But  the  Pacification  Edict  of  March  12,  15(]3, 
freed  Condd  and  ended  hostilities,  and  Beza  did  not  make 
his  contemplated  English  journey. 

This  unexpected  turn  in  his  affairs  was  brought  about  by 
an  untoward  event.  On  the  18th  of  February,  1563,  the 
Duke  of  Guise  was  assassinated  by  a  poor  fanatical  Hugue- 
not wretch,  M'ho,  under  torture,  accused  Beza  of  having 
instigated  him  by  promising  him  Paradise  and  a  high  place 
among  the  saints  if  he  died  for  his  deed.i  The  caluniny  was 
afterwards  denied  by  the  man  who  had  made  it,  but  Beza 
considered  liimself  obligated  to  make  a  formal  reply.  He 
called  upon  all  who  had  heard  him  to  declare  if  he  had  ever 
favored  any  other  than  strictly  legal  measures  against  the 
late  Duke.  And  as  for  his  alleged  promise,  he  said  that  he 
was  too  good  a  Bible  student  to  declare  that  any  one  could 
Avin  Paradise  by  works.^ 

Peace  having  come,  Beza  was  at  liberty  to  return  home. 
But  his  heart  was  heavy  because  the  affairs  in  France  were 
in  a  very  unsatisfactory  condition.  Still,  there  was  nothing 
to  be  accomplished  by  staying,  and  so,  loaded  down  M'ith 
thanks  and  praises  from  the  leading  Huguenots  for  his  inval- 
uable services  in  the  field,  in  the  camp,  at  the  council-board, 
and  in  the  religious  assembly,  surrounded  with  the  leadere  of 
the  Huguenot  army  and  the  preachers  and  nobles,  amid  shouts 
and  sighs,  Beza,  on  Tuesday,  March  30,  1563,  took  his  de- 
parture from  Orleans.  On  the  Sunday  before,  he  had  preached 
his  farewell  sermon,  in  which  he  expressed  his  disappointment 
that  the  Edict  of  Pacification  had  brought  the  Huguenots  so 
little  advantage.^ 

On  his  way  back  he  passed  through  A'ezelay.     His  father 

1  Bauni,  II.  711;  Baird,  II.  105. 

2  Haiim,  II.  714,  710. 
«  Baird,  II.  IIH. 


862         THE    EEFOKIVIATION    IN"   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

was  dead,  but  there  must  have  been  many  associations  of 
childhood  which  endeared  the  place  to  him.  Here  he  learned 
that  his  wife  was  safe  at  Strassburg  with  Conde's  mother-in- 
law.  Bending  his  steps  thither,  he  rejoined  her,  and  together 
they  made  the  journey  home,  where  they  arrived  May  5, 
1563.1 

As  they  journeyed  they  knew  that  they  were  in  perpetual 
danger,  but  they  did  not  know  that  some  of  their  enemies 
were  looking  for  them  to  turn  towards  the  Netherlands.  But 
so  it  was.  In  June  of  that  year  a  rumor  was  circulated  at 
Brussels  that  there  had  been  a  quarrel  between  him  and 
Calvin,  and  that  in  consequence  he  Avould  not  return  to 
Geneva.  Margaret  of  Parma,  then  regent  of  the  Netherlands, 
thought  to  do  a  splendid  deed,  and  gave  orders  that  if  he 
entered  her  domains  he  was  to  be  taken,  dead  or  alive,  and 
offered  to  his  capturer  or  murderer  a  thousand  florins.  But 
there  having  been  no  such  break,  Beza,  on  the  contrary, 
took  the  shortest  practicable  route  for  Geneva.^ 

§  172,    Beza  as  the  Successor  of  Calvin^  down  to  1586. 

Beza  received  his  warmest  welcome  from  Calvin,  who  was 
already  under  the  shadow  of  death.     There  was  no  one  else 

1  Referring  to  the  entire  length  of  service  in  France,  Baum  says  :  "  He  had 
been  absent  twenty-two  months.  They  were  the  most  wearing  and  the  most 
perilous,  but  also  the  most  fruitful  months  in  his  life.  For  during  that  period, 
with  courage  and  dignity,  with  learning  and  acuteness,  with  penetrating  force 
and  charming  eloquence,  he  had  before  princes  and  kings  preached  the  gospel 
and  exalted  the  name  of  Christ.  As  the  representation  in  this  work  has 
abundantly  shown,  amid  incessant  struggles  against  unwise  or  faint-hearted 
friends,  against  cunning  and  powerful  foes,  many  times  and  most  daringly  at 
the  risk  of  his  own  life,  he  developed  into  one  of  the  great  leaders  who 
procured  for  the  Reformed  Church  of  France  its  soul-liberty,  which,  though, 
it  is  true,  less  than  it  claimed  should  have  been  given,  was  still  secured  to  it 
by  law."  With  these  words  Baum  (II.  731)  closes  his  authoritative  but, 
alas,  unfinished  work  upon  Beza. 

2  Baird,  II.  388.  In  the  regent's  proclamation,  Beza  was  described  as 
"  homme  de  moienne  stature,  ayant  barbe  a  demy  blanche,  et  le  visage  hault  et 
large." 


§  172.    BEZA   AS   THE   SUCCESSOR   OF   CALVIN.  863 

whom  the  great  Reformer  could  so  confidentially  take  into 
his  counsels.  And  as  the  time  of  his  departure  drew  near, 
he  relied  more  and  more  upon  him.  Their  frien(lshii»  was 
based  upon  respect  and  affection  and  was  never  disturbed. 
The  relation  of  the  two  men  resembled  that  between 
Zwingli  and  BuUinger,  and  was  most  useful  to  the 
Church. 

It  was  of  course  perfectly  undei'stood  by  Beza  that  he  was 
to  be  Calvin's  successor,  so  the  year  which  passed  before 
Calvin  died  was  a  year  of  preparation  for  the  new  duties.  At 
last  the  time  came,  and  Calvin  passed  away.  Beza  conducted 
the  funeral,  and  shortly  after  wrote  his  classical  life  of  his 
patron,  friend,  and  predecessor.  The  city  Council  elected  liim 
Calvin's  successor ;  the  Venerable  Company  of  Pastors,  as  the 
presbytery  of  Geneva  called  itself,  elected  him  their  modera- 
tor, and  continued  him  in  this  office  till  1580,  when  he  com- 
pelled them  to  allow  him  to  retire.  So  he  continued  Calvin's 
leadership  in  city  and  church  affairs.  He  preached  and  lec- 
tured to  the  students.  He  received  the  fugitives  from  France, 
and  the  visitors  from  other  lands.  He  gave  his  advice  and 
opinion  upon  the  innumerable  things  which  turned  up  daily. 
He  conducted  an  enormous  correspondence.  And  every  now 
and  then  he  had  to  enter  the  field  of  controversy  and  repel 
"heretics,"  like  Ochino  and  Castelho,  or  Lutherans  like 
Andi-ea  and  Selnecker. 

Nor  could  this  leadership  have  fallen  into  better  hands. 
For  Beza,  although  inferior  to  Calvin  in  theological  acquire- 
ments and  acumen,  was  his  superior  in  knowledge  and 
experience  of  court  life  and  in  grace  of  manner.  He  was 
eminently  fitted  to  be  the  host  of  the  Protestant  scholars 
and  martyrs,  who  flocked  or  fled  to  Geneva  from  every 
quarter.  And  so  the  theological  school  became  under  him 
the  most  famous  of  its  kind  in  the  world,  and  the  little 
republican  city  was  the  virtual  capital  of  Continental 
Protestantism. 


864         THE   KEFOKMATION   IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

Incessantly  occupied  as  he  was  by  public  affairs,  but 
bearing  his  burdens  with  courage  and  faith,  he  was  suddenly 
called  upon  to  transact  delicate  business  of  a  private  nature. 
In  1568  the  plague  entered  Geneva  and  carried  off  his  step- 
brother Nicolas,^  who  had  succeeded  his  father  as  bailiff  of 
Vezelay,  joined  the  Huguenots,  and  come  as  a  fugitive  to 
Geneva  with  his  wife,  Perrette  Tribole,  when  Vezelay  fell 
into  Roman  Catholic  hands.  He  had  been  only  a  few  days 
in  the  city  when  he  died.  Beza  felt  it  incumbent  upon  him 
to  go  to  Burgundy  to  see  whether  he  could  not  save  at 
least  a  part  of  their  inheritance  for  his  two  nephews  ;  and 
this  errand,  after  a  great  deal  of  trouble,  he  accomplished 
successfully. 

In  1571,  after  an  absence  of  some  eight  years,  he  was 
again  summoned  to  France,  this  time  by  Coligny  and  the 
young  Prince  de  Beam,  to  attend  the  seventh  national  Synod 
of  the  Reformed  Church  of  France  convened  in  La  Rochelle. 
The  Venerable  Company  of  Pastors  would  not  part  with 
him  without  a  protest,  but  yielded  to  the  express  wish  of  the 
Syndics  of  the  Republic.  Beza  liimself  was  reluctant  to  go, 
and  indeed  had  declined  a  previous  summons ;  but  the 
crisis  demanded  an  authoritative  expression  of  the  views 
of  the  Swiss  Churches  upon  the  proposed  reforms  in  the 
discipline  of  the  Church,  and  so  he  went.  The  Synod  lasted 
from  the  2d  to  the  17th  of  April.  He  was  elected  its  mod- 
erator. A  revised  Confession  of  Faith  was  drawn  up,  and 
a  vigorous  reply  made  to  the  demand  for  increased  authority 
on  the  part  of  the  temporal  chiefs.  On  his  way  back  to 
Geneva  he  took  part  in  another  Synod,  held  at  Nismes,  and 
was  specially  charged  with  the  refutation  of  the  opponents 
to  the  established  discipline. 

On  St.  Bartholomew's  Day,  Sunday,  Aug.  24,  1572,  \eTy 
many  Protestants  were  murdered  in  Paris,  and  for  days 
thereafter  the  shocking   scenes  were   repeated   in    different 

1  Also  called  by  some  Pien-e. 


§   172.     BEZA    AS    THK    SUCUKSSOli    OK    CAIA'IN.  805 

parts  of  France.!  On  the  1st  of  September  the  first  com- 
pany of  fugitives,  many  covered  with  wounds,  made  their 
appearance  in  Geneva.  A  day  of  fasting  and  prayer  was 
ordered,  and  Beza  exhorted  his  Swiss  hearers  to  stand  lirni 
and  to  provide  all  needed  help  to  tlieir  stricken  brethren. 
Four  thousand  livres  were  collected  in  Geneva,  and  the 
wants  of  the  crowd  of  sufferers  attended  to.*-^ 

In  1574  Beza  met  Henry  of  Condd  by  appointment  at 
Strassburg,  and  successfully  undertook  the  negotiations 
which  resulted  in  enlistuig  John  Casimir  to  come  with  an 
army  to  the  succor  of  the  Huguenots. 

But  Beza's  advice  was  not  always  considered  prudent  by 
the  city  authorities,  who  were  more  alive  than  he  to  the 
great  risk  the  city  ran  of  reprisals  in  view  of  its  connivance 
with  the  Huguenot  schemes.  Thus  in  December  of  this 
year,  1574,  Beza  countenanced  a  bootless  military  errand 
in  the  direction  of  Macon  and  Clullons,  and  the  masristrates 
gently  but  firmly  called  him  to  account,  and  plainly  told  him 
that  he  should  never  act  so  imprudently.-^ 

On  Nov.  26,  1580,  the  Peace  of  Fleix  brought  rest  to 
France  for  a  little  while.  Beza  showed  his  courage  and 
fidelity  on  this  occasion  by  writing  to  King  Henry  of 
Navarre,  the  Protestant  leader,  a  letter  in  which  he  candidly 
informed  the  king  that  he  himself  and  his  court  stood  in 
great  need  of  reformation.  It  is  proof  of  the  respect  in  which 
the  Reformer  was  held  that  the  king  received  the  rebuke 
in  good  part,  and  of  the  king's  light-mindedness  that  he  did 
not  attempt  to  reform.* 


1  The  whole  number  of  the  massacred  is  reckoned  at  about  thirty  thou- 
sand. Cf.  the  monograph  of  Henri  Bordier:  La  Sainic-Barthckmij  el  la 
critique  moderne.     Geneve  et  Paris,  1879. 

2  Heppe,  248.  Baird  (II.  554-557)  gives  a  graphic  description  of  the 
Genevese  reception  of  the  refugees,  and  shows  how  the  city  for  so  doing  was 
exposed  to  the  revenge  of  Charles  IX. 

3  Baird,  The  Hu'/uetiots  and  Ileiiry  of  Navarre,  I.  50. 
♦  Baird,  ibid.,  I.  213  sq. 


866         THE    REFORMATION    IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

§  173.    Beza's  Conferences  with  Lutherans. 

The  bitter  theological  differences  between  Lutherans  and 
Reformed  had  long  been  a  disgrace.  Beza  had  in  early  life 
brought  trouble  upon  himself  by  minimizing  them,  as  has 
been  already  recorded,  but  in  his  old  age  he  made  one  more 
attempt  in  that  direction.  Count  Frederick  of  Wiirtemberg, 
a  Lutheran,  but  a  friend  of  reconciliation,  called  a  conference 
at  Montb^liard  (or  Mompelgard),  a  city  in  his  domains  in 
which  were  many  Huguenot  refugees,  with  whom  the  Luther- 
ans would  not  fraternize.  The  count  hoped  that  a  discussion 
between  the  leaders  on  each  side  might  mend  matters. 
Accordingly  he  summoned  Beza,  confessedly  the  ablest  advo- 
cate of  Calvinism.  On  March  21, 1586,  the  conference  began. 
It  took  a  wide  range,  but  it  came  to  nothing.  Beza  showed 
a  beautiful  spirit  of  reconciliation,  but  Andrea,  the  Lutheran 
leader,  in  the  very  spirit  of  Luther  at  the  famous  Marburg 
Conference  with  Zwingli  (1529),  refused  to  take  Beza's  hand 
at  parting  (March  29)  .i 

Undeterred  by  this  churlish  exhibition,  Beza  left  Montb^- 
liard  for  another  round  of  visits  at  German  courts  to  induce 
them  once  more  to  plead  with  France  to  restore  to  the 
Huguenots  their  rights  of  worship ;  for  the  Peace  of  Fleix 
had  not  lasted  long,  and  the  country  was  again  plunged  in 
the  horrors  of  civil  war. 

The  Montb^liard  conference  had  an  echo  in  the  Bern 
Colloquy  of  April  15th  to  18th,  1588,  in  which  Samuel 
Huber,  pastor  at  Burgdorf,  near  Bern,  a  notorious  polemic, 
and  Beza  represented  the  Lutheran  and  Calvinist  parties, 
respectively.  It  was  Beza's  last  appearance  as  a  public  dis- 
putant, and  the  hero  of  so  many  wordy  battles  once  more 

1  Heppe,  287.  Although  he  could  not  greet  him  as  a  brother,  Andrea 
kindly  offered  to  give  Beza  Iiis  hand  as  a  mark  of  his  love  toward  him  as  a 
fellow-man  —  a  condescension  whicli  not  unnaturally  the  Genevese  reformer 
at  once  declined.     Baird,  ibid.,  I.  401. 


§  174.     liKZA    AND    IIENKV    IV.  807 

carried  off  the  palm.  In  fact,  his  victory  was  mucli  more 
decided  than  such  contests  were  usually,  as  the  Bernese 
Council  condemned  Huber  for  misrepresenting  Beza  and 
Calvinism  generally. 

Beza  had  left  Geneva  with  a  heavy  jjcart  because  his  faith- 
ful and  beloved  wife  had  just  died,  and  when  he  returned, 
found  public  matters  in  a  critical  condition.  The  magistrates 
had  felt  themselves  compelled  by  the  condition  of  the  city 
treasury  to  economize  as  much  as  possil)le,  and  liad  dismissed 
two  of  the  professors  in  the  Academy,  and  contemplated  other 
retrenchments.  Beza  knew  that  these  extreme  measures 
would  probably  greatly  cripple  the  institution,  and  so,  old  as 
he  was,  and  failing,  he  undertook  to  give  a  full  course  of 
instruction  in  theology,  and  persisted  with  it  for  more  than 
two  years, — until  the  crisis  was  passed,  —  and  for  these  extra 
duties  he  would  not  take  any  compensation. 

§  174.    Beza  and  Henri/  IV. 

In  the  course  of  his  long  life  Beza  had  few  joys,  aside  from 
the  abiding  one  of  his  religion,  and  many  sorrows.  His  heart 
was  bound  up  with  the  fortunes  of  the  Reformed  Church  in 
France,  and  they  Avere  usually  bad.  Still  he  took  courage 
every  time  a  little  improvement  was  noticeable.  Much  hope 
had  he  cherished  in  consequence  of  the  accession  of  Henry  of 
Navarre  (1589),  because  he  was  a  Protestant.  But  early  in 
the  summer  of  1593,  the  news  reached  Geneva  that  the  king, 
upon  whom  religion  and  morality  sat  very  lightly,  in  the 
interests  of  peace  and  national  prosperity,  was  determined  to 
abjure  the  Protestant  faith.  Alas  for  all  their  hopes !  Beza 
was  greatly  moved,  and  addressed  the  monarch  a  letter  in 
which  he  set  forth  the  eternal  consequences  of  the  change 
the  king  was  about  to  make.^  He  felt  assured,  however,  that 
Henry  would  be  delivered  from  the  machinations  of  his  and 
their  enemies,  and  not  take  the  fatal  step.     But  ere  Beza's 

1  See  the  letter  in  lleppe,  294-299. 


•868         THE   REFORMATiON    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

letter  reached  him  the  deed  was  done.  In  the  ancient  abbey- 
church  at  St.  Denis  on  the  morning  of  Sunday,  July  25, 1593, 
King  Henry  of  Navarre,  the  son  of  Jeanne  d'Albret,  the  only 
Huguenot  who  ever  sat  upon  the  throne  of  France,  abjured 
his  faith,  and  took  a  solemn  oath  to  protect  the  Roman,  Cath- 
olic, and  Apostolic  religion. 

Beza  was  deeply  grieved  at  this  apostasy.  But  when  he 
learned  that  the  king  favored  his  old  co-religionists  in  many 
ways,  and  especially,  when  in  1598,  he  published  the  Edict  of 
Nantes,  which  put  the  Protestants  on  a  nearly  common  foot- 
ing with  the  Roman  Catholics  in  France,  Beza  took  a  more 
hopeful  view  of  the  king's  condition.  In  1599  the  king,  in  the 
course  of  a  war  with  Charles  Emmanuel,  approached  near 
Geneva.  The  city  saw  in  this  a  chance  to  obtain  from  the 
king  the  promise  of  his  protection,  especially  against  the  Duke 
of  Savoy,  who  had  built  a  fort  called  St.  Catherine,  quite 
near  Geneva.  To  effect  this  the  city  sent  a  delegation  headed 
by  Beza,  and  the  interview  between  the  monarch  and  the 
reformer  was  honorable  to  both.  The  king  gladly  gave  his 
promise,  and  the  next  year  the  fort  was  destroyed.  He  also 
came  to  Geneva  and  received  its  hospitality. 

§  175.    JBeza's  Last  Days. 

Beza's  life  was  now  drawing  to  its  close.  The  weight  of 
years  had  become  a  grievous  burden.  His  bodily  powers 
gradually  deserted  him.  He  partially  lost  his  hearing.  His 
memory  became  so  enfeebled  that  the  past  onl}^  remained 'to 
him,  while  recent  events  made  no  lasting  impression.  It  was 
the  breaking  up  of  an  extraordinarily  vigorous  constitution, 
which  had  so  supported  him  for  sixty-five  years  that  he  had 
scarcely  known  what  it  was  to  be  sick.  Then  he  took  the 
prudent  course  of  giving  up  one  by  one  the  duties  which  he 
had  so  long  discharged.  In  1586  he  was  excused  from 
preaching  daily,  and  henceforth  till  1600  preached  only  on 
Sunday.     In  1598  he  retired  from  active  duty  in  the  Acad- 


§  17.").    ukza's  last  days.  869 

emy,  and  sold  his  library,  givincr  part  of  the  proceeds,  which 
were  considerable,  to  his  wife,  and  part  to  tlie  poor.  In  IGUO 
he  rendered  his  last  public  services  in  the  Academy,  and 
preached  his  last  sermon  — the  only  one  preaclied  in  tlu; 
seventeenth,  by  a  reformer  of  the  sixteenth,  century. ^ 

Occasionally  something  of  the  old  Avit  flashed  forth.  As 
when  he  made  his  reply  to  the  silly  rumor  that  he  had 
yielded  to  the  argumentation  of  Fran(;ois  de  Sales  and  had 
gone  over  to  Rome.  The  facts  are  these :  Francois  came  to 
Geneva  in  1597  with  the  express  purpose  of  converting  Beza. 
He  was  then  thirty  years  old,  very  zealous,  very  skilful,  and 
in  many  other  cases  had  been  successful.  But  he  met  his 
match  in  the  old  Reformer,  who  however  listened  to  him 
courteously.  What  argument  failed  to  accomplish,  the  priest 
thought  money  might  do,  and  so  he  offered  Beza  in  the  name 
of  the  pope  a  yearly  pension  of  four  thousand  gold  crowns 
and  a  sum  equal  to  twice  as  much  as  the  value  of  all  his 
personal  effects!  Tliis  brought  matters  to  a  climax,  and  Beza 
dismissed  him  with  the  polite  but  sarcastic  and  decisive 
rebuke,  "  Go,  sir ;  I  am  too  old  and  too  deaf  to  be  able  to 
hear  such  words."  ^ 

But  from  some  quarter  the  report  got  abroad  that  Beza  had 
yielded.  This  was  added  to  as  it  passed  along  until  it  was 
confidently  asserted  that  Beza  and  many  other  former  Gene- 
van Protestants  were  on  tlieir  way  to  Rome  to  enter  the 
papal  fold.  Their  very  route  was  told,  and  on  an  evening  in 
the  middle  of  September,  1597,  the  faithful  people  of  Siena 
waited  by  the  gate  of  their  city  to  receive  the  great  leader ! 
But  for  some  reason  he  did  not  come.  ^Fhen  it  was  said  that 
he  was  dead ;  but  that  ere  he  died  he  had  made  his  peace 
with  the  Church  and  had  received  extreme  unction. 

When  the  friends  of  Beza  heard  these  idle  tales,  they  merely 
smiled.  But  Beza  concluded  to  give  convincing  proof  of  two 
facts :   first,  that  he  was  not  dead,  and  second,  that  he  was 

1  Heppe,  307.  -  Ibid.  .lU. 


870         THE   EEFOEMATIOX   IX   FRENCH   SWITZEELAXD. 

still  a  Protestant  of  the  straitest  Calvinistic  school ;  and  so 
quite  in  the  old  manner  he  nailed  the  lie  by  a  biting  epigram. 

When  in  1600  Frangois  would  hold  a  public  discussion  with 
the  Genevans,  Beza,  knowing  how  unprofitable  such  discus- 
sions were,  forbade  it.  Whereupon  it  was  given  out  that  the 
Reformers  were  afraid  to  meet  their  opponents ! 

Another  flare  of  the  old  flame  of  poetry  was  occasioned  by 
the  visit  from  King  Henry  IV.,  already  alluded  to.  It  was 
a  poem  of  six  stanzas.  Ad  inclytum  Francice  et  Navarrce  regem 
Henricum  IV.  ("  to  the  renowned  King  of  France  and 
Navarre,  Henry  IV.")     ^  It  was  his  last,  his  swan  song."  ^ 

Wearied  by  the  vigils  of  a  perilous  and  exciting  time,  Beza 
had  long  anxiously  looked  for  his  final  rest.  He  had  fought 
a  good  fight  and  had  kept  the  faith  and  was  ready  to  receive 
his  crown.     On  Sunday,  Oct.  13,  1605,  he  died. 

In  his  will  ^  Beza  ordered  his  burial  to  be  in  the  common 
cemetery  of  Plain  Palais,  where  Calvin  was  buried,  and  near 
the  remains  of  his  wife.  But  in  consequence  of  a  Savoyard 
threat  to  carry  off  his  body  to  Rome,  by  order  of  the  magis- 
trates, he  was  buried  in  the  cloister  of  the  cathedral  of  St. 
Peter,  in  the  city  of  Geneva. 

Of  the  six  great  Continental  Reformers,  —  Luther,  Melanch- 
thon,  Zwingli,  Bullinger,  Calvin,  and  Beza,  —  Beza  was  the 
most  finished  gentleman,  according  to  the  highest  standard 
of  his  time.  He  was  not  lacking  in  energy,  nor  was  he 
always  mild.  But  he  was  able  to  hold  court  with  courtiers, 
be  a  wit  with  wits,  and  show  classical  learning  equal  to  that 
of  the  best  scholars  of  his  age.  Yet  with  him  the  means 
were  only  valued  because  they  reached  an  end,  and  the 
great  end  he  had  ever  in  mind  was  the  conservation  of  the 
Reformed  Church  of  Geneva  and  France. 

His  public  life  was  an  extraordinary  one.  Like  the  Apostle 
Paul  he  could  say  that  he  had  been  "in  journeyings  often, 

1  Heppe,  310. 

*  Given  at  length  in  a  German  translation  by  Heppe,  304—306. 


§  17G.     HKZA's    WJtlTINGS.  sTl 

in  perils  of  rivers,  in  i^erils  of  robbei-s,  in  perils  from  ni}  own 
countrymen,  in  perils  in  the  city,  in  perils  in  the  wilderness, 
in  perils  among  false  brethren ;  in  labor  and  travail,  in  watch- 
ings  often,  in  hunger  and  thirst,  in  fastings  often,  in  cold  and 
nakedness.  Besides  those  things  that  are  without,  there  is 
that  which  presseth  upon  me  daily,  anxiety  for  all  the 
churches"  (2  Cor.  11:20-28).  It  was  indeed  a  brilliant 
service  which  this  versatile  man  rendered.  Under  his  watch- 
ful care  the  city  of  Geneva  enjoyed  peace  and  prosperity, 
the  Academy  flourished  and  its  students  went  everywhere 
preaching  the  Word,  while  the  Reformed  Church  of  France 
was  built  up  by  him.  Calvin  lived  again  and  in  some 
respects  lived  a  bolder  life  in  his  pupil  and  friend. 

It  is  pleasant  to  get  glimpses  of  Beza's  home  life.  Men 
like  him  are  seldom  able  to  enjoy  their  homes.  But  Beza 
had  for  forty  years  the  love  and  devotion  of  the  wife  of 
his  youth.  They  had  no  children,  but  his  fatherly  heart  may 
have  found  some  expression  in  adopting  his  wife's  niece 
Genevieve  Denosse,  whom  he  educated  with  great  care,  and 
also  in  his  parental  solicitude  for  his  brother's  children.  It  is 
perhaps  to  be  taken  as  indicative  of  the  domestic  character  of 
the  man  that,  on  the  advice  of  friends,  within  a  year  after  his 
wife  died  (1589),  he  married  Catherine  del  Piano,  a  widow 
of  a  Genevese.  He  also  adopted  her  gi-and-daughter.  It  is 
probable  that  he  always  lived  in  some  state ;  at  all  events 
his  will  proves  that  he  had  considerable  property. 

§  176.    Beza's  Writings. 

Beza's  name  will  ever  be  most  honorably  associated  with 
biblical  learning.  Indeed,  to  many  students  his  services  in 
this  department  mil  constitute  his  only  claim  to  notice. 
Every  one  who  knows  anything  of  the  uncial  manuscripts  of 
the  Greek  New  Testament  has  heard  of  the  Codex  Bezae,  or 
of  the  history  of  the  printed  text  of  the  New  Testament  has 
heard  of  Beza's  editions  and  of  his  Latin  translation  with 


872        THE   REFOEMATION   IN   FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

notes.  The  Codex  Bezse,  known  as  D  in  tlie  list  of  the  uncials, 
also  as  Codex  Cantabrigiensis,  is  a  manuscript  of  the  Gospels 
and  Acts,  originally  also  of  the  Catholic  Epistles,  dating  from 
the  sixth  century.^  Its  transcriber  would  seem  to  have  been 
a  Gaul,  ignorant  of  Greek.  Beza  procured  it  from  the  mon- 
astery of  St.  Irenseus,  at  Lyons,  when  the  city  was  sacked  by 
Des  Adets,  in  1562,  but  did  not  use  it  in  his  edition  of  the 
Greek  Testament,  because  it  departed  so  widely  from  the 
other  manuscripts,  which  departures  are  often  supported  by 
the  ancient  Latin  and  Syriac  versions.  He  presented  it  to 
the  University  of  Cambridge  in  1581,  and  it  is  now  shown 
in  the  library  among  the  great  treasures. 

Beza  was  also  the  possessor  of  an  uncial  manuscript  of  the 
Pauline  Epistles,  also  dating  from  the  sixth  century.  How 
he  got  hold  of  it  is  unknown.  He  merely  says  (Preface  to  his 
3d  ed.  of  the  N.  T.,  1582)  that  it  had  been  found  at  Clermont, 
near  Beauvais,  France.  It  may  have  been  another  fortune  of 
war.  After  his  death  it  was  sold,  and  ultimately  came  into 
the  Royal  (now  the  National)  Library  in  Paris,  and  there  it 
is  preserved.^  Beza  made  some  use  of  it.  Both  these  man- 
uscripts were  accompanied  by  a  Latin  version  of  extreme 
antiquity. 

Among  the  eminent  editors  of  the  Greek  New  Testament, 
Beza  deserves  prominent  mention.  He  put  forth  four  folio 
editions  of  Stephen's  Greek  text ;  viz.  1565,  1582,  1589,  with 
a  Latin  version,  the  Latin  Vulgate,  and  Annotations.  He 
issued  also  several  octavo  editions  with  his  Latin  version,  and 
brief  marginal  notes  (1565,  1567,  1580,  1590,  1604)  .3 

What  especially  interests  the  English  Bible  student  is  the 

^  A  very  full  description  of  it  is  given  by  Scrivener,  Introduction  to  the 
Criticism  of  the  New  Testament,  3d  ed.  120-127;  cf.  Gregory,  Prolegomena  in 
iV.  T.  Tischendorfianum  ed.  viii.  maior,  369-374  ;  SchafE,  Companion  to  the  Greek 
Testament,  122-124. 

2  For  full  description,  see  Scrivener,  ibid.  163-166;  cf.  Gregory,  ibid. 
419-422. 

»  SchafE,  ibid.  237-238. 


§  17G.    heza's  wjtiTiNGS.  873 

close  connection  he  had  with  the  Authorized  Version.  Not 
only  were  his  editions  in  the  hands  of  Kinf,r  Janies'  revisers, 
but  his  Latin  version  witli  its  notes  was  coiislaiitly  used  l)y 
them.  He  had  already  intlueneed  the  authors  of  the  (iene- 
van  version  (1557  and  1500),  as  was  of  course  iuevitahle, 
and  this  version  influenced  the  Authorized.  As  Beza  was 
undoubtedly  the  best  Continental  excjrete  of  tlie  closing  part 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  this  inHuciice  of  his  Latin  version 
and  notes  was  on  the  wh(jle  beneiicial.  Hut  then  it  must  be 
confessed  that  he  was  also  responsible  for  many  errors  of 
reading  and  rendering  in  the  Authorized  Version. i 

Beza  was  the  chief  theologian  of  the  Reformed  Church 
after  Calvin.  Principal  Cunningham  has  shown'-  the  part 
Beza  played  in  bringing  about  the  transition  from  the  origi- 
nal Calvinism  to  the  scholastic  form,  hard  and  mechanical, 
and  so  unconsciously  preparing  the  way  for  the  great  reaction 
from  Calvinism,  viz.  Arminianism ;  for  Arminius  had  been 
a  student  in  the  Genevan  Academy  under  Beza.  Beza  drew 
up  in  the  form  of  a  chart  a  curious  scheme  of  a  system  of 
theology,  and  he  published  it  in  his  Tractationes  (mentioned 
below)  along  with  a  commentary,  Summa  totius  Christian- 
ismi  sive  descriptio  et  distributio  causarwn  salutls  electorum 
et  exitii  reprohoriim^  ex  sacris  Uteris  collecta  et  explicata^ 
pp.  170  sqq.     Ileppe  reprints  the  chart. 

The  chief  work  published  by  Beza,  though  not  acknowl- 
edged by  him,  is  the  famous  and  invaluable  Histoire  ecclS- 
siastique  des  l^glhes  Reformees  an  royaume  de  France^ 
originally   issued  at    Antwerp   in    1580,  3  vols.    8vo.     The 

1  The  late  Ezra  Abbot,  the  biblical  textual  oritie,  at  Dr.  Schaff's  request, 
made  a  very  careful  collation  of  the  ditfereiit  editions  of  Beza  with  the 
Authorized  Version,  and  found  that  "the  Authorized  Version  agrees  with 
Beza's  text  of  1589  against  Stephen's  of  1550  in  about  ninety  places  ;  with 
Stephen's  against  Beza  in  about  forty;  and  in  from  thirty  to  forty  places, 
in  most  of  which  the  variations  are  of  a  trivial  cliaracter,  it  differs  from  both." 
Schaff:  The  Revision  of  the  English  Version  of  the  New  Testament,  New  York, 
1873  (Introd.  p.  xxviii).     Cf.  Farrar,  Ilistori/  of  Interpretation,  p.  342,  note  3. 

■^  See  his  Reformers  (pp.  345-413)  mentioned  ut  the  head  of  this  cliapter. 


874         THE   REFORMATION    IN    FRENCH    SWITZERLAND. 

best  edition  of  which  is  that  by  Baum  (d.  1881),  Cunitz 
(d.  1886),  and  Rodolphe  Reiiss,  Paris,  1883-89,  3  vols,  small 
quarto.  It  is  well  known  to  scholars  that  the  fii"st  four  books 
are  in  a  great  degree  composed  of  extracts  from  contempora- 
neous works,  especially  the  Histoire  des  Martyrs  by  Crespin, 
and  the  Histoire  de  Vestat  de  France^  attributed  to  Regnier  de 
la  Plancde,  but  no  indication  is  given  whence  the  extracts 
are  taken.  This  defect  in  modern  eyes  is  removed  in  the 
edition  spoken  of.  The  genesis  of  the  work  seems  to  be  this, 
that  Beza  received  reports  from  all  parts  of  France  in  reply 
to  the  Synod's  recommendation  that  the  churches  write  their 
histories  for  the  benefit  of  posterity,  that  he  arranged  these, 
and  inserted  much  autobiographical  matter,  but  as  he  had  to 
employ  unknown  persons  to  assist  him,  he  modestly  refused 
to  put  his  name  to  the  book. 

Beza's  "  Life  of  Calvin  "  was  written  in  French,  and  imme- 
diately translated  by  himself  into  Latin  (Geneva,  1565). 
It  is  the  invaluable,  accurate,  and  sympathetic  picture  of  the 
great  Reformer  by  one  who  knew  him  intimately  and  revered 
him  deeply.  It  has  been  constantly  used  in  the  former 
chapters  of  this  volume.  It  is  by  far  the  best  of  the  con- 
temporary biographies  of  any  of  the  Reformers. 

Beza  collected  his  miscellanies  under  the  title  Tractationes 
theologicce,  Geneva,  1570,  2d  ed.  1582,  3  vols,  folio.  In  these 
volumes  will  be  found  united  his  chief  essays,  including  the 
De  hcereticis  a  eivili  magutratu  pmiiendis,  adversus  M.  Bellium 
(I.  85-169),  already  analyzed.  The  first  part  was  reprinted 
as  late  as  1658  under  the  new  title  Opuscula,  in  quibus  ple- 
raque  Christiance  religionis  dogmata  adversus  hcereses  nostris 
temporibus  renovatas  solide  ex  verbo  Dei  defenduntur. 

In  1573  he  published  a  curious  volume  of  correspond- 
ence on  theological  subjects,  Epistolarum  Theologicarwm. 
The  letters  are  written  to  different  persons  and  are 
variously  dated  from  1556  to  1572.  The  volume  is  printed 
in  small  italics  and  was  so  popular  that  the  third  edition 


^  ITt;.    liEZA's  \vi:rnN(;s.  875 

appeared  at  Hanover  in  1;VJT.  But  the  number  of  his 
letters  published  is  greatly  exceeded  by  those  still  in 
manuscript. 

In  1577  he  published  Lex  Dei,  nwralU,  ceremonialis,  et  poli- 
tica,  ex  libris  Mosis  excerpta,  et  in  eertax  rhisscs  (Jistrilnifa. 
This  is  simply  the  legal  portions  of  the  Pentateuch  classified, 
without  note  or  comment,  apparently  under  the  theory  that 
the  Mosaic  law  is  still  binding. 

In  1581  Beza,  in  connection  with  Daneau  and  Salnar, 
issued  the  Harmonia  Confessionum  Fidei,  designed  to  jj^jmote 
Christian  union  among  the  evangelical  cliurches.^ 

Mention  has  already  been  made  of  Beza  as  a  poet.  His 
Foemata,  Paris,  1548,  commonly  called  Juvenilia,  consists  of 
epigrams,  epitaphs,  elegies,  and  bucolics.  They  are  classical 
in  expression,  and  erotic  in  sentiment,  thougli  not  so  vicious 
as  such  a  libeller  as  Bolsec  would  have  us  believe.  His 
Abraham^  Sacrifice,  already  alluded  to,  was  written  in  French 
(Geneva,  1550),  and  translated  into  Italian  (Florence,  1572), 
English  (London,  1577),  and  Latin  (Geneva,  1597).  It  was 
republished  along  with  the  Foemata,  Geneva,  1597.  Of 
much  more  importance  is  his  translation  of  the  Psalms,  com- 
pleting that  begun  by  Cl(iment  Marot.  It  was  undertaken 
at  Calvin's  request,  and  published  in  sections,  and  finished 
at  Geneva  in  1560. 

1  See  Schaff,  Creeds,  I.  354 ;  II.  193  sqq. 


JAC  OBUS       FAB  MIL,    Jhy?u/ensi£. 


876 


APPENDIX. 


LITERATURE   ON   THE   REFORMATION    IN    FRANCE. 

Comp.  the  literature  in  §  58,  pp.  223-230;  and  Schaff's  Creeds  of  Christen- 
dom, vol.  I.  4<J()  sq. 

The  best  libraries  on  the  history  of  Protestantism  in  France  are  in  Paris 
(Soci^te'de  I'histoire  du  Protestantisme  fran^ais,  54  rue  ties  Saint-Peres),  Geneva, 
Zurich,  Basel,  and  Strassburg.  The  most  important  works  are  in  the  library 
of  the  Union  Theological  Seminary  at  New  York. 

I.   Ecclesiastical  History  of  Protestantlsm  in  Fkance. 

*  A.  L.  IIerminj.\ud  :  Correspondance  des  R(^formateurs  dans  les  pays  de  langue 
fran^aise.  Geneve  and  Paris,  18GG-1886.  7  vols.  From  1512  to  1542.  To 
be  continued. 

Calvin's  Correspondence  from  1528  to  his  death  in  1504,  in  his  Opera, 
vols.  X.-XX. 

[*  Theodoke  Beza]  :  Histoirc  eccle'siasli(jue  des  e(jlises  reforine'es  an  roi/aume 
de  France  (1521-15G3),  from  the  beginning  of  the  Reformation  to  the  first 
civil  war.  Anvers,  1580,  3  vols. ;  Toulouse,  1882,  in  2  vols. ;  best  ed.  by 
Bai:m,  Cunitz,  and  Rodolpue  Reuss,  with  ample  commentary  and  biblio- 
graphical notices.  Paris  (Fischbacher),  1883-1889,  3  vols.  Part  of  Les  Clas- 
sifjnes  du  Protestant isme  frangais,  XVP,  XVII'-,  et  XVIII'  s/ec/es,  published 
with  the  patronage  of  the  Socie'te'  de  I'histoire  du  Protestantisme  fran^ais. 

This  work  was  formerly  ascribed  to  Beza,  but  is  a  compilation  by  several 
anonymous  authors  under  the  direction  and  with  the  co-operation  of  Beza. 
Some  portions  are  literally  borrowed  from  Crcspin's  "  Marty rology."  Sencbier 
thinks  that  the  first  part  was  prei)arcd  by  Beza,  tlie  other  two  under  his  direc- 
tion. See  Soldan,  I.  88;  Heppe,  Theod.  Beza,  p.  382  sq. ;  La  France  Prot. 
(2d  ed.),  II.  535;  and  especially  the  notice  bibliographique,  etc.,  of  R.  Reuss  in 
the  third  volume  of  Baum's  edition. 

*  Jean  Crespin  (a  friend  of  Beza  and  publisher  in  Geneva ;  d.  1572)  : 
Livre  des  martyrs  (Acta  Martyrura),  depuis  le  temps  de  Wiclifet  de  Jean  IIus 
jusqu'a  present,  1554.  Latin  ed. :  Acta  Martyrum,  or  Actiones  et  Monimenta, 
Martyrum,  etc.  1st  ed.  1556.  Enlarged  edition,  Geneve,  1619,2  vols.  fol. ; 
Amsterd.,  1684.  Several  French,  Latin,  Dutch,  English,  and  German  edi- 
tions. See  Polenz,  Gesch.  des  franz.  Calvinismus,  I.  723-735,  and  La  France 
Protest.,  IV.  885-910.  Latest  and  best  edition,  under  the  title  Ilistoire  des 
martyrs  persecutez  et  mis  a  mort  pour  la  ve'rite'  de  VEvanyile  depuis  le  temps  des 
apostres  jusqu'a  pre'sent  (1619),  Toulouse,  1889.  3  large  vols.  8vo.  With 
notes,  etc.,  by  M.  Lelievre. 

877 


878  APPENDIX. 

Floeimond  de  Raemond  (Rom.  Cath.)  :  L'histoire  de  la  naissance,  progres 
et  de'cadenr.e  de  I'heresie  de  ce  siecle.     Paris,  1610. 

Louis  Maimboukg  (Jesuit  historian  and  controversialist,  1620-1686) : 
Histoire  du  calvinisme.  Paris,  2d  ed.,  1682,  2  vols.  12mo.  He  presents  Calvin- 
ism as  the  direct  road  to  atheism.  Calvin's  doctrine  of  predestination,  he  says, 
(I.  110)  "  de'trutt  absolumeiit  toute  Videe  qu'on  doit  avoir  de  Dieu,  et  ensuite  conduit 
tout  droit  a  I'Athe'isme." 

Peter  Jurieu  (Protestant  historian  and  controversialist,  1637-1713)  : 
Histoire  du  Calvinisme  et  celle  da  Papisme  mises  en  paralle'le,  ou  apologie  pour 
les  reformateurs,  pour  la  reformation,  et  pour  les  reformez.  Rotterdam,  1683. 
3  vols.     An  answer  to  Maimbourg.     He  wrote  also  against  Bossuet. 

Pierre  Bayle  (sceptic)  :  Critique  ge'ne'rale  de  I'hisloire  du  calvinisme. 
Rotterdam,  1684. 

Bishop  Bossuet  :  Histoire  des  variations  de  I'e'glise  protestante.  Paris,  1088. 
2  vols.  Several  editions  and  translations — not  historical,  but  polemical  and 
partial.  The  ablest  French  work  against  Protestantism,  derived  from  its 
divisions  and  changes. 

*Elie  Benoit  (1640-1728):  Histoire  de  I'Edit  de  N'antes.  Delft,  1693- 
1695.  5  vols.  4to.  English  and  Dutch  translations.  The  first  volume  goes  to 
the  death  of  Henri  IV.  in  1610 ;  vols.  II.,  III.,  and  IV.  to  1683  ;  vol.  V.  to  1088. 

Serranus  (Jean  de  Serres,  historiographer  of  France,  1540-1598)  :  Com- 
mentarii  de  statu  religionis  et  reipublicce  in  regno  Galliie,  1571-1580  (five  parts). 

Theod.  Agripfa  d'Aubigne  (Albin^us,  a  Huguenot  in  the  service  of 
Henry  IV. ;  d.  at  Geneva,  1630)  :  Histoire  universelle  (from  1550  to  the  end 
of  the  sixteenth  century).  Paris,  1616-1020.  3  vols.  Amsterd.  (Geneva), 
1026,  2  vols.     Also  in  his  OEuvres  completes,  Paris,  1873. 

Philippe  du  Plessis-Mornay  :  Me'moires.  Paris,  1624-1625,  2  vols.  4to  ; 
Amsterd.,  1051.  Me'moires  et  Lettres.  Paris,  1824.  12  vols.  Mornay  was  the 
most  accomplished  and  influential  Protestant  nobleman  of  his  age,  a  fertile 
author,  soldier,  diplomatist,  and  statesman,  who  lived  under  six  reigns  from 
Henry  II.  to  Louis  XIII.  —  Mnie.  Du  Plessis-Mornay:  Me'moires  et  Corre- 
spondance.     Paris,  1808.     2  vols.     On  the  life  of  her  husband. 

Jean  Aymon  (d.  1712)  :  Tous  les  synodes  nationaax  des  e'glises  r^formees  de 
France.     La  Haye,  1710.     2  vols.  4to. 

*JoHN  Quick  (a  learned  Non-conformist,  d.  1700):  Sgnodicon  in  Gallia 
reformata  ;  or  the  Acts,  Decisions,  and  Canons  of  the  National  Councils  of  the 
Reformed  Churches  in  France.  London,  1092.  2  vols.  fol.  (with  a  history  of 
the  Church  till  1685).     Much  more  accurate  than  Aymon. 

E.  A.  Laval:  Compendious  History  of  the  Beformation  in  France  .  .  .  to  the 
Bepealing  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes.     London,  1737-1741.     7  vols.  8vo. 

W.  S.  Browning  :  A  History  of  the  Huguenots.  1829-1839.  3  vols.  Svo. 
Reprinted  at  Philadelphia  (Lea  &  Blanchard),  1845. 

Edward  Smedley  (d.  1836)  :  History  of  the  Reformed  Religion  in  France. 
London,  1832-1834.     3  vols.  12mo.     Reprinted  New  York  (Harper  &  Bros.). 

Charles  Coquerel  (1797-1851)  :  Histoire  des  e'glises  du  Desert  chez  les 
Protestants  de  France  depuis  la  fin  du  regne  de  Louis  XIV.  jusqu'a  la  revolution 
francaise.    Paris,  1841.     2  vols.  Svo.     New  ed.  1857. 


APPENDIX.  ^79 

T^-VEYnxT:   Histoiredespasteursdu  Desert.     Paris,  IHl"'      -'vols    8vo 

GuiLL.  UE  Felice  (Prof,  at  Montauban.  d.  1871)  :  Jl.slone  des  ,,rotes,ants 
de  !> ranee,  loulouse,  1851;  with  supplement  by  Bon.kace,  1874.  English 
translation  by  Lobdell,  1851.  By  the  sanie :  Ilistoire  des  synodes  nationaux 
ties  e'giises  reformees  de  France.     Paris,  1804. 

C.  Dkion:  Histoire  chronolo;,i.,ne  de  I'eylise  prolestante  de  France  jusau'h  la 
Beuocatum.     Paris,  1855.     2  vols.  12mo. 

*  W.  G.  SOLDAN :  Geschichte  des  Protestantismus  in  Frankreich  bis  zum  Tode 
Karls  IX.  Leipzig,  1855.  2  vols.  Frankreich  und  die  Bartholomiiusnarhl, 
1854.  The  same,  translated  by  Charles  Schmidt :  La  France  el  la  St.  liar- 
theiemy.     Paris,  1855.     147  pp. 

L.  Reybaud  :  iStudes  sur  les  Reformateurs.  Paris,  Gtli  ed..  1850  2  vols 
12mo. 

E.  Stahelin:  Der  Uebertritt  Heinrick's  IV.     Basel,  1856. 

*G.  VON  PoLENZ:  Geschichte  des  framosischen  Calvinismus  his  zur  National- 
versammlung  i.  J.  1789,  zum  Theil  aus  handschrifd.  Quellen.  Gotha  1857- 
1869.     5  vols.  8vo. 

*EuGi:NE  and  Emile  Haag  (brothers):  La  France  protestante.  Paris. 
1856  sqq.  10  vols. ;  2d  ed.  revised,  published  under  the  auspices  of  the 
"Socie'te  de  I'histoire  du  Protestantisme  franvais,"  and  under  the  direction 
of  Henri  Bordier,  Paris  (Sandoz  et  Fischbacher),  1877  sqq.  Biograpliies  of 
distinguished  Huguenots  in  alphabetical  order.  Very  important.  So  far  (till 
1888)  6  vols.     (The  sixth  volume  ends  with  dasjiarin.) 

E.  Castel  :  Les  Ilui/netiots  et  la  Constitution  de  I'e'glise  reybrm^e  de  France  en 
1559.     Paris  and  Geneva,  1859.     16mo. 

J.  M.  Dargaud:  La  Liberie' religieuse  en  Fiance.     Paris,  1859.     4  vols.  8vo. 

H.  de  Triqueti  :  Les  premiers  jours  du  Protestantisme  en  France  depuis  son 
origine  jusqu'au  premier  sijnode  national  de  1559.  Paris,  1859.  16mo  (302  pp.). 
Popular. 

Henri  Lutteroth  :  La  Reformation  en  France  pendant  sa  premiere  periode. 
Paris,  1859.     8vo  (233  pp.). 

*Mkrle  d'Aubigne  :  Ilistoire  de  la  Reformation  en  Europe  au  temps  de  Cal- 
vin. Paris,  1862-1878.  English  translation  by  William  L.  H.  Cates.  London 
(Longmans,  Green,  &  Co.),  1863-1878.  8  vols.  (Kepublished  by  the  Carters 
in  New  York.)  This  great  work  comes  down  to  1542,  and  embraces  the  Kefor- 
mation  in  French  Switzerland,  France,  England,  Scotland,  and  Spain.  Tlie 
author  intended  to  carry  it  down  to  the  death  of  Calvin,  1564,  but  died  (1872) 
before  he  completed  it. 

H.White:  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew.  London,  1868.  8vo.  New  York, 
1868. 

F.  Poaux:  Ilistoire  de  la  Reformation  frangaise.    Paris,  1868.    7  vols.  12mo. 
W.  M.  Blackburn:  Admiral  Coligny  and  the  Rise  of  the  Huguenots.    Phila- 
delphia, 1869.    2  vols.  8vo. 

Adolphe  Schaeffer  :  Les  Huguenots  du  seizieme  siecle.  Paris,  1870. 
(331  pp.). 

*  W.  Henley  Jervis:  A  History  of  the  Church  of  France,  from  the  Concordat 
of  Bologna,  A.D.  1516,  to  the  Revolution.  London,  1872.  2  vols.  8vo.  pp. 
xxiv,  476,  xi,  452. 


880  APPENDIX. 

Felix  Bovet  :  Histoire  du  psauti'er  des  €glises  reform€es.     Neuchatel,  1872. 

*  O.  DouEN  :  Clement-Marot  et  le  Psautier  Huguenot.  Paris,  1878  sq.  2  vols, 
(k  Fimprimerie  nationale).  Very  important  for  the  history  of  worship  in  the 
French  Keformed  Church,  with  a  history  of  Marot  and  his  relation  to  Calvin. 
The  second  volume  contains  les  harmonistes  du  Psautier,  a  discussion  of  the 
influence  of  the  Reformation  on  music,  the  Psalms  of  Goudimel,  and  the 
French  bibliography  on  the  Psalter. 

0.  DouEN :  Les  premiers  pasteurs  du  Desert  (1685-1700)  d'apres  des  docu- 
ments pour  la  plupart  ine'dits.     Paris  (Grassart),  1879.     2  vols.  8vo. 

*  Henri  Bordier  :  La  Sainte-Barthe'lemy  et  la  critique  moderne.  Geneve  and 
Paris,  1879  (110  pp.,  with  illustrations). 

Jules  Delaborde  :  Gaspar  de  Coligny,  Admiral  de  France.  Paris  (Fisch- 
bacher),  1879.     3  vols. 

*  Henry  M.  Baird  (Professor  in  the  University  of  the  City  of  New 
York)  :  History  of  the  Rise  of  the  Huguenots  of  France  (1515-1574).  New 
York,  1879.  2  vols.  Svo.  The  Huguenots  and  Henry  of  Navarre  (1574-1610), 
New  York,  1886.  2  vols.  Svo.  The  Edict  of  Nantes  and  its  Becall.  In  the 
"  Commemoration  of  the  Bi-centenary  of  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes"  (Oct.  22,  1885),  by  the  Huguenot  Society  of  America.  New  York, 
1886. 

E.  Muhlenbeck:  Claude  Rouget.  line  e'glise  Calviniste  au  XVI™^"  siecle 
(1551-1581).  Histoire  de  la  communaute  reformee  de  Ste-Marie-aux-Mines 
(Alsace).     Paris  and  Strasbourg,  1881  (515  pp.).     8vo. 

H.  Baumgarten:    Vor  der  Bartholomdusnacht.     Strassburg,  1882  (263  pp.). 

*  Baron  Keuvyn  de  Lettenhove  :  Les  Huguenots  et  les  Gueux  (1560- 
1585).  Bruges,  1883-1885.  6  vols.  Includes  the  contemporary  history  of 
the  Netherlands. 

EaGENE  Bersier  (Reformed  pastor  in  Paris,  d.  1889)  :  Coligny  avant  les 
guerres  de  religion.     Paris,  1884.     English  translation,  London,  1884. 

Ernest  Gaullieur  (archiviste  de  la  ville  de  Bordeaux)  :  Histoire  de  la 
reformation  a  Bordeaux  et  dans  le  ressort  du  parleinent  du  Guyenne.  Bordeaux 
and  Paris,  1884  sqq.     The  first  vol.  extends  from  1523-1563. 

Theo.  Schott:  Die  Aufhebung  des  Ediktes  von  Nantes  im  Oktoher,  16S5. 
Halle,  1885.     Svo. 

[Leon  Pilatte]  :  Edits,  De'clarations  et  Arrests  concernant  la  religion  preten- 
due  re'forme'e,  1662-1751,  pre'ce'des  de  I'Edit  de  Nantes.     Paris,  1885. 

*  L.  Aguesse  (d.  1862)  :  Histoire  de  I'etahlissement  du  Protestantisme  en 
France  contenant  I'histoire  politique  et  religieuse  de  la  nation  depuis  Francois  P^ 
jusqu'a.  r^dit  de  Nantes.  Paris,  1886.  4  vols.  A  posthumous  work  of  twenty 
years'  labor,  published  by  Charles  Menetrier  and  Mme.  Menetrier,  ne'e  Aguesse. 

*  Edmond  Hugues  :  Les  Synods  du  Desert.  Actes  et  re'glements  des  synods 
nationaux  et  provinciaux  tenus  au  desert  de  France  de  Van  1715  a  I'an  1793. 
Paris  (Fischbacher),  1885-1886.  3  large  vols,  with  illustrations  and  fac- 
similes.    Supplement  au  tome  premier,  1887. 

N.  Weiss  (librarian  and  ed.  of  the  Bulletin  of  the  Soc.  of  the  Hist,  of 
French  Prot.)  :  La  chamhre  ardente,  e'tude  sur  la  liberie  de  conscience  en  France 
sous  Francois  P'^  et  Henri  II  (1540-1550)  suivie  d'environ  500  arrets  ine'dits, 


APPENDIX.  8^1 

rendtie  per  le  pnrlement  de  Paris  de  Mai  1547  h  Mars  ir>r>(>.  I'aris  1889 
(432  pp.).     8vo. 

Philip  Sciiaff:  History  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes.  An  address  delivered 
before  the  Huguenot  Society  of  America,  March  21,  188J).     New  York,  18i»(). 

♦Charles  Dakdier:  Paul  liahaut.  Ses  Lettres  a  Divers  (1744-17i)4). 
Avec  Preface,  Notes  et  Pieces  Jiistijicatii-es.  Paris :  Grassart,  1892.  2  vols. 
8  vo.     pp.  .\lviii,  474  and  498. 

*  Bidletin  historique  et  litterairc.  A  inontlily  periodical  jjubiislicd  by  tiie 
Socie'te' de  I'/tistoire  du  Protautisme  fran^ais.  Paris  (54  rue  dcs  Saints-Pores), 
1853  sqq.  (39«  annee,  1890).  Contains  historical  studies  and  inii)ortant  docu- 
ments of  tiie  sixteenth,  seventeenth,  and  eighteenth  centuries. 

II.   (iKNini.vL  Ih.sToijiEs  OF  Fkance. 

Franciscus  Belcauius  Peguimo  (Beaucaire  de  Peguillon,  bishop  of 
Metz)  :  Jieruin  Gallicuntm  Comineiitarii  ab  anno  1461  ad  annum  15S0.  Lugd. 
1625  fol.     102G  pp.     Strongly  anti-Calvinistic. 

Choix  de  c/troni(]ucs  et  mi'moires  sur  I'/iisloire  de  France,  in  the  Pantheon  litte'- 
raire  of  J.  A.  Buchon.     Paris,  1830-1838.     8  vols. 

Nouveile  collection  des  me'moires  pour  servir  a  I'histoire  de  France,  by  Pelitot, 
MiCHAUu,  and  Poujoulat.     1'''=  serie,  torn.  VI.    Paris,  1839. 

♦Thuancs  (Jacques  Augcste  de  Thou,  1553-1017)  :  Historiamm  sui  tem- 
poris  iibri  138,  from  1546-1007  (several  editions  in  5,  7,  and  16  vols.).  The 
author  was  a  moderate  Catholic,  witnessed  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew, 
and  helped  to  prepare  the  Edict  of  Nantes.  His  history  was  put  in  the 
Index  Expurg.  1009,  but  survived  the  papal  condemnation. 

Lacretelle  :  Histoire  de  France  pendant  les  guerres  de  relic/ion.  Paris, 
1814-1810.     4  vols. 

SiJioxDE  Di;  SiSMONDi :  Histoire  des  Francais.  Par.  1821-1844.  31  vols. 
8vo  (from  vol.  XVI.). 

*  Jules  Michelet  (1798-1870):  Histoire  de  France.  1833-1802  (new  ed. 
1879).  14  vols.  (Vols.  IX.  La  Eenaissance;  X.  La  Biforme ;  XI.  Les  Oueires 
de  Religion.) 

Sir  James  Stephen  :  Lectures  on  the  History  of  France.  1857,  3d  ed. 
2  vols. 

*Leop.  v.  Kanke  :  Franzosische  Geschichte  namentlich  im  16.  und  17.  Jahrh. 
Stuttgart  and  Tiibingen,  1852-1868;  3d  ed.  1877.  6  vols.  (English  transla- 
tion in  part,  London,  1852.     2  vols.) 

*  Henri  Martin  :  Histoire  de  France  depuis  les  temps  les  plus  recule's  jnsqu'en 
1789.     Paris,  1837;  4th  ed.  1854-1878.     17  vols.     (vols.  VIII.-X.) 

♦BoKDiER  and  Ciiakton:  Histoire  de  France.  Paris,  1858,  1872;  nouveile 
e'd.  1881.  2  vols,  with  numerous  illustrations.  Gives  very  accurate  informa- 
tion on  the  Protestant  Reformation. 

JIT.     HiSTOKY   OF    THE    HuGUENOT    REFUGEES. 

Charles  Weiss  (Prof,  au  lyce'e  Bonaparte,  d.  1881)  :  Histoire  des  refugie's 
protestants  de  France  depuis  la  re'vocation  de  I'e'dit  de  Nantes  jusqu'a  nos  jours. 


882  APPENDIX. 

Paris,  1853.  2  vols.  English  translation  by  W.  PI.  Herbert.  London  and 
New  York,  1854.     2  vols. 

Samuel  Smiles  :  The  Huguenots,  their  Settlements,  Churches,  and  Industries 
in  England  and  Ireland.  London,  1867  (Am.  ed.  with  Appendix  by  G.  P. 
Disosway,  New  York,  1867). 

W.  H.  FooTE  (pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  Romney,  W.  Va. ): 
The  Huguenots ;  or,  Reformed  French  Church;  their  principles  delineated ;  their 
characters  illustrated;  their  sufferings  and  successes  recorded.  In  three  parts, 
I.  The  Huguenot  in  France,  at  home.  II.  The  Huguenot  dispersed  in  Europe, 
III,  The  Huguenot  at  home  in  America.  With  an  Appendix.  Richmond,  1870. 
pp.  XX,  627. 

David  C.  A.  Agnew  (of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland) :  Protestant  Exiles 
from  France  in  the  Reign  of  Louis  XIV.;  or,  the  Huguenot  Refugees  and  their 
Descendants  in  Great  Britain  aiid  Ireland.  2d  ed.  (corrected  and  enlarged), 
1871-1874.  3  vols.  3d  ed.  (remodelled  and  greatly  enlarged),  including  the 
French-speaking  refugees  in  former  reigns.  London  and  Edinburgli,  1886. 
2  vols.     pp.  457  and  548. 

R.  Lane  Poole  :  A  History  of  the  Huguenots  of  the  Dispersion  at  the  Recall 
of  the  Edict  of  Nantes.     London,  1880. 

C.  W.  Baird  (brother  of  Henry  M.  B.)  :  History  of  the  Huguenot  Emigra- 
tion to  America.     New  York,  1882.     2  vols. 

The  Publications  of  the  Huguenot  Society  of  America.  New  York, 
1886  sqq. 

Henry  Tollin  (minister  of  the  Huguenot  Church  in  Magdeburg)  : 
Geschichte  des  hugenottischen  Refuges  in  Deutschland ;  Geschichte  der  franziisichen 
Golonieen  der  Provinz  Sachsen,  Halle,  1892  ;  Geschichte  der  franzosichen  Colonic 
von  Magdeburg.     Magdeburg,  1892.     3  vols. 

Geschichtsblatter  des  Deutschen  Hugenottkn-Vereins.  Magdeburg,  1892. 
(Six  Hefte.) 

Le  Baron  F.  de  Schickler  (President  of  the  Soc.  of  the  Hist,  of  French 
Prot.)  :  Les  e'glises  du  refuge  en  Angleterre.  Paris,  1892.  3  vols.  (pp.  431, 
432,  536). 


ALPHABETICAL  INDEX  OF  NAMES  AND  TOPICS. 


Academicans,  sceptical,  630. 

Academy  of  Geneva,  883. 

Aebli,  Hans,  117,  1G8,  172. 

Agricola,  J.,  (i02. 

Alciati,  G.,  (inr). 

Alexander,  W.  L.,  on  Calvin,  292. 

Allegorizing,  527,  532,  53(5. 

Ameaux,  P.,  497,  499,  501,  511. 

Anabaptists,  69. 

Anabaptists,  persecution  of,  67,  81,  84, 
351 ;  principles,  71,  75,  126;  as  to  bap- 
tism, 76,  78;  hyninody,  80. 

Andrea',  the  younger,  518;  the  older, 
86(;. 

Antistes,  68. 

Appeuzell,  128. 

"  Archeteles,"  48. 

Arminius,  Jas.,  on  Calvin,  280. 

Arniinianism,  262,  815. 

Arrowsmith,  Dr.,  quoted,  577. 

Artichauds,  426. 

Astrology  and  astronomy  among  the 
Reformers,  676,  678,  724. 

Audin,  on  Calvin,  312,  493,  508,  828. 

Augsburg  Confession,  664,  665. 

Augustin,  in  theology,  539;  on  predes- 
tination, .554;  on  infant  salvation, 
556;  on  persecution,  697. 

Augustinianism,  541. 

Ban,  the,  114,  251. 

Bancroft,  Geo.,  on  Calvin  for  popular 

education,     .354;    on    Calvin    as    a 

reformer,  522. 
Bai)tisra,    according    to    Zwingli,    72; 

Anabaptist  view,  76;  Calvin's  %'iew, 

373,  480,  584:  B.  and  salvation,  556. 
Baptists.  69,  85,  587. 
Basel,  or  Basle,  107,  116,  218,  222,  325, 
Baudouin,  F.,  444. 


Bauni,  Pierre  do  la,  399,  427. 

Baur,  F.  C,  on  Zwingli,  'M>:  on  Calvin's 
"Institutes,"  .329;  on  Calvin,  834; 
on  Servetus,  73(),  7.38. 

Baxter,  R.,  on  Calvin,  287. 

Bayle,  P.,  on  Calvin,  276. 

Beghards,  498. 

Bellay,  Cardinal  de,  .506. 

Bellius,  Martinus,  627,  7M. 

Bembo,  Cardinal,  400,  640. 

Bernard,  J.,  428,  438,  475. 

Bern,  or  Berne,  103,  170,  180,  2.34,  236, 
244,  4:i4. 

"  Beruer  Synodus,"  10(5. 

Berthelier,  P..  233,  497,  501,  510,  512, 
514. 

Beza,  or  B^ze,  Theodore  de,  on  French 
Reformers,  2.38 ;  as  professor,  259 ;  on 
religious  liberty,  794 ;  against  relig- 
ious lii)erty,  797 ;  on  the  last  days  of 
Calvin,  823;  life  to  his  conversion, 
844 ;  secret  marriage,  848 ;  public 
marriage,  849 ;  profes.sor  at  Lausanne, 
850;  a  delegate  to  the  German 
princes,  851;  called  to  Geneva,  made 
rector  of  the  Academy  and  pastor  in 
the  city,  852 ;  delegate  to  the  princes, 
853;  at  the  Colloquy  of  Poissy,  854; 
in  the  civil  war,  858;  succeeds  Cal- 
vin, 862;  his  brother  Nicolas,  8<J4; 
at  the  Synods  of  Rochelle,  8()4;  and 
of  Nismes,  864 ;  receives  refugees  from 
the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew's 
Day,  865 ;  meets  Henry  of  Condc, 
865  ;  writes  to  Henry  of  Navarre,  865 ; 
at  the  conference  of  Montbcliard,  866 ; 
on  the  abjuration  of  Henry  of  Na- 
varre, 8<57 ;  his  alleged  conversion, 
869;  last  poem,  870;  closing  labors. 
870;  death  and  burial,  870;  home  life, 

883 


884        ALPHABETICAL   INDEX   OF    NAMES    AND   TOPICS. 


871 ;  writings,  871 ;  uncial  MSS.  of 
the  N.  T.,  871 ;  editions  of  tlie  Greek 
N.  T.  and  liis  Latin  version,  872; 
influence  on  the  A.  V.,  873;  type 
of  Calvinism,  873;  connection  with 
the  "Histoire  ecclesiastique,"  873; 
"  Life  of  Calvin,"  874 ;  "  Theological 
Tracts,"  874;  "Theological  Letters," 
874 ;  poetical  works,  875. 

Biandrata,  G.,  654. 

Bible,  translated  into  German,  63 ;  su- 
premacy of,  90;  authority  of,  220, 
537,  680;  translated  into  French, 
239,  242 ;  early  editions  of,  528 ;  Cas- 
tellio's  Latin  translation,  623. 

Bibliander,  T.,  211. 

Blanchet,  P.,  438,  441. 

Blaurock,  G.,  73,  83. 

Bocher,  Joan,  burned,  711. 

Bolsec,  H.  H.,  on  Calvin,  302;  history, 
615,  619,  827 ;  theological  errors,  617 ; 
on  Beza,  843. 

Bonivard,  F.,  233,  507. 

Bossuet,  on  Calvin,  266,  274. 

"  Breadworship,"  668,  672. 

Breitinger,  J.  J.,  214. 

Bruno,  G.,  burned,  699. 

Bucer,  M.,  on  Calvin,  272,  329,  434; 
history,  364,  603;  on  the  eucharist, 
589. 

Bulliuger,  H.,  history,  205,  207;  corre- 
spondence of,  208;  on  toleration,  211, 
636 ;  rules  for  son,  212 ;  close  of  life, 
213;  writings,  214;  supporting  Cal- 
vin, 514;  on  predestination,  618. 

Bure,  Idelette'  de,  415,  419. 

Buxtorf ,  218. 

Caesaropapacy,  67,  175. 

Calvin,  Antoine,  299. 

Calvin,  John,  compared  with  other  Re- 
formers, 257,  262;  with  Hildebrand, 
262;  his  theology,  260,  524;  intoler- 
ance of,  265,  395,  483,  511,  626 ;  liter- 
ary power,  265,  267;  writings,  268; 
tributes  to,  270-295,  520-523;  his 
youth,  296,  303 ;  education,  300,  304; 
a   humanist,  308;    conversion,    310; 

'  mission,  313;  escape,  319;  an  itiner- 
ant, 322 ;  at  Basel,  325 ;  "  Institutes," 
328,  343;  at  Ferrara,  343;  arriving 
at  Geneva,  347,  425;  first  labors  at 


Geneva,  349;  second  call  to  Geneva, 
428,  438 ;  banished  from,  .360 ;  C.  and 
Caroli,  351;  catechism,  354;  deserted 
by  du  Tillet,  362 ;  at  Strassburg,  363 
success  there,  369;  liturgy,  371 
Psalms  in  metre,  374 ;  iirofessor,  376 
at  Colloquies,  379,  381;  "  the  theolo- 
gian," 380;  dispute  about  transub- 
stantiation,  383;  in  pestilences,  384, 
441 ;  C.  and  Melanchthon,  386 ;  letters 
to  Melanchthon,  390,  393,  395,  396, 
443;  C.  and  Melanchthon  sustaining 
a  fellow-reformer,  393;  C.  and  Sad- 
olet,  398,  402,  412;  on  popery,  404, 
486,  599 ;  defending  the  Reformation, 
405,  453 ;  marriage,  413 ;  wedded  life, 
416 ;  letters  on  death  of  his  wife,  418 ; 
decease  of  son,  420;  seal  with  motto, 
429 ;  shyness,  435  ;  diet,  sleep,  recrea- 
tions, 444;  as  preacher,  446;  on  the 
Catholic  Church,  450;  on  miracles, 
456;  devotion,  393,  402,  430,  437,  443, 
445,  493,  495,  500,  505,  507,  513, 
514,  012;  revising  the  laws,  464; 
church  polity,  466, 487, 489 ;  on  clerical 
parity,  469,  600 ;  church  officers,  470, 
476 ;  union  of  church  and  state,  471 ; 
church  government,  475 ;  consistory, 
481 ;  discipline,  484,  486,  489,  491 ;  C. 
and  Libertines,  494 ;  persecuted,  496, 
503,  507;  confronting  adversaries, 
508;  vindicated,  515,  517;  commen- 
taries, 525 ;  as  exegete,  526,  531,  532, 
535 ;  as  linguist,  529 ;  on  the  Fathers, 
530;  on  the  canon,  536;  on  inspira- 
tion, 537;  C.  and  Augustin,  539,  583; 
citations  from  the  ancients,  539;  on 
depravity,  543;  C.  and  Luther,  545, 
581 ;  absolute  decree,  547 ;  reasoning 
on  predestination,  549,  561,  576;  on 
reprobation,  551 ;  supralapsarian,553; 
on  free-will,  554;  on  infant  perdition, 
556,  558 ;  on  salvation  by  grace,  571 ; 
on  sacraments,  582 ;  on  baptism,  584, 
587;  on  the  eucharist,  589,  591,  592; 
as  a  debater,  594;  reply  to  Pighius, 
597;  on  Council  of  Trent,  601;  on 
relics,  606,  609;  letter  to  Luther,  613; 
C.  and  Castellio,  626;  relation  to 
Unitarians,  632;  on  Roman  sacra- 
ments, 634;  C.  and  L.  Socinus,  635; 
and  the  Italian  Antitrinitarians,  653, 


ALrHABETICAL    INDEX    OF    NAMES    AND    Tol'ICS.         885 


654, 657  ;  on  tlie  doatli  jionalty  for  her- 
etics, 656,  6iK),  789;  reviewint;  \Vest- 
phal,  660,  ()();5;  on  forbeaniiifc,  i'M; 
C.  aud  the  Au,u;shnr<j;  Confession,  t'M; 
C.  and  Melanchtlion,  667  ;  on  Heshu- 
sius,  673;  on  the  Eucharist,  675;  on 
astrology,  ()76,  735 ;  on  the  "  Celestial 
Hierarchy,"  678;  relation  to  Serve- 
tus,  687,  690;  his  patience,  728;  his 
catholicity,  799;  his  refutation  of 
Servetus,  789 ;  makes  Geneva  an  asy- 
lum for  persecuted  Protestants,  802 ; 
his  Academy,  803;  influence  upon 
France,  807;  upon, the  Waldenscs, 
80f»;  upon  Germany,  810;  upon  Hol- 
land, 812;  upon  England,  81(5;  i\pon 
Scotland,  818;  his  last  days,  820;  his 
death  and  burial,  823;  his  last  will 
and  testament,  828;  his  farewell  ad- 
dress to  the  Senate,  831 ;  to  the  min- 
isters of  Geneva,  833;  his  personal 
character  and  luabits,  8.'54. 

Calvinism,  the  system,  538,  544;  where 
prevalent,  264,  542;  tested  logically, 
261,  572;  expounded,  568;  compared 
with  Scripture,  575;  C.  and  Armin- 
ianism,  815. 

Calvinism,  American,  544,  586 ;  modern, 
567. 

Calviuists,  favoring  infant  salvation, 
560 ;  how  erroneous,  661. 

Campell,  U.,  141. 

Cappel,  first  war,  165;  first  peace,  171 ; 
second  war,  179 ;  effect  of  defeat  at, 
187 ;  second  peace,  192. 

Carol! ,  P.,  251,  351,  376. 

Carolinum,  62. 

Carlstadt,  74. 

Castellio,  S.,  education,  622;  trans- 
lation of  the  Bible,  623;  against 
Calvin,  624;  last  days,  626;  defends 
religious  liberty,  794. 

Catholic  Church,  449. 

Cau%in,  Gerard,  298. 

Celibacy,  clerical,  6,  48,  54,  489. 

Champereau,  H.,  438,  475. 

Chapeaurongc,  A.  d.,  359,  427. 

Chemnitz,  M.,  601. 

Chiavenna,  155. 

Christ's  descent  into  Hades,  624. 

Christian  liberty,  ;341. 

Chrysostom,  St.,  487. 


Church,  people's,  8,5;  at  Geneva,  448; 
visible  and  invisible,  450,  4.")7,  4(K); 
officers  of,  4(>8,  476;  severity  at 
Geneva,  491 ;  authority,  540. 

Church,  Presbyterian,  of  Sci>tland,  469. 

Church  and  Slate  in  Switzerland,  (», 
114,  14.!,  245,  2<i.i,  ;557,  473,  489,  51(i; 
Reformers'  view,  72,  85;  sustaining 
one  another,  4(i.3 ;  autonomy,  4«i7, 474  ; 
Calvin  on,  471,  481,  493. 

Churches,  sacking  of,  59. 

Cochhcus,  601. 

Coirc,  I'M];  seminary  at,  143. 

Comander,  J.,  I'.iS. 

"  Counnentarius  de  vera  et  falsa  religi- 
one,"  63,  176. 

Collation,  Germain,  4(>4. 

Colloquy,  at  Marburg,  85,  174;  at 
Worms,  379;  at  Regensburg,  148, 
.381. 

Confession,  Geneva,  353;  Tetrapolitana, 
163;  First  Basel,  217  ;  First  Helvetic, 
219;  Second  Helvetic,  221 ;  Westmin- 
ster, on  providence  and  election,  ,567. 

Congregationalism,  140. 

Consensus,  Ziirich,  221;  Tigurinus,  210, 
592;  Geneveusis,  (il9. 

Consubstautiation,  672. 

Contarini,  Cardinal,  381,  643. 

Cop,  N.,  318. 

Copernicus,  678. 

Coi)pin,  498. 

Cornelius  on  Anabaptists,  77. 

Counter-Reformation,  157,  195. 

Courault,  350,  359. 

Cranmer,  Archbishop,  in  accord  with 
Reformers,  208 ;  correspondence  with 
Calvin,  7!)9. 

Curio,  C.  S.,  651. 

Daniel,  F.,  307. 

Dante  on  unbaptized  infants,  556;  on 

predestination,  .568. 
D'Aubigne,  see  Merle. 
"  Decretum  horribile,"  331,  559. 
Deacons,  479. 
Democracy.  133,  143. 
Diestel,  525. 
Diet,  of  Switzerland,  98;  Regensburg, 

mi. 

Discipline,  at  Geneva,  355,  '.Vid,  ,'{59; 
Roman  Catholic,  486. 


ALPHABETICAL   INDEX    OF   NAMES    AND   TOPICS. 


Disputations,  Reformation,  53,  56. 

Divine  justice,  561. 

"Dodekachordnu,"  122. 

Dufour,  L.,  431. 

Dyer,  on  Calvin,  288 ;  on  divisions,  605. 

Ecclesiastical  ordinances  of  Geneva, 
440,  475. 

Eck,  Dr.,  at  Swiss  Diet,  09;  at  Bern, 
104;  at  Regensburg,  381;  character- 
ized, 382. 

Education,  popular,  354. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  544. 

Eidgenossen,  233. 

Einsiedeln,  20,  196. 

Election,  342,  546,  549,  557,  570. 

England,  Reformation  in,  816. 

Enthusiasm,  595. 

"Epinicion  "  of  Calvin,  380. 

Episcopacy,  469. 

Erasmus,  as  author  and  publisher,  7 ; 
influencing  Zwingli,  24;  on  the  Ref- 
ormation, 108,  309;  Luther's  opinion 
of,  110;  on  jEsthetics,  112;  Farel's 
opinion  of,  241 ;  at  Freiburg,  326. 

Eschatology,  95. 

Eternal  Decrees,  Westminster  Confes- 
sion, .565. 

Excommunication,  487. 

Faber,  Dr.,  53,  99. 

Faber  Stapuleusis,  see  Le  Fevre. 

Faith  and  salvation,  571. 

Falais,  J.  d.  B.  d.,  619. 

Farel,  W.,  pioneer,  and  courage,  237, 
242,  245;  oratory,  238;  education, 
239 ;  last  labors  and  days,  247 ;  writ- 
ings, 249;  advising  Calvin,  348,  414, 
710;  at  Geneva,  360,  431,  518;  noble- 
ness, 441,  446;  persecuted,  509;  last 
visit  to  Calvin,  822. 

Farrar,  F.  W.,  quoted,  289. 

Fasts,  47. 

Favre,  F.,  497,  505. 

Ferdinand,  King,  166,  192. 

Fisher,  G.  P.,  294. 

Francis  I.,  63,  318. 

Frederick  III.,  Elector,  221. 

Free  churches,  474. 

Freedom  of  the  Press,  465,  503. 

Free  schools,  522. 

Free-will,  554. 


Freiburg,  234,  237,  244. 

French-Swiss,  character,  232. 

Froment,  A.,  253. 

Furbity,  G.,  244. 

Future  life,  meditation  on,  339. 

Galileo,  Galilei,  679. 

Gallicius,  P.,  140. 

Gavazzi,  Father,  639. 

Geneston,  M.  d.,  438. 

Geneva,  in  Reformation  times,  232,  243, 
246,  253,  263,  348,  402,  426,  435,  442, 
463,  465,  466,  490,  492,  503,  515,  519, 
802. 

Gentile,  G.  V.,  656;  his  theology,  657. 

Gernler,  L.,  218. 

Gibbon,  on  Calvin  and  Servetus,  689. 

Glarean,  24,  41,  120,  122. 

Glarus,  23,  117,  123. 

God's  sovereignty,  562. 

Godet,  F.,  on  redemption,  578. 

Grebel,  Conrad,  73,  77,  82. 

Gribaldo,  M.,  theology,  653. 

Grisons,  131,  136,  142. 

Gruet,  J.,  501. 

Grutli,  3. 

Gryaaius,  S.,  326. 

Guillermins,  427,  475. 

Guizot  on  Calvin,  278,  344. 

Hallam  on  Switzerland,  2. 
Halley's  comet,  182. 
Hamilton,  Wm.,  on  Calvin,  290, 
Hardenberg,  A.,  675. 
"  Harlot  stars,"  677. 
Hase,  330. 

Hausser,  L.,  on  Calvin,  264,  283. 
Heidelberg  Catechism,  669,  811. 
Henry,  Matthew,  525. 
"Heptameron,"  323. 
Heresy,  punishment  of,  694. 
Herrick,  G.  G.,  on  Calvin,  295. 
Heshusius,  F.,  671. 
Heusser,  Mrs.,  quoted,  187. 
Hilary,  quoted,  604. 
Hildebrand,  Pope,  compared  with  Cal- 
vin, 466,  472. 
Hodge,  C,  on  baptism,  586. 
Hofmeister,  Seb.,  129. 
Hohenlandenberg,  H.  v.,  6. 
Holland,  Reformation  in,  812. 
Holy  Spirit  in  eucharist,  592. 


ALPHABETICAL   INDEX   OF   NAMES    AND   TOPICS.        887 


Hooker,  R.,  on  Calvin,  280,  317. 
Hiibmaicr,  H.,  77,  83. 
Huguenots,  '2'.'yl. 
Hugues,  B.,  '_';{3. 
Hyacinthe,  Pere,  639. 
Hymns,  Anabaptist,  80. 

Immersion,  78,  587. 

Imposition  of  hands,  315. 

Infant  salvation,  %,  r>6(i,  557,  652. 

Infralapsarianism,  552. 

Inquisition,  Koraau,  043,  089. 

"Institutes"  of  Calvin,  parts  of,  3.32, 

33()-;342. 
Interim,  Augsburg,  002 ;  Leipzig,  004. 
Intolerance,  Religious,  R.  Catholic,  093 ; 

Protestant,  700. 
Italian  Church  in  Geneva,  028. 
Italian  (Jrisons.  140. 
Italian  Switzerland,  2. 

Janssen,  on  Zwingli,  28. 

Jenatsch,  G.,  100. 

Jerome,  St.,  quoted,  599. 

Jesuits,  .322. 

Jewel,  Bp.,  on  Bullinger,  209. 

Judae,  Leo,  22,  48,  55,  M. 

Judgments  of  Reformers  on  Servetus, 

708. 
Jussie,  Jeanne  de,  245. 
Justification  by  faith,  546. 

Kaiser,  J.,  1(!0. 

Kampschulte,  F.  W.,  on  Calvin,  285, 
412. 

Kessler,  J.,  127. 

Knowledge  of  God  and  ourselves,  3.36. 

Knox,  John,  818;  on  Calvin,  518;  char- 
acter of,  819. 

Kostlin,  quoted  on  Luther's  liberality, 
705. 

Labyrinth,  the,  25. 

Lambert  of  Avignon,  .50.  . 

Lambeth  Articles,  564. 

Lasco,  John  a,  6(32. 

Latitudiuarian,  first,  among  Reformers, 

119. 
Lausanne,  250. 
Lay-elders,  479. 
Le  F?;vre  d'Etaples,  239;  his  portrait, 

876. 


Leo  X.,  43,  :i01. 

Libertines,  498,  .501. 

Liturgy,  111,  470. 

Locarno,  congregation  of,  Kil. 

Lord's  Supper,  the,  7,  111,  1(W,  20i),  217, 
247,  373,  UV.l,  001,  073;  among  the 
Reformed,  00;  Baptists,  79;  Zwingli's 
view  t)f,  85,  95,  220;  Calvin's  view, 
376,  480,  .590. 

Love  of  God,  580. 

Loyola,  I.,  :J02. 

Lullin,  J.,  :&.),  420. 

Luther,  compared  witii  Zwingli,  8,  .33, 
37;  on  theeucharist,  8(i,  589;  meeting 
Kessler,  a  Swiss,  127 ;  with  Verge- 
rius,  148;  monarchist,  107;  abuse  of 
Zwingli,  177,  187;  fourth  centennial, 
200;  on  Helvetic  Confession,  220; 
meeting  Zwingli,  80,  259;  compared 
with  Calvin,  272,  385,  3!»4,  412,  410, 
444;  on  the  ministry,  314;  on  predes- 
tination, 392;  on  the  Church,  4.5(i, 
4.58;  lay-pricstliood,  470;  as  commen- 
tator, 527;  views  on  toleration  and 
religious  liberty,  705. 

Lutheranism,  8,  9,  11,  .541,  660,  672. 

Maigret,  A.,  512. 

Manuel,  Niclaus,  103. 

Marc-Monnier,  on  Calvin's  work,  521. 

Marcouvt,  428. 

Mare,  H.  d.  1.,  428,  438,  475,  512. 

Margaret  of  Valois,  240. 

Marot,  C,  .374. 

Martyr,  Justin,  on  heathen  philoso- 
phers, 178;  for  toleration,  332. 

Martyr,  Peter,  l.")(i,  102,  0;50. 

Ma.ss,  <»9. 

Massacre,  Valtellina,  1.57. 

Maurice  of  Saxony,  005. 

Melanchthon,  a  .synergist,  94,  548;  on 
the  eucharist,  111 ;  a  layman,  313;  in 
Colloquies,  .378;  M.  and  Calvin  (also 
Luther),  385,  3<k;,  .598,  614,  020;  on 
predestination,  .392;  as  to  Leipzig 
Interim,  004;  on  the  Lord's  Supper, 
(k}5,  667,  ()70;  timidity,  669;  on  tlie 
Messiah,  719. 

Merle  d'Aubigne,  on  Calvin,  417,  4-37, 
471. 

Methodism,  spread,  85,  2(J4 ;  M.  and 
Calvinism,  500,  817. 


ALPHABETICAL    INDEX    OF    NAMES    AND    TOPICS. 


Military  service,  6,  166,  191. 

Ministry,  call  to,  313,  316. 

Mirandola,  P.  d.,  influencing  Zwingli, 

24. 
"  Mirror  of  a  sinful  Soul,"  317. 
MiJhler  on  Calvin,  835. 
Moral  inability,  597. 
Morikofer,  J.  C,  quoted,  6. 
Morland,  428. 
Motley,  quoted,  813,  814. 
Miiller,  J.  v.,  on  Tell,  3 ;  on  Calvin,  281. 
Murdock,  J.,  on  Calvin,  281. 
Myconius,  O.,  upholding  Zwingli,  38; 

history,  216 ;   on  eucharist,  217 ;   on 

First  Basel  Confession,  218. 

Nationalrath,  Swiss,  4,  190. 
Natural  state  of  man,  569. 
Neuchatel,  2.32,  233,  242. 
Nicknames,  177,  187,  662. 
Nicodemites,  610. 
Nunnery,  St.  Claire,  246. 

Ochino,  B.,  162,  637;  as  an  orator,  640; 
habits,  641;  conversion,  642;  devo- 
tion, 643 ;  on  Genevan  morality,  644 ; 
his  teachings,  645,  648,  651 ;  Calvin's 
esteem  for,  646,  649;  married  expe- 
riences, 647;  at  London,  647;  last 
days,  650. 

Oicolampadiiis,  on  predestination,  94; 
on  the  Bible,  100;  history,  108,  115; 
mildness  of,  110,  238;  on  Servetus, 
715. 

Olivetan,  P.  R.,  242,  243,  299. 

"  On  the  necessity  of  reforming  the 
Church,"  452. 

Opus  operatum,  as  to  Lord's  Supper, 
583. 

Orelli,  162. 

Original  sin,  94. 

Ozias,  438. 

Pastors,  477. 
Patriots  of  Geneva,  497. 
Paul,  on  redemption,  577. 
Paul  IV.,  Pope,  153. 
Pedobaptism,  78,  587. 
Pedrotus,  375. 
Pellican,  64,  241. 

Perrin,  A.,  243,  430,  497,  504,  509,  513, 
515. 


Perrin,  Francesca,  505. 

Persecution,  Theodosius  on,  696 ;  Cardi- 
nal Gibbons  on,  699 ;  Roman  Catholic 
Church  on,  699;  cases  of,  696,  698; 
Protestant,  700;  in  general,  688,  689, 
691,  693. 

Pertemps,  427. 

Pestallozzi,  162. 

Pestilence  at  Geneva,  441,  442. 

Pflug,  J.,  378,  381. 

Philip  of  Hesse,  174,  387. 

Philippe,  Jean,  359,  399. 

Pighius,  A.,  596. 

Plague  of  1564  in  Switzerland,  654. 

Pluralism  in  R.  C.  Church,  300. 

Pecquet,  498,  500. 

Polygamy,  649. 

"  Pope  of  Geneva,"  483. 

Popery,  562. 

Porral,  A.,  .358,  427. 

Poupiu,  A.,  506. 

Predestination,  according  to  Zwingli, 
91;  Bullinger,  210;  Calvin,  335,  547, 
555,  561. 

Predestination,  double,  545,  547,  563. 

Predestination  in  the  Confessions,  562. 

Presbytery,  316. 

Preterition,  551. 

Priests,  immorality  of,  6. 

Priesthood,  316. 

Priesthood  of  believers,  471,  473. 

Printing-press,  151,  465. 

Protestants  persecuted  in  Paris,  .320. 

Protestantism,  10,  67,  192,  243,  251. 

Puritanism,  264,  819. 

Quintin,  498,  500. 

Radicalism,  70,  85. 

Radziwill,  Prince,  637. 

Raymond,  F.  d.,  273. 

Ranke,  Leopold,  603. 

Rfitia,  132. 

Rationalism,  144,  201,  632. 

Redemption  of  the  race,  543. 

Reformation,  progress  of,  12,  54,  58,  98, 

104,  112,  114,  124,  130,  137,  156,  241, 

246,  320. 
Reformed,  how  inclusive.  9, 11. 
Reformed    Church,    influence    of,    12; 

spread  of,  75,  660. 
Reformers,  predestinarians,  546. 


ALPHABETICAL   INDEX   OF    NAMES    AND   TOPICS.        889 


Reinliart,  Anna,  40,  186. 

Keislaul'en,  <i,  lio. 

Relics,  worship  of,  (105. 

Religious  liberty,  10,  131,  139,  165,  171, 

l'.)l,  1<)3,  211,G!»3,  794. 
RiMiaissaiu-e,  3:5. 
Kenan,  E.,  on  Calvin,  279. 
Renee,  Duchess,  .'J43. 
Responsibility,  573. 
Reubli,  W.,  48,  74. 
Revision  of   Westminster   Confession, 

r,ir>. 

Riienanus,  Beatus,  30,  42,  113. 

Richebouri;,  L.  d.,  420. 

Kiihelien,  Cardinal,  IGO. 

Roget,  A.,  483. 

Rohan,  H.  d.,  KiO. 

Romanic  races,  religion  of,  629. 

Romanism,  2()1,  .•>82,  546. 

Roniansh  language,  133,  142. 

Rousseau,  J.  J.,  on  Calvin,  277. 

Roussel,  324. 

Ruchat,  quoted,  24(5,  etc. 

Sacraments,  Calvin's  view,  582,  658, 
671. 

Sadolet,  398;  argues  for  the  papacy, 
401 ;  denounces  the  Reformers,  405. 

St.  Gall,  124. 

Salis,  H.  v.,  155. 

Salvation,  offer  of,  576. 

Samson,  31,  42. 

Saunier,  ;556,  425. 

Sawtrc,  W.,  burned,  698. 

Schaffhausen,  129. 

Sciiinncr,  Cardinal,  5,  31. 

Schism.  451,  456. 

Schmid,  K.,  55. 

Schuler.  quoted,  6. 

Schweizfr,  Alex.,  quoted,  8,  37,  200. 

Scotland,  Reformation  in,  818. 

Scripture,  proof  of  credibility,  'Xil. 

Servetus,  324,  687 ;  Gibbon's  remarks 
on,  689;  on  punishment,  61K);  early 
life,  712;  on  the  Bible,  713;  an  inde- 
pendent radical,  714 ;  his  "Errors  of 
the  Trinity,"  715,  720;  his  learning, 
71(i;  on  the  Logos,  717;  vilifying 
trinitarianism,  719;  as  geograjjher, 
720;  edits  Ptolemy's  Geography,  721; 
delineating  nationalities,  722;  as 
physician  and  scientist,  discovers  the 


circulation  of  the  blood,  72.3;  on  as- 
trology, 724;  on  baptism,  725,  728; 
as  exegete,  726 ;  correspondence  with 
Calvin  and  Poupin,  727;  his  arro- 
gance, 7^50;  judgment  of  Dyer,  7:51; 
calls  the  Trinity  a  Cerberus,  731 ;  his 
"Restitution  of  Christianity,"  7.32; 
his  theological  system,  73(i;  Christol- 
ogy  7:«l;  theology,  741;  Christo- 
pantheism,  745;  anthropology  and 
soteriology,  747 ;  doctrine  of  the  sac- 
raments, 7')0;  the  Kingdom  of  Chri.st 
and  the  reign  of  anti-Christ,  7.''>4;  es- 
chatology,  7.'i5;  his  trial  and  condem- 
luUion  at  Vienne,  757;  arrival  and 
arrest  at  Geneva,  76:!;  first  trial  at 
Geneva,  768;  second  trial,  772;  his 
dehant  attitude,  779;  his  condemna- 
tion, 781;  execution,  783;  character 
of,  78(i;  refutation  of  the  errors  of, 
by  Calvin,  789. 

Simon,  R.,  on  Calvin,  275. 

"  Simon  Magus  of  Geneva,"  688. 

Smith,  H.  B.,  29:'.,  544,  586. 

Socinianism,  627,  631. 

Sociiuis,  Faustus,  KM. 

Socinus,  Lajlius,  633. 

Sorbonne,  321,  329;  an  Antidote  to,  609. 

Spalding,  Archb.,  quoted,  520,  828. 

Spener,  11. 

Spiera,  F.,  150. 

Sprecher,  Col.,  1:30. 

Stahl,  F.  J.,  485. 

Stiinderath,  Swiss,  4,  190. 

Strassburg,  a  second  Wittenberg,  'M)3; 
nationality,  'Mio;  under  Calvin,  368, 
431 ;  French  Church  at,  369 ;  Univer- 
sity of,  :i75. 

Sturm,  J..  ;}75. 

Supra  lapsarianism,  552. 

Swi.'^s,  "eternal  covenant,"  2;  inde- 
pendence, 3;  federal  constitution,  74, 
191 ;  Diet,  98. 

Swiss  Reformation,  leaders,  7,  11: 
genius  of,  8,  11 ;  date  of,  31. 

Switzerland,  importance  of,  1 ;  confed- 
eration, 2,  39;  Protestantism  in,  4, 
198;  Romanism  in,  4,  198;  constitu- 
tion, 4,  190. 

Switzerland.  Christianization,  5;  pre- 
ceding Reformation,  6,  231,  ;k")3;  first 
Reformed   Communion  in,  60;  Can- 


890 


ALPHABETICAL   INDEX    OF   NAMES   AND   TOPICS. 


tonal  distribution,  235;  after  Refor- 
mation, 463. 

Synergism,  548. 

Synod,  68. 

Tauler,  35. 

Teachers,  478. 

Tell,  William,  2. 

"Ten  Theses,"  104. 

Theocracy,  471. 

Thirty-nine  Articles,  565. 

Ticino,  146. 

Tillet,  L.  du,  323,  348,  362,  366. 

Toggenburg,  128. 

Toleration,  religious,  618,  694,  701; 
opinions  on,  by  Luther,  702;  Me- 
lanchthon,  707;  Bucer,  708;  Bullinger, 
709;  Peter  Martyr,  710;  Beza,  710, 
797;  Cranmer,  711;  Calvin,  789; 
Castellio,  794. 

Trajan's  recovery  from  hell,  610. 

Trappereau,  L.,  438. 

Travers,  John,  137. 

Trechsel,  comparison  of  Calvin  and 
Socinus,  636;  on  Servetus,  736. 

Tremellio,  E.,  630. 

Trent,  Council  of,  598,  600. 

Tschudi,  Mgid.,  2,  26,  117. 

Tschudi,  v.,  119. 

TuUoch,  Principal,  on  Calvin,  291, 449. 

United  States    Constitution  compared 

with  the  Swiss,  190. 
Universalism,  conditional,  578. 
Utenheim,  C.  v.,  109. 

Valangin,  233. 

Valdes,  J.,  642. 

Valtellina,  146,  160 ;  massacre  of,  157. 

Vandel,  P.,  497,  501,  510,  512. 

Vaud,  Canton  de,  232,  233. 

Vergerius,   P.    P.,    history,    147,    155; 

theology,  162;  on  Geneva,  516. 
Vermigli,  see  Martja-,  Peter. 
Viret,  Peter,  history,  250;   as  author, 

252 ;  at  Geneva,  432 ;  oratory,  446. 
Volmar,  M.,  teacher  of  Calvin,  305;  of 

Beza,  846. 

Waldenses,  115,  242,  243,  809. 
Watt,  J.  von,  125. 


Wesley,  Charles,  on  Calvinism,  567. 
Wesley,  John,  on  Calvinism,  506;   his 

labors,  815. 
Wesleyanism,  9. 
AVestphal,  660,  662. 
Wildhaus,  21. 

Will  of  God,  secret  and  revealed,  581. 
Witclicraft,  493. 
WGlflin,  H.,  22. 
Wolmar,  see  Yolmar. 
Worship,  comments  on,  61 ;   order  of, 

at  Strassburg,  372. 
Wyttenbach,  T.,  7,  22. 

Zanchi,  154,  629,  630. 

Ziiricli  (Zurich),  described,  38,  40;  pes- 
tilence in,  43 ;  hospitality  of,  50,  162 
reformation  of,  54,  58,  127 ;  publishes 
first  German  Bible,  63;  persecuting 
83 ;  in  Cappel  wars,  168,  170, 179, 183, 
193;  Zwingli  statue,  200. 

Zwingli,  his  work,  7;  parentage,  20 
education,  21,  23,  29;  manliness,  22 
43,  172 ;  pastorates,  23,  29,  40 ;  piety 
26,  30,  44,  66,  189;  as  patriot,  25,  1(>7 
183,  189;  chastity,  27;  annotations 
on  Gr.  Test.,  30;  popularity,  32,  38, 
199;  receives  a  papal  pension,  32 
compared  with  Luther,  33,  36 ;  oppoS' 
ing  Indulgences,  43;  poems,  44,  173 
depreciates  fasts,  47;  protests  against 
celibacy,  48;  his  marriage,  49;  his 
Bible,  50;  fighting  popery,  54,  59, 
127;  his  ritual,  60;  reforming  aims, 
02,  06,  169;  as  statesman,  62,  169, 
171,  180;  first  organizes  Synods,  68; 
against  the  Radicals  and  Anabaptists, 
71;  on  the  eucharist,  85,  590,  593; 
works  of,  87 ;  theology  of,  89 ;  on  the 
canon,  90;  on  escliatology,  salvation 
of  infants  and  j)ious  heathen,  95,  177 ; 
contrasted  with  Eck,  99;  at  the  Bern 
Council,  104 ;  influencing  Glarus,  117; 
tlie  Palatinate,  164;  on  mercenary 
enlistments,  166;  a  republican,  167; 
at  Marburg,  174;  his  death,  184,  186; 
fourth  centennial,  200;  estimates  of, 
37,  82,  259;  on  invisible  Church,  459; 
on  predestination,  547. 

Zwingli,  Anna,  49,  186. 


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